Judge considers fate of Wisconsin law curbing collective bargaining by public employees

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Judge considers fate of Wisconsin law curbing…

Labor & Employment Judge considers fate of Wisconsin law curbing collective bargaining by public employees

By Debra Cassens Weiss

May 30, 2024, 8:58 am CDT

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A judge in Dane County, Wisconsin, is considering whether a 2011 law restricting collective bargaining by some public employees violates the state’s equal protection clause. (Image from Shutterstock)

A judge in Dane County, Wisconsin, is considering whether a 2011 law restricting collective bargaining by some public employees violates the state’s equal protection clause.

Judge Jacob Frost of the Dane County Circuit Court in Wisconsin heard arguments in the case Tuesday, report Courthouse News Service and the Associated Press. According to the AP, it is the first lawsuit to challenge the law since the seven-member Wisconsin Supreme Court gained a majority of liberal justices last year.

The law, known as Act 10, divides public sector employees into two classifications one for those with a public safety purpose and the other for general employees. The law generally curtails collective bargaining rights for general employees while maintaining them for public safety employees, according to the Nov. 30 suit filed by several unions.

Judge Jacob Frost of the Dane County Circuit Court in Wisconsin. (Photo from the Dane County Clerk of Courts website)

General employees were allowed to bargain only over base wages, capped by the consumer price index. The law also barred automatic deduction of union dues from the pay of those employees and required annual recertification votes for their unions.

The public safety group includes certain law enforcement officers but not others, according to the suit.

The law “drew massive protests and made the state the center of a national fight over union rights,” according to the AP. “It also led to a dramatic decrease in union membership across the state.”

A lawyer for the state legislature, Misha Tseytlin, argued that the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the law in 2014 and the suit should be tossed, according to the news coverage. Tseytlin said there would be a greater threat to public safety if some officers went on strike, and that justified the differences.

A lawyer for the unions, Jacob Karabell, argued that drafters of the law were trying to favor groups that endorsed then-Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican.

After the arguments, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the AP reported that Frost’s name appeared on a 2011 petition to recall Walker. A conservative radio host on WISN-AM was the first to report the signature.

Frost was appointed to the bench in 2020 by now-Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, a Democrat.

Evers told reporters Wednesday that he didn’t think that Frost had to recuse himself from the case if he had signed the petition.

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