Unions Lose and the Public Wins Big in Wisconsin

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin had quite a good day on July 31 when the state supreme court upheld not only Wisconsin’s voter ID law, but also the 2011 budget legislation that severely curtailed the power of public unions to control the lives and salaries of state and municipal government employees.

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In Madison Teachers, Inc. v. Walker, a majority of the court overturned a lower court decision that had enjoined various parts of the law and upheld it in its entirety. The 2011 law (Act 10) prohibited public unions from bargaining on issues other than base wages; prohibited municipalities from deducting union dues from the paychecks of public employees; imposed annual recertification requirements for unions; and prohibited any union agreement that would require employees who are not members of a union from having to pay union dues. Various unions, including the AFL-CIO, challenged these provisions, claiming they violated their associational rights under the First Amendment and their equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment. More...

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