As the labor movement gears up for President Trump’s second term, union members and their leaders are celebrating a major victory over controversial legislation that stripped public sector unions of collective bargaining rights.
In response to a lawsuit alleging that the infamous law passed by Republican former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in 2011 is unconstitutional, a county judge on Monday rejected more than 60 sections of the law and several of its 2015 follow-up laws. The court ruled that the clause was unconstitutional. , Act 55 is unconstitutional.
Walker called the decision “a brazen political stunt of the worst kind,” and Republicans plan to appeal.
Thousands of people protested against the introduction of legislation that would paralyze trade union funding and powers. After Act 10 was passed, several Republican-controlled states pushed to pass similar legislation. These include Florida, which passed a similar law targeting public sector unions in May 2023, and Iowa, which passed a bill stripping many state workers of collective bargaining rights. 2017.
Act 10 stripped thousands of Wisconsin state employees of their collective bargaining rights and limited their ability to negotiate only wage increases that did not exceed inflation. It also required public sector unions to hold an annual vote in which a majority of their members participate to maintain their certification.
“It’s like demonizing not just teachers, but public sector employees as a whole,” said John Havlicek, a high school Spanish teacher in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and past president of the La Crosse Education Association, which represents teachers in the district. ” he said. . “Teachers are not in this job for the money, but I have things like groceries to buy, bills to pay, etc. In my experience, teachers A lot of public sector workers, including people, really felt like they were being scapegoated. It was really bad.”
This law had a significant impact on union membership, pay, and benefits. In 2010, Wisconsin’s union density rate was 15.1%. This number dropped to 8.4% in 2023.
The law also forced public sector workers to pay more for health care and retirement benefits, resulting in a roughly 8.5% drop in wages for workers making $50,000 a year.
Teacher salaries will decrease by nearly 20% from 2010 to 2022, and about 4 in 10 first-year teachers will retire from the state after six years, according to an April 2024 report from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Or retired.
Wisconsin also saw a significant reduction in public school funding after the enactment of Act 10. Wisconsin’s per-pupil spending was about $1,100 above the national average in 2011, but $327 below the national average per pupil in 2021.
A study published in 2018 by Jason Barron, an assistant professor of economics at Duke University, blamed the law for a 20% decline in average state test scores for Wisconsin students.
“We saw school districts tearing up 50 years of collective bargaining agreements that they had agreed to in their contracts,” Havlicek added. “The biggest thing we talked about, we can’t talk about anymore, it wasn’t pay or benefits, it was limited by the national budget anyway. It was about how many classes we could teach, how many classrooms How many children could be accommodated, all sorts of things that would be considered working conditions, and all that other stuff.”
He said he was “optimistic” about the ruling overturning the law, but if it survives an appeal, he wonders how long it will take for teachers to recover what they lost in their union contract and restore their pre-law working conditions. It remains unclear how long it will take.
“A close-knit staff, dedicated and motivated people who have made teaching their calling in life, and a lifestyle built around being an educator, driven by an experienced, veteran staff with low turnover. It will happen. We lost it, and we don’t know how long it will take to get it back.”
Police officers, firefighters, and other public safety personnel were exempted from Act 10.
Ben Gruber worked as a firefighter and EMT in Wisconsin when the law was enacted, so he was not affected until he became a conservation warden under Title 10 in 2019. Ta.
“It’s been a pretty dramatic change for me,” he said. “I had full collective bargaining rights, a say in working conditions and contracts, and a grievance procedure, and very quickly those things disappeared,” said the current president of AFSCME Local 1215. said Gruber, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Lawsuit against Act 10.
Mr. Gruber argued that the impact of this law would be profound on Wisconsin’s public sector workers, from the deprivation of worker rights to worsening working conditions and compensation.
“It has had a significant impact on our ability as public servants to provide the highest quality of service to the public,” he added. “We are all here to serve our people, and all we ask in return is a voice about working conditions. One impact that is often overlooked is wrongful termination, discriminatory I think the costs are related to promotion practices, lack of leadership accountability, and the loss of talent and professional experience that we see in increased turnover and hiring, all of these hidden costs. It’s diminishing our ability to deliver really strong public services.”
Since Wisconsin passed Act 10, state employee turnover has skyrocketed. The number of retirees increased from 3.3% in 2010 to 6.8% in 2011, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum’s June 2023 report. The number of job separations, resignations, and dismissals other than retirement increased from 2.8% in 2010 to 11.7% in 2022, a record high.
“Act 10 stripped workers of their freedom and authority to have a voice on the ground to negotiate wages, benefits, and working conditions,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “There are many battles ahead, but this decision will make a huge difference for educators, nurses, public servants, and the people they are proud to help every day.”
Republican supporters of Section 10 have appealed the court’s ruling, arguing that moving retirement and health insurance benefit coverage into the law would save money, and the fight to keep the law in place is pending. We plan to seek a suspension of the law while the law is in effect. employee.
Walker, who lost re-election in 2018, criticized the decision and argued that collective bargaining is “not a right.” That’s an expensive right. ”
