Published 17 Jun, 2011
Unions are challenging the Wisconsin law that eliminates collective bargaining for public workers by filing suit in federal court to have the law blocked.
On June 15 the Wisconsin State Supreme Court overruled a lower court’s injunction on the law, thus clearing the legislation to be implemented. In response, a coalition of unions filed a lawsuit claiming the law is unconstitutional and asking that a federal judge prevent the law from going into effect.
The unions argue that the bill violates the 1st and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution “by stripping away basic rights to bargain, organize and associate for the purpose of engaging in union activity, which have been in place for the last half century,” wrote the unions in a statement. They contend that the law discriminates against certain types of employees by excluding firefighters and police and makes it difficult for public workers to keep their unions as a collective bargaining representative.
In their statement, the coalition said the legislation “denies hundreds of thousands of public employees their right to collectively bargain for a better life. The groups challenge the constitutionality of the state’s Budget Repair Bill which would destroy collective bargaining rights for all but a select group of public sector workers.”
Wisconsinites are mobilizing legal challenges, mass protests and recall elections to reverse this overreach by Gov. Walker and Republican lawmakers to deny workers their basic rights.