Judicial Coup For Government Union Bosses

Circuit Judge Guts Wisconsin Law That Has Helped Kids Learn

Fourteen years ago this winter, Wisconsin policymakers incurred Big Labor’s fury and made national headlines when they adopted a major legislative rollback of government union bosses’ monopoly-bargaining privileges. 

One often overlooked, but critical, provision in this package of reforms, known as Act 10, revoked Big Labor’s legal power to prevent K-12 school districts and many other public employers from rewarding civil servants according to their individual talents, efforts and achievements.

Exemptions For Certain Sets Of Union Bosses Are Judge’s Pretext For Wrecking Reforms

Over the years since Act 10 took effect, fair-minded academic researchers have concluded that Wisconsin schoolchildren are benefiting from the law’s substantial loosening of government union bosses’ shackles on teachers.

Most recently, a 2024 study by Morgan Foy of the University of California, Berkeley, found that Act 10-authorized revocations of teacher union bosses’ monopoly-bargaining privileges have “led to a significant gain in student test scores” in many school districts.

Unfortunately, such gains could soon be halted thanks to a county judge from Madison who, making claims that are very similar to those already rejected by the Wisconsin Supreme Court and federal courts, has declared virtually all of Act 10 to be unconstitutional. 

According to Judge Jacob Frost, Act 10 cannot stand because its restrictions on government union bosses’ monopoly-bargaining privileges include exemptions for some, but not all, officers of public-safety unions.

Rather than use the Act 10 exemptions as an excuse to restore extensive monopoly-bargaining privileges for state and local government union bosses of all kinds, Judge Frost could simply have eliminated the exemptions. But that would not have pleased union bigwigs, so he didn’t.

“This ‘equal protection’ canard is one reason why National Right to Work advises all elected officials aiming to curtail public-sector monopoly bargaining to apply their reforms across the board,” said Committee Vice President John Kalb.

Fiscal Rug Pulled Out From Under School Boards, Other Local Governments

Pro-Right to Work Wisconsin legislative leaders are appealing this ruling, and Judge Frost has stayed it. 

If it is ultimately upheld, the fiscal as well as the educational repercussions will be vast. Local and state elected officials will lose virtually all leverage to prevent government pension, health insurance, and other costs from spiraling out of control. According to the Wall Street Journal, Act 10 has saved Wisconsin taxpayers $17 billion over the years. Some informed observers estimate the benefit for taxpayers to be even greater.

Savings for the state and its localities have made it possible for multiple income and property tax cuts to be enacted over the years since Act 10 withstood Big Labor’s initial judicial challenges and took effect. 

Meanwhile, the state budget deficit of $3.6 billion in early 2011 turned into a $4.6 billion budget surplus at the end of 2024. “That fiscal improvement certainly would not have happened without Act 10,” stated Mr. Kalb.

The activist judicial ruling against Act 10 on December 2 was a setback. But Right to Work supporters in Wisconsin still have a chance to correct this clearly aberrant and erroneous decision.

Like many states across the country, Wisconsin elects members of its Supreme Court, and these elections occur in the early spring.

April Supreme Court Election on Horizon For Right to Work Supporters

The Wisconsin Supreme Court now evidently has a 4-3 pro-forced unionism majority. Until the court’s current line up first convened in 2023, this had not happened since 2011. The recent swing in the court’s composition has been considered the catalyst for Judge Frost’s otherwise hard-to-fathom decision.

therwise hard-to-fathom decision. “Though we usually don’t get involved in state judicial races, the importance of preserving Act 10, and also Wisconsin’s Right to Work law further down the line, means we will not stay on the sidelines. The Committee will alert members and supporters of this crucial election in a special mail program targeting the state early this spring,” Mr. Kalb said.

“We will not sit idly by as Right to Work’s achievements get eliminated by judicial fiat. The cause of worker freedom is too important to us and our members.” 

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