SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
collective bargaining
'Monumental Victory': Wisconsin Judge Axes Walker-Era Attack on Union Rights
"All Wisconsinites deserve the opportunity to live in a state that treats all workers with respect and dignity," one state representative said.
Dec 03, 2024
More than a decade after it sparked massive protests in the state capital, a Wisconsin judge on Monday struck down a controversial law that effectively ended public sector collective bargaining in the state.
In his final judgement, Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost crossed out 85 sections of the 2011 law known as Act 10, which was championed by then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Frost's ruling restored the union rights of teachers, sanitation workers, nurses, and other public sector employees.
"After 14 years of battling for our collective bargaining rights, we are thrilled to take this step forward," Rocco DeMark, a building service worker and SEIU Wisconsin worksite leader, said in a statement. "This victory brings us immense joy. Our fight has been long, but we are excited to continue building a Wisconsin where we can all thrive."
"We realize there may still be a fight ahead of us in the courts, but make no mistake, we're ready to keep fighting until we all have a seat at the table again."
Act 10 severely weakened the power of public sector unions in Wisconsin by only permitting them to bargain for wage increases that did not surpass inflation. It also raised what public employees paid for healthcare and retirement, ended the automatic withdrawal of union dues, and required workers to recertify their union votes every year.
The law has had a major impact on the Wisconsin workforce. Between 2000 and 2022, no state saw a steeper decline in its proportion of unionized employees, a drop that the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum partly attributed to Law 10. Unions say that the law has caused a "crisis" for the state's education workforce, as 40% of new teachers leave within six years due to low pay and an unequal wage system. There is also a 32% vacancy rate for state correction officers.
Act 10 had one exception, however: Certain "public safety" employees such as police and firefighters were exempt from the collective bargaining restrictions imposed on "general" employees. It was this division that unions used to challenge the law in November 2023, arguing that it violated the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin Constitution. In July, Frost affirmed that the law was unconstitutional when he struck down an attempt to dismiss the suit. Then, on Monday, he specified exactly which parts of the law would be struck down.
"Judge Frost's ruling is a monumental victory for Wisconsin's working class," Democratic Wisconsin State Assembly Member Darrion Madison toldCourthouse News Service. "All Wisconsinites deserve the opportunity to live in a state that treats all workers with respect and dignity."
The lawsuit was brought by Ben Gruber, Matthew Ziebarth, the Abbotsford Education Association (WEAC/NEA), AFSCME Local 47, AFSCME Local 1215, Beaver Dam Education Association (WEAC/NEA), SEIU Wisconsin, Teaching Assistants Association (TAA/AFT) Local 3220, and Teamsters Local 695.
"Today's decision is personal for me and my coworkers," said Gruber, who serves as president of AFSCME Local 1215. "As a conservation warden, having full collective bargaining rights means we will again have a voice on the job to improve our workplace and make sure that Wisconsin is a safe place for everyone."
The news was also celebrated by state›wide advocacy groups and national leaders.
"We applaud today's ruling as a win for workers' rights and as proof that when we come together to ensure our courts and elected leaders are working on behalf of our rights and freedoms instead of partisan antics, we can accomplish great things," said A Better Wisconsin Together deputy director Mike Browne.
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said: "This decision is a big deal. Act 10 stripped workers of the freedom and power to have a voice on the job to bargain wages, benefits, and working conditions. It's about the dignity of work. And when workers have a voice, they have a vehicle to improve the quality of the services they provide to students, patients, and communities."
"Former Gov. Scott Walker tried to eliminate all of that, and it hurt Wisconsin," she continued. "Now, many years later, the courts have found his actions unconstitutional."
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) wrote on social media, "I voted against Act 10 more than 13 years ago, and am thrilled our public servants are able to once again organize and make their voices heard."
This is not the first time that Act 10 has been challenged in court, but it is the first time since the state's Supreme Court switched from a conservative to a liberal majority in 2023. Since Republican lawmakers have promised to appeal Frost's ruling, the law's ultimate fate could depend on elections in April 2025, which will determine whether the court maintains its liberal majority, according toThe Associated Press.
As they celebrated, the plaintiffs acknowledged the legal fight was not yet over.
"We realize there may still be a fight ahead of us in the courts, but make no mistake, we're ready to keep fighting until we all have a seat at the table again," Gruber said.
WEAC President Peggy Wirtz-Olsen said: "Today's news is a win and, while there will likely be more legal legwork coming, WEAC and our allies will not stop until free, fair, and full collective bargaining rights are restored."
Betsy Ramsdale, a union leader who teaches in the Beaver Dam Unified School District, said that public sector collective bargaining rights ultimately helped the state.
"We're confident that, in the end, the rghts of all Wisconsin public sector employees will be restored," she said. "Educators' working conditions are students' learning conditions, and everyone benefits when we have a say in the workplace."
Keep ReadingShow Less
To Stop the Rise of the Far Right, the EU Must Tackle Economic Insecurity
The results of the European Parliament elections actually make progress more urgent than ever—and there is still a democratic majority in place to deliver it.
Jun 10, 2024
“Business as usual” cannot continue—that much is clear from the results of the European elections.
Democratic forces still have a clear majority in the European Parliament. The majority of people who came out voted for a democratic Europe. So there is no need—still less excuse—for backroom deals with any part of the far right. But the rise in support for anti-democratic, anti-worker parties demands a response.
Some politicians, panicked, will try to go even further in imitating the far right, in style and substance. Trade unions, supported by the data, are clear that this tactic will backfire. The obsessions of the far right are far from the main concerns of European citizens, whose priorities are quality jobs and ending poverty.
The E.U. must urgently press forward on a European project of hope that delivers security and safety to workers.
The Hans-Böckler-Stiftung recently conducted a survey of workers in 10 European Union member states. It found that workers who were dissatisfied with their working conditions and pay and who had little say in their job were more likely to have negative attitudes towards democracy and to be more vulnerable to right-wing narratives about “migrants.”
Parties must not normalise the far right’s talking points. Wrong in principle and self-defeating in practice, this strategy—adopted by many during the election campaign—was a failure. It would compound the error to double down on it.
Instead, these results must be the wake-up call that stops Europe sleepwalking toward disaster. All democratic parties must use their combined majority to deliver on the priorities of hard-working people. It is time to stop trying to treat the symptoms and finally address the real cause of the malaise—economic insecurity.
A Project of Hope
The E.U. must urgently press forward on a European project of hope that delivers security and safety to workers. That includes quality jobs in all occupations and regions, real improvement in pay and working conditions, enhanced public services, affordable housing, and social justice.
People want an E.U. that fights against poverty and creates quality jobs—too many lack the most basic elements of a decent life. Renewed austerity would take us in the opposite direction and add to anger in communities across Europe.
Rather than abandoning the Green Deal, we should add a lot of red to it, to ensure that the long-promised just transition becomes a genuine reality.
Uncertainty and insecurity are fuelling the “backlash” against the European Green Deal. Tackling the climate crisis is non-negotiable: There are no jobs on a dead planet. But we must make the transition to a green economy in a way that does not leave workers and their communities behind.
By 2030, around 160,000 jobs in coal could be lost across Central and Eastern Europe, with up to triple that number in the supply chain. Neither the funding nor the legislation is in place to ensure that new opportunities are available for those workers.
It is no wonder there is fear. But rather than abandoning the Green Deal, we should add a lot of red to it, to ensure that the long-promised just transition becomes a genuine reality. We need a dedicated just-transition directive that guarantees workers will benefit from new, quality, green jobs in their region the moment or before old jobs are phased out.
Public Investment
That will require increased public investment in every member state—which means the E.U. needs to have a new investment fund ready to go when the Recovery and Resilience Facility ends in 2026. The incoming European Commission, if it is sensible, will also show a high degree of flexibility over the E.U.’s new fiscal rules, to avoid a return to austerity.
Equally, bringing stability to people’s lives has nothing to do with violating human rights through migration deals with repressive regimes. It means ensuring that every individual has a secure job with an income they can rely on, with enough to provide for themselves and their families—not simply scraping by, week to week, bill to bill. It means ensuring that member states guarantee that workers can unionise and have a real say at work.
Those in power should not however take it for granted that workers’ support for Europe will continue if they do not take this opportunity to change it, delivering on the real priorities of working people.
The last commission made a positive start by recognising that the destruction of collective bargaining during austerity had supercharged insecurity, taking steps to reverse that trend through the minimum-wages directive. The platform-work directive was also a recognition of the negative consequences of growing precarity.
We now need measures of a scale and urgency that matches these election results and the challenges faced by workers. Let’s give working people back more control over their lives by ramping up their ability to bargain collectively. There should be no more public money for companies which do not act in the public interest by paying union wages and reinvesting profits to create jobs and raise productivity—instead siphoning them off in excess bonuses and dividends.
Europe will never be able to compete in the world on the basis of the lowest cost. We need an active industrial policy that shares the benefits of green growth at home and sees our reputation for high standards as a comparative advantage, rather than a drag on “competitiveness.”
Social Progress
During the election campaign, I was repeatedly asked whether results such as these would mean it would be more difficult to achieve social progress in the coming term. These results actually make progress more urgent than ever—and there is still a democratic majority in place to deliver it.
Those in power should not however take it for granted that workers’ support for Europe will continue if they do not take this opportunity to change it, delivering on the real priorities of working people. To paraphrase the former European Commission President Jacques Delors, our aim must be to ensure that—before the next European elections—the person in the street can enjoy the daily experience of a tangible social Europe.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Biden Rule Mandates Collective Bargaining for Major Federal Building Projects
"The labor movement is putting high-wage, high-road labor standards into action and workers are rebuilding America, union strong," said the AFL-CIO.
Dec 18, 2023
About 200,000 U.S. construction workers will benefit from new collective bargaining requirements announced by President Joe Biden and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su on Monday, as the administration unveiled a final rule implementing an executive order that was introduced last year.
Under the new rule, federal agencies will be required to enact project labor agreements (PLAs) for large-scale federal construction projects that cost $35 million or more.
The General Services Administration (GSA) officially has amended federal regulations under Executive Order 14063, and the new rule will go into effect 30 days from this coming Friday, when it is set to be published in the Federal Register.
With the PLA requirement in place, contractors, subcontractors, and unions will have to negotiate set terms for project construction, giving nearly 200,000 construction workers collectively bargained wages, benefits, and safety protections, regardless of their union membership status.
"In President Biden's America," said Su on Monday, "'union' is not a bad word. It's the reason America is strong."
Biden said that under the new rule, projects funded by his Investing in America jobs plan "will move faster and without delays."
"Workers will have the security and peace of mind that collectively bargained wages and benefits bring, better pathways to good-paying jobs, and stronger health and safety protections," said the president.
The announcement was made Monday at the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building in Cleveland, Ohio, where the GSA is working to modernize the building to ensure veterans can receive support services.
"Contractors and unions at this site have entered into a PLA that helps the parties address the unique coordination challenges posed by large projects," said the White House in a fact sheet about the new rule. "The PLA covering the Celebrezze Federal Building project also supports equitable workforce development pathways into the trades and registered apprenticeship."
Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trades Unions, said the new rule "is welcome news for the responsible use of taxpayer dollars" and the protection of workers who help complete federal projects.
"Project labor agreements ensure that large-scale projects are completed on time, with the highest quality, efficiency, and safety," said McGarvey. "Time and again, PLAs have proven to address labor supply issues, prevent work stoppages, protect workers' classification, strengthen health and safety standards, and achieve substantial, direct cost savings by standardizing contract terms for highly skilled craft workers."
"PLAs also boost community economies through local hiring goals and recruitment of workers into apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship job training programs," McGarvey added, "that uplift historically marginalized communities into middle-class construction careers."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular