Left Gov. Scott Walker signs heroin abuse legislation in Stevens Point earlier this month. (City-Times photo)

City-Times Staff

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit today handed down its decision regarding how state law governs labor relations with union employees.

According to the AFL-CIO, a federation of international labor unions,  Act 10 violated rights of municipal employees in Wisconsin. The court disagreed today:

The unions…assert that “the ability of municipal employees to engage in the activity of bargaining collectively with their employers, in the hope of reaching a voluntary agreement regarding their wages and other conditions of employment, is a fundamental right.” The unions further aver that both the Supreme Court and our court have long recognized that the Constitution protects this right….

None of those cases [cited by the unions] establish what the unions assert here: that they have a constitutional entitlement to collectively bargain with the state. And we find that the unions’ contention that this is a long-standing fundamental right difficult to square with the fact that several states have prohibited public-sector collective bargaining over at least some topics.

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen called the decision a victory for all taxpayers in the state.

“This is a victory for the law and for Wisconsin taxpayers,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “This ruling, once again, supports the rule of law and recognizes the diligence and hard work of our lawyers in defending Act 10. I appreciate the court’s work. I look forward to a successful resolution of the few remaining challenges to this important law.”

The 7th Circuit’s ruling in Laborers Local 236, AFL-CIO v. Walker is available here.