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Wisconsinites Lose Collective Bargaining Case

06-15-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell

Late Tuesday afternoon the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided that the laws of Wisconsin don’t really matter if they block the agenda of the Republican Party. In spite of the live television broadcast which showed that State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and State Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald broke Wisconsin’s open meeting law to pass the anti-collective bargaining law, the Court ruled that the law is legal and shall be enforced.

The decision was taken on a purely partisan basis and proved why the recent election of a Supreme Court justice was so important. The Democrat, Joanne Kloppenburg was initially declared the winner, until Waukesha County “found” over 14,000 votes that gave the seat to incumbent David Prosser. Prosser was so proud of his role in taking this completely wrong ruling that he issued his own opinion on top of the majority opinion. The Fitzgerald brothers had allegedly informed the court that if they didn’t hand down the right decision by last night, the bros would simply reintroduce the bills and force them through again, this time making sure they met the 24-hour notification rule for reconciliation meetings.

Within an hour of the announcement of the ruling, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites had assembled on the State House lawn again to protest.

The law, which was separated from the Walker budget to get past the Democratic boycott of Senate proceedings, takes away the right of public sector workers to collectively bargain for anything except a pay raise equal to the increase in the cost of living. It means that at every level of government, workers will be denied the right to bargain for working conditions – things like class size for teachers, improvements in safety equipment for firefighters, length of work day in high stress fields like police work. The bill was supposed to be about budget issues. The unions had already conceded on the real monetary issues and accepted a higher contribution to their benefits, but the Republicans had demanded the rest of the anti-union package, which had nothing to do with the budget. Governor Walker, who served as the Milwaukee County executive for seven-and-a-half years, believed that every other municipal and county executive in the state shared his hatred for unions. The evidence so far is that other local executives have not been supportive of the idea that somehow the public sector workers right to bargain is the cause of budget problems.

The Walker budget, which is now making its way through the Wisconsin legislature is typical of the new Republican governors. It’s long on tax cuts for the rich and breaks for businesses while drastically cutting programs from education to public health.

There are nine recall elections set for this summer in Wisconsin. Six Republican state senators will be defending their seats, while three Democratic senators face recalls. The Republican Party is bragging about the fact that they have enlisted fake Democrats to file in the recall elections to force primaries in those races, which will extend the process by almost a month. Unlike several states where the state legislatures sit for a brief session and then recess for most of the year, the Wisconsin lege sits year-round, so dragging this recall process out will not prevent votes to overturn In the latest polls, 87% of Republicans support Gov. Walker, but he has lost support among independents and energized Democrats.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling shouldn’t come as a surprise to LGBT rights advocates. We have seen this kind of politicalization of a State judiciary before, when the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the same-sex marriage ban amendment even though the Georgia Constitution clearly and unequivocally states that all amendments contain only one item, and the same-sex marriage ban contained two. For all the Republican and Tea Party rah-rah speeches about the rule of law and honoring the Constitution, their record shows their utter disdain for both.

　

　

　

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