A Wisconsin judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law championed by Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers.

Scott Walker on February 18, 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A pro-union judge in a union-dominated state has ruled that the law passed by the state legislature restricting (not eliminating) collective bargaining rights is null and void.
And so the battle of taxpayers versus union members continues. It’s going to be a long war, but I think the unions’ days are numbered. There are more taxpayers than union members.
The judge ruled that sections of the law
single out and encumber the rights of those employees who choose union membership and representation solely because of that association and therefore infringe upon the rights of free speech and association guaranteed by both the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions.
He also invoked the 14th Amendment by claiming that the law created separate classes of workers who would be treated differently and unequally.
Of course this is the heart of the matter. Do the union members who have managed to negotiate for themselves wages and benefits at the expense of the taxpayers have a higher standing and therefore a greater claim on the assets of those taxpayers than do the taxpayers themselves? Or do the taxpayers have higher standing over their employees, the union members?
Walker nailed it. He said the judge “wants to go backwards and take away the lawmaking responsibilities of the legislature and the governor.”
Does the legislature, representing the taxpayer, have ultimate jurisdiction here? Or do the unions?
Phil Neuenfeldt, the president of Wisconsin’s State AFL-CIO, called Walker’s law an
attempt to silence the union men and women of Wisconsin’s public sector [as] an immoral, unjust and illegal power grab.
State Representative Robin Vos, soon to be the next speaker of the state Assembly, said
I’m confident it’s a single judge out of step with the mainstream…and we’ll continue to implement it.
This is likely to go to the Supreme Court. It’s the last hope of the fading union influence.
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