Governor Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republican legislature's signature achievement, the law that limited state employee union collective bargaining -- excepting only public safety employees -- to wages alone and then to increases of the consumer price index was cleared late yesterday by the Wisconsin Supreme Court of all restrictions imposed by a lower court judge. It will now go live. Here is the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story.
Unmentioned in that story is that state employee union dues will no longer be collected by the state. Unions will now have to get their cash from checks signed by their members! In other cases where this has happened, it has cut dues payments from a third to two thirds. This will significantly reduce Wisconsin public employee union influence in state elections.
In case you doubt that clause made it to the law that passed, here is the liberal local New York paper on the subject right after loony-left lower court Judge Maryann Sumi said that a legislative committee meeting was subject to the state open meetings law rather than the legislatures own rules:
- In addition to limiting bargaining to wages, the Wisconsin law limits raises to changes in the Consumer Price Index, ends the state's collection of union dues from paychecks and requires most unions to hold annual votes to determine whether workers still wish to be members.
