Type of Case: Act 10; Recertification elections

Court: Kenosha County Circuit Court

Case Number: 2014-CV-214

Filed On: February 13, 2014

Current Status: Case voluntarily dismissed

Governor Scott Walker’s 2011 reforms turned the realm of public sector employment relations upside down.  2011 Wisconsin Act 10 removed most collective bargaining privileges from the vast majority of state, county, and local employees.  Specifically, for all government employees except those in an expressly defined “public safety” class, Act 10 did four major things: it (1) prohibited collective bargaining on all topics except base wage increases not to exceed the rate of inflation; (2) prohibited so-called “fair share” agreements which force unwilling employees to pay union dues; (3) required bargaining representatives to stand for re-certification elections every year and earn a majority of votes from all represented employees; and (4) prohibited employees from paying their union dues through payroll deductions.

After obtaining a ruling from one Kenosha County Court judge that Act 10 would apply to it, KEA filed another action in Kenosha County, suing WERC, alleging that WERC’s actions in decertifying KEA were illegal because Act 10 is unconstitutional.  Our clients in the Lacroix case objected to KEA’s blatant forum shopping and attempt to derail an already-proceeding case by filing another case addressing the same issue, and the judge in that case stayed the case pending the supreme court decision in MTI v. Walker.

After the ruling in the Lacroix case declaring the Kenosha CBA void, KEA voluntarily dismissed this case.

CASE DOCUMENTS

• PDF: Petition for Judicial Review 
• PDF: Motion for Injunction
• PDF: Amici Brief
• PDF: Order Denying Motion for Stay