The Public Sector Responds to Overturning of Act 10 in Wisconsin

Earlier this month, a Wisconsin county judge’s decision returned collective bargaining rights to the state’s public employees, while undoing one of former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s first and most significant acts while in office.

The public sector response to the ruling has been swift throughout the state.

On Dec. 2, Dane County Judge Jacob Frost issued a ruling that overturned Act 10, which had become former Gov. Walker’s “signature piece of legislation” since he introduced it in November 2010, shortly after winning the Wisconsin governorship.

With Act 10’s passage in 2011, the legislation essentially “ended the ability of most [Wisconsin] public sector unions to negotiate over any issues other than raises, and those raises were capped at the rate of inflation,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jessica Van Egeren wrote, adding that Act 10 also required the state’s public sector unions to hold annual elections to maintain their ability to negotiate for those raises.

In a ruling that struck down the essential components of Act 10, Frost determined that the law was unconstitutional, as it made some public employees exempt from the law’s restrictions on unions, while others in similar roles did not receive the same protection. This recent decision confirms a ruling he issued in July 2024, when Frost rejected motions to dismiss the 2023 lawsuit challenging the law.

Wisconsin’s public sector leaders are lauding the Dec. 2 decision.

For example, Wisconsin Education Association Council President Peggy Wirtz-Olsen called the overturning of Act 10 a victory for Wisconsin public workers, according to WISN-ABC.

“Educators like me were thrilled with [the recent] decision,” Wirtz-Olsen said. “We have been fighting for almost 14 years to restore the right for public employees, teachers, education support professionals, my colleagues and I, to sit across the table and negotiate with our employers again. We won’t rest until we have our rights back.”

Daniel Levitan, co-president of Local 3220, AFT-Wisconsin and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging Act 10, called Frost’s ruling a “huge restoration of rights” to public sector workers.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted, former Wisconsin Gov. Walker has responded publicly as well. Walker posted on X in the wake of Frost’s Dec. 2 decision, describing the ruling as “brazen political activism.” In a follow-up tweet, Walker added that collective bargaining is not a right, but “an expensive entitlement.”

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in a statement that “this lawsuit came more than a decade after Act 10 became law and after many courts rejected the same meritless legal challenges,” adding that “we look forward to presenting our arguments on appeal.”

It might, however, take more than simply filing an appeal to reverse Frost’s recent ruling, Alexia Kulwiec, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School for Workers, told WISN-ABC.

“I believe the way the judge wrote the decision is an appeal could be filed, but the state would have to file a motion with the appellate court to basically place a stay on enforcement. And until that’s granted, the law is in place,” said Kulwiec. “So, it’s not just the appeal that would trigger this, but it’s the appeal plus a motion to stay enforcement.”