This is What We're Up Against...

September 21, 2017 - CLDC

West Virginia's Top Court Clears 'Right-to-Work' West Virginia's highest court ruled Friday that a judge made a mistake blocking the state's "right-to-work" law from taking effect after it was passed last year while the court challenge against it continued.

The Supreme Court, divided 3-2, concluded the unions opposing the law "failed to show a likelihood of success" in challenging its constitutionality.

They didn't identify any federal or state appellate court that struck down such a law based on similar challenges in more than 70 years, Justice Menis Ketchum wrote. He noted that similar laws have been enacted in 27 other states.

The state AFL-CIO and other unions argued the law constitutes illegally taking union assets since they still have to represent all employees in a union shop, including those that the law would allow to stop paying union dues. They also asserted that it violated their rights to freedom of association and their liberty interests. Read More...

Wisconsin 'Right-to-Work' Law Survives Union Challenge A Wisconsin appeals court on Tuesday upheld the state’s “right-to-work” law, which bars mandatory union membership and prohibits unions or employers from requiring non-members to pay dues.

The decision by the state’s 3rd District Court of Appeals overturned a lower-court ruling from 2016 finding it violated the state constitution. In July, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago threw out a similar federal challenge and also ruled the law constitutional.

The 2015 law has been in effect during the legal challenges. Read More...

Wisconsin Governor Plans Immediate Prevailing Wage Repeal Gov. Scott Walker issued 99 partial vetoes of parts of the state’s $76 billion budget on Wednesday, including a provision that would have put off the elimination of the state’s prevailing wage laws until next year.

Walker issued the vetoes a day before he planned to sign the budget into law. Many of the vetoes, described in a 25-page letter, were technical. Some, though, were substantial. They included one that would have delayed the elimination of the state’s prevailing-wage laws until Sept. 1, 2018.

Walker instead followed through on his promise to reluctant Republican senators last week to make the repeal immediate. The elimination of Wisconsin’s remaining prevailing-wage laws for state projects comes on top of the Legislature’s repeal, in 2015, of the pay requirements for local projects. Read More...