Posts tagged Scott Walker
Unions ask Supreme Court to affirm judge who found Act 10 unconstitutional
August 19, 2026 // The plaintiffs filed their state Supreme Court appeal Monday. They include unions affiliated with the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters. Act 10, one of the signature laws passed early in former Gov. Scott Walker’s two terms, ended collective bargaining rights for most state and local employees, making an exception for certain public safety employees. The law survived a series of court challenges in the years immediately after its passage.
Opinion: Sneaky new teachers’ union plan to indoctrinate our kids: classroom AI
August 3, 2026 // Their objective is to indoctrinate, not educate. That misguided mission is largely to blame for the past decade of drastic learning loss in K-12 schools: Too much indoctrination, too little emphasis on the basics of math and reading. It’s a bad omen for our country.
Court of Appeals Sides with WILL in Act 10 Case
August 2, 2026 // The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) secured a significant victory at the Wisconsin Court of Appeals after they upheld Act 10 in Abbotsford Education Association v. WERC. WILL represented a teacher who supported and benefited from the law signed by Governor Scott Walker in 2011. The Quote: Lucas Vebber, WILL Deputy Counsel, stated, “WILL has fought to protect Act 10 since its enactment because of the substantial benefits provided to taxpayers and local governments. For 15 years, various legal challenges have been unsuccessful, because ultimately this is a law signed by the Governor and passed by a duly elected legislature which meets all constitutional requirements. As this case likely heads to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, we stand ready to make the case once again.”
How Teachers’ Unions Became Political Big Spenders
May 18, 2026 // A new report out today accuses both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) of spending tens of millions of dollars on electing Democratic political candidates, and prioritizing politicking over the needs and interests of their union members. The report, conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), Gevura Fund, and Rutgers University, among others, found that of the NEA’s $450 million annual disbursement budget from fiscal year 2025, less than $46 million, or 10 percent, was spent on activities directly representing the union’s constituents.
Wisconsin Reined in Public Sector Unions. Now Those Reforms Are in Jeopardy.
April 12, 2026 // According to a recent analysis by the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR), Wisconsin has seen the sharpest decline in union membership rates of any state in the country over the past 40 years. While the number of union members has declined nationwide in recent decades as America has transitioned to a more service-based economy, Wisconsin's decrease has been particularly notable, especially since it historically had been one of America's most unionized states. Act 10 played a large role in the drop. Wisconsin's public sector union membership rates saw "by far" the largest decline—at close to 29 percent—of any state, according to CEPR's report. "Wisconsin's steepest losses," the report notes, "coincided with the 2011 passage of Wisconsin Act 10."
Wisconsin saw steepest decline in union membership over 40-year period, report finds
March 30, 2026 // . “The only thing they could bargain on was their pay, and that was limited by law to never exceed the rate of inflation.” All of that, paired with a new requirement for every union to hold a recertification vote every year, means “many, many public-sector unions simply vanished,” Heywood said.
MAXFORD NELSEN: The Other Education Choice: Freeing Teachers from Monopolistic Unions
November 17, 2025 // Public-sector collective bargaining tends to crowd out the interests of students, families, and taxpayers in education policymaking, but teachers unions’ power comes from subjecting teachers to a monopoly system of workplace restrictions. While individual educators now have the legal right to forgo union membership, state policymakers have many opportunities to improve educators’ ability to exercise that right. To level the playing field and increase teachers unions’ accountability to the public and their own members, policymakers should consider reforming or replacing collective bargaining in public education.
Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks UW Health nurses’ unionization, backing Act 10
July 1, 2025 // The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that UW Health is not legally obligated to recognize its nurses' union or bargain collectively. Act 10, a 2011 law, effectively ended collective bargaining for most public employees in Wisconsin, including UW Health nurses. The ruling upholds previous decisions by lower courts and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. UW Health nurses argued the hospital operates like a private entity and should be subject to collective bargaining laws, but the court disagreed.
New report puts Act 10 savings at nearly $36B
March 19, 2025 // "Those savings don’t just exist on paper. They have a real impact in the real world," MacIver CEO Annette Olson said. "Thanks to Act 10, today Wisconsin is considered to be one of the most financially responsible states in the country with routine budget surpluses, a robust rainy-day fund, and a fully funded state pension system.” To get to its $35.6 billion savings price tag, MacIver added the $13.8 billion in employee pension contributions since 2012 under Act-10, and the $21.8 billion in total health care savings since 2012 from Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, the DPI and the State Health Insurance Program.
Act 10, Scourge of Wisconsin Teachers, Faces Uncertain Future in Court
March 4, 2025 // According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the proportion of union members in Wisconsin’s workforce fell by nearly half, from 14.2% to 7.4%, between 2010 and 2023 (since that figure includes workers from all sectors, the drop for government employees is likely much steeper). A report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a right-leaning think tank, showed that the total number of unions holding annual recertification votes across the state declined from 540 in 2014 to 369 in 2018. The largest teachers’ union in the state, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, experienced a dizzying loss of manpower and organizing heft. A 2019 study conducted by a pair of researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that WEAC was forced to restructure and cut its staffing by about two-thirds. The retrenchment was made necessary by a freefall in the collection of dues, the payment of which was made voluntary by Act 10. The loss of paid organizers could be offset, in part, by the efforts of teacher volunteers. But the union had no ready replacement for the millions of dollars in government relations funds that had suddenly evaporated; WEAC went from being one of the biggest lobbying forces in Madison to a second-tier player virtually overnight.