State Appeals Court Upholds Right-To-Work

Last week, the state 3rd District Court of Appeals upheld Wisconsin’s right-to-work law. In the decision, the Court of Appeals said the unions challenging the law did not meet the burden of proving right-to-work is an unconstitutional taking of property.

On April 15, 2016, Dane County Circuit Court Judge William Faust granted the unions’ request for summary judgment, concluding that the right-to-work law effects an unconstitutional taking of private property of Wisconsin’s labor organizations. However, the law remained in effect due to a stay by the 3rd District Court of Appeals. Last week’s Court of Appeals decision reversed Faust’s judgment and remanded the case to the circuit court with directions to dismiss the complaint, leaving the right-to-work law in effect.

Wisconsin became the 25th right to work state in 2015. Right-to-work laws bar businesses and unions from reaching labor agreements that force workers to pay fees to the union. Various state unions challenged the constitutionality of the law.

Wisconsin’s right-to-work law was also upheld at the federal level in the U.S. Court of Appeals in July.