In January 2013, we reported on the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Wisconsin Education Association et al. v. Scott Walker et al., in which the Court dismissed the constitutional claims of the union plaintiffs and upheld Wisconsin’s controversial Act 10.  Act 10 was passed in 2011 and limited collective bargaining rights for most of the state’s public employees.  On April 18th, the Seventh Circuit decided a related case, Laborers Local 236, AFL-CIO, et al. v. Scott Walker et al., and again upheld Act 10, dismissing the additional constitutional theories raised by the plaintiff unions.

The Laborers Local decision is yet another example of the unwillingness of courts to find state laws limiting collective bargaining rights unconstitutional.  However, unions continue to bring these cases.  A union-backed challenge to Indiana’s Right to Work law is still pending in the Seventh Circuit.  And Michigan’s Right to Work law is also being challenged in federal court.  We will continue to monitor the status of all these cases, stay with us for updates.