By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//November 20, 2013//
Wisconsin Court of Appeals
Civil
Labor — Act 10 — retroactivity
Act does not retroactively invalidate piggybacked CBAs that were freely and voluntarily entered into by governmental entities and public sector unions before the acts took effect.
“We find in Acts 10 and 32 no clear expression of the intention to retroactively upend the settled expectations of piggybacked CBAs that were negotiated and agreed upon months before those acts took effect. To the contrary, the acts disclaim any such intention by exempting employees ‘covered by’ already-existing CBAs until after those CBAs end or are modified.”
“As for the legislature’s decision to make Act 32’s fiscal constraints upon municipalities effective immediately while postponing the acts’ collective bargaining limits until preexisting CBAs expire, as inequitable as this result might seem to some observers, it is not for this court to remedy. ‘The statute in question may be inequitable, but this does not make it absurd.’ Mellen Lumber Co. v. Industrial Comm’n, 154 Wis. 114, 119, 142 N.W. 187 (1913).”
Affirmed.
Recommended for publication in the official reports.
2013AP290 Local 321 v. City of Racine
Dist. II, Racine County, Ptacek, J., Brown, J.
Attorneys: For Appellant: Olson, Mark L., Waukesha; Aziere, Joel S., Waukesha; Devore, Sarrie Lynn, Waukesha; For Respondent: Hawks, Timothy E., Milwaukee; Halstead, Aaron N., Madison