MADISON, Wis. (CN) - The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinic Authority is not required to engage in collective bargaining with its nurses' union.

The authority stopped voluntarily recognizing SEIU as the nurses' chosen representative in 2014 after the passage of Act 10, which repealed specific mentions of the authority written into the 1995 Peace Act, when the authority was first formed to govern the University of Wisconsin hospital system.

The repealed passages had enshrined protections for the nurses' union during the transition from public to private employee status with the formation of the authority, a private corporation.

The authority agreed in 2022 to bring the recognition issue before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to avoid a strike. The commission, a respondent in this case, determined that the Peace Act does not apply to the authority because it is not an employer.

The union appealed the commission's decision, and the state high court heard oral arguments on the complex case in February.

On Friday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Act 10 ended the collective bargaining requirements formerly imposed on the authority by the Peace Act.

The court used the union's complex methodological challenge to the Peace Act as an opportunity to clarify its approach to statutory interpretation and the role statutory history plays in it, delivered in great detail by Justice Brian Hagedorn.

"In short, SEIU's argument - that statutory history should not be consulted when the 'plain meaning' of the disputed provision is unambiguous - is simply mistaken," Hagedorn said. "Rather, all intrinsic sources -text, context, and structure - are essential components of plain meaning analysis."

The union also argued that the authority is required to bargain because it is an employer as defined by the Peace Act, which is a person or corporation who engages the services of an employee and includes any person acting on behalf of an employer within the scope of their authority.

This argument also fails because the authority is not a "person" under the Peace Act or a normal corporation -  it is a "political corporation" since it was created by the state as an agency, according to Hagedorn.

Before the state Legislature formed the authority in 1995, UW Hospital nurses were state employees. The legislation that created the authority also amended the Peace Act to explicitly include its employees, which Hagedorn says further proves that it would not have otherwise been considered an "employer."

Act 10 repealed all mention of the authority and even removed the board seat statutorily set aside for a representative of the union, making the Legislature's intent clear.

If that were not enough, SEIU itself previously argued before the state Supreme Court that Act 10 wrongfully excluded them from the Peace Act but, in February, claimed the previous case has no bearing on this one.

Act 10 was found "unenforceable" by a lower court judge in December 2024, though the ruling is stayed pending appeal by the Legislature.  The judge struck every mention of a distinction between public and private employees, and the implications of this ruling cannot be ignored.

"To uphold the role of the judicial branch, I must strike unconstitutional statutes and restore the statutes to a constitutional basis," Dane County Circuit Court judge Jacob Frost said in the ruling. "The Legislature may then take up the work of drafting a new, constitutional framework for collective bargaining of public employees, if it so desires."

Echoing the rhetoric of the Trump administration, Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu called Frost an "activist judge" and charged other "liberal activists" with attacking reforms that he says saved taxpayers "billions of dollars."

That lawsuit was brought in 2023 by seven labor unions against the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. Together, they argued that Act 10's distinction between general workers and public safety workers was a violation of the equal protection clause, and that certain public safety workers, such as police officers were spared because they endorsed former Governor Scott Walker in his 2010 bid for office.

In a statement following Friday's ruling, the UW Health nurses say they are disappointed but not deterred: "Our fight to restore collective bargaining rights doesn't end in the courtroom. We will continue to explore all possible pathways to restoring our full collective bargaining rights, including seeking voluntary recognition and passing legislation to ensure that all of us have a seat at the table and a voice in our workplace."

SEIU did not comment on whether the nurses will consider returning to where this case began with a strike.

UW Health said that it appreciates the court's "deliberate, diligent and final review." Though Friday's opinion deals a blow to the union, it is not likely to be the end of the union's fight to overturn Act 10 and restore collective bargaining to general workers.

Source: Courthouse News Service