Wisconsin's Union Busting Law Ok'd by the State Supreme Court--Unions file lawsuit

p The anti-union law that was passed in March by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republican dominated state senate has been given the stamp of approval by the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.nbsp; On Tuesday the state#39;s highestnbsp;Court overturned a lower court ruling thatnbsp;invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the statersquo;s open meeting law.nbsp; In May, Dane County Circuit judge Maryann Sumi ruled that republicans had violated the statersquo;s open meetings law during the process that led to the billrsquo;s passage.nbsp; Republicans in the state senate passed the bill less than 2 hours after calling a meeting for the vote before democrats, who had traveled across state lines to block the vote, were able to return./p p nbsp;/p p The state Supreme Court voted 4-3 that the lower court judge had exceeded her jurisdiction and erred in halting publication and implementation of the collective bargaining law. The court was split on the issue.nbsp; Chief Justice Abrahamson wrote that the order seems to open the court unnecessarily to the charge that the majority has ldquo;reached a predetermined conclusion not based on the facts and the law, which undermines the majorityrsquo;s ultimate decisionrdquo;./p p nbsp;/p p The law prohibits state employees from collectively bargaining over anything except base pay increases not to exceed inflation.nbsp; Exempt from the law are local police, fire fighters and state patrol./p p nbsp;/p p Thousands of demonstrators converged on the state capitol earlier this year in response to Governor Walkerrsquo;s proposal.nbsp;nbsp;Walker has made the case thatnbsp;his proposalnbsp;is needed to address the statersquo;s 3.6 billion budget shortfall./p p nbsp;/p p The law requires workers to pay 12% for health insurance and 5.8% for pension costsmdash;which amount to an 8% pay cut on average./p p nbsp;/p p Unions filed a lawsuit on Wednesday on grounds that the law violated the US Constitution by stripping away union rights to bargain, organize and associate and illegally discriminates among classes of public employees.nbsp; Organizations challenging the ruling include Councils of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees, the Wisconsin state AFL-CIO, The American Federation of Teachers, The Wisconsin Education Association Council, The Wisconsin State Employees Union and the Service Employees International Unionmdash;Heath Care Wisconsin./p p nbsp;/p p The law is slated to take effect on June 29supth/supaccording to Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette./p p nbsp;/p p The start date of the law could have a major impact on any school district or local government that signed contracts with unions after March 25supth/sup.nbsp; There is talk that those contracts would be void if they donrsquo;t comply with the new law./p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p p nbsp;nbsp;/p