Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin - Essay Example uments on the constitutionality of a 2011 law that eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees after the legislation led to huge protests across the nation (Yaccin, 2013). The policy of collective bargaining sought to give most public workers collective bargaining rights through union membership. This paper explores federalism and collective bargaining in Wisconsin Legislation. It will demonstrate how this policy raises issues of federalism that stretches across state and local government to the federal government level and even the Supreme Court. The collective bargaining in Wisconsin Legislation has been drawing fundamental national attention since Wisconsin’s Republican-majority legislature passed it into law during Mr. Walker’s first year in office. The law sparked major protests in Capitol building and many Senate Democrats left the state to delay a vote on the bill. The policy limited collective bargaining for teachers and most local government workers where they would only bargain for their wages and no other matters concerning their welfare (Yaccin, 2013). These matters were earlier subject to collective bargaining agreements. The policy also barred municipal employers from deducting union dues from employee paychecks. The policy raised issues of federalism where it divided the state into partisan lines for two years as the Republicans and Democrats took opposing sides. It also threatened the Republican administration as hundreds of thousands citizens appended their signatures seeking to remove Mr. Walke r from power where he survived with 53 percent of the vote (Yaccin, 2013). Moreover, about seven public unions have been challenging this policy since its enactment. Indeed, a teachers union in Madison and a labor group representing employees of the city of Milwaukee challenged this policy claiming that it violates freedom of association and the right to equal protection of the law by subjecting unionized public employees to burdens not