UW Health Doesn’t Have To Bargain With Nurses Says Supreme Court
In unanimous decision, justices say Act 10 ended mandatory collective bargaining for hospital authority.
Registered nurse Tami Burns speaks during a May 2021 press conference calling on UW Health to recognize a nurses’ union. Around 2,500 nurses lost certification of their union in 2014 when their contract expired. Since then, UW Health has argued that Act 10 precludes the quasi-state health authority from signing a collective bargaining agreement with its workforce. Photo courtesy of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin
UW Health does not have to collectively bargain with a Madison nurses union, the Wisconsin Supreme Court said Friday in a unanimous ruling.
The legal challenge from the union claimed a strict reading of 1995 law called the Wisconsin Employment Peace Act required the public authority overseeing UW Health to negotiate with nurses. The nurses argued that Act 10, the 2011 law that drastically limited the powers of public employee unions in the state, did not apply to their union. Writing for the majority, conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn said that argument “strains credulity.”
“These statutory changes tell a straightforward story,” Hagedorn said. “The Legislature ended mandatory collective bargaining for the Authority under the Peace Act by removing the collective bargaining obligations it created in 1995.”
The ruling deals a blow to the Service International Employees Union, or SEIU, and stems from a 2022 agreement with the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority that recognized the union in order to avoid a strike. That same year, the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission declared the Peace Act does not apply to the UW Health authority.
The union had been phased out in 2014 following the passage of Act 10. But nurses with UW Health revived the union in 2019 and demanded it be recognized by the UW authority.
In a statement following the court’s order, the union said the ruling was disappointing but that “we are not deterred.”
“Our fight to restore collective bargaining rights doesn’t end in the courtroom,” the union said. “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, no matter who we are or where we work, have a seat at the table and a voice in our workplace.”
A statement from UW Health said the 2022 agreement to avoid the strike was aimed at jointly pursuing “an answer to whether nurses at UW Health can legally collectively bargain with the health system.”
“Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the decisions of WERC [Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission] and the Dane County Circuit Court, ruling that the Wisconsin Peace Act does not apply to UW Health,” the statement said. “UW Health appreciates the court’s deliberate, diligent and final review.”
During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in February, SEIU attorney Tamara Packard asked justices for a strict reading of the Peace Act, which she argued shows the “state’s public policy is to encourage collective bargaining.” Hagedorn and fellow conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley bristled at the suggestion the court ignore the impact of Act 10.
Wisconsin Supreme Court rules UW Health doesn’t have to bargain with nurses union was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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