Wisconsin Appeals Court Orders Arbitrator Decision Affirmed in Milwaukee County Case

(Milwaukee District Council 48, AFSCME v. Milwaukee County and Scott Walker)

The District I Court of Appeals has ordered confirmed an arbitrator’s award rejecting County Executive Scott Walker’s reduction in county employee hours. Milwaukee County circuit courts vacated and refused to confirm the order and Council 48 appealed. The appellate court said the important issue was whether Walker’s directive to reduce employee work hours to 35 from 40 was temporary or permanent and the arbitrator determined a permanent reduction was not permitted. Further, the arbitrator found state law required a county board resolution to have the hours reduced. A resolution had been brought forth to the county board, but the county board did not act upon the resolution. As such, there was no such county board authorization in the form of a resolution.

Walker signed an order in May, 2009 declaring a “fiscal crisis due to a projected $14.9 million deficit in the 2009 (county) budget.” And it was “imperative that urgent emergency action be taken to reduce expenditures for 2009 within the remainder of the budget year.” The order was to remain in place until further order of the county executive. The order, according to the arbitrator, would have affected about 1800 bargaining unit employees and would have saved an estimated $4.5 million if the reduced-hours order was in effect “from June 28 to the beginning of 2010.”

As it has been demonstrated in the past action of Scott Walker, he attempted to create greater authority then he legally had vested in his position as county executive.

To date, based on many comments that Scott Walker has publicly stated since election day we expect him to become very creative in his role as Governor and we expect to face many legal challenges within our state's court system to push back on Walker's anticipated rule of totalitarianism.

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