HUNDREDS OF CULINARY UNION WORKERS GO ON STRIKE AT HOTEL NEAR LAS VEGAS STRIP
Around 700 hospitality employees at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas who are Culinary Union members walked off the job at 5 a.m. Friday.
Meanwhile, a Wisconsin judge has handed a major legal win to Badger State public union workers, restoring their collective bargaining rights after a 13-year-old law renounced them. Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost ruled on Monday that certain sections of Act 10, also known as the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, violate the Wisconsin Constitution.
The law was signed by then-Governor Scott Walker in 2011 with the goal of cutting state costs. The legislation strictly limited compensation for state employees and took away collective bargaining rights from state union workers, causing national controversy at the time and fueling protests for weeks. Wisconsin labor unions argued that Act 10 limited their ability to organize and right to speak under the First Amendment.
In his ruling, Frost wrote that several portions of the law were created “without a rational basis.” The decision was met with mixed reactions from Wisconsin legislators, with Democrats praising the move and Republicans expressing fiscal concerns about the decision.
The ruling restores power to workers and marks a crucial step in ensuring that every Wisconsin worker has access to fair and equitable working conditions. The decision comes after Act 10 endured years of disputes in both state and federal courts, including a 5-2 decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2014 upholding the law.