Nurses Ask the Supreme Court of Wisconsin to recognize Union rights – WMTV

Madison, wis. (WMTV) – The highest court of the state heard the oral arguments in a case that can restore the collective rights to negotiate UW nurses on Wednesday.

“I’ve always worked in the operating room,” says Mary Jogensen, a nurse who has worked for UW Health for the last 20 years. “I love it.”

After hearing the oral arguments, Jogensen said he felt hope.

“We are the only people in Wisconsin at UW Hospital who are not covered by any protection in the state,” Jogensen said.

Act 10 prohibits most public sector officers from negotiating in 2011. UW Health and the Wisconsin Employment Commission claim that UW nurses are public officers and therefore their union cannot be recognized.

“We are presented with this interpretation of what happened in Act 10 that everyone knows that it is not what happened,” says James Goldshmid, a lawyer at UW hospitals.

The UW sisters do not agree that Act 10 prohibits them from uniting and bargaining. Tamara Pakard, the lawyer, representing the International Union of Court employees, claims that UW Health should negotiate with its employees like other private hospitals.

“For all intentions and goals, this organization works just like that of St. Mary, just like Meriter. This is a multi -state entity with clinics and hospitals, “Pacard said. “If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s a duck.”

Although this case focuses only on UW’s health, it comes after a Dane County judge canceled key parts of Act 10 in December. This decision was appealed by the legislature and will move before the Court of Appeal before he probably ended up before the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

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