• The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that UW Health is not legally obligated to recognize its nurses' union or bargain collectively.
• Act 10, a 2011 law, effectively ended collective bargaining for most public employees in Wisconsin, including UW Health nurses.
• The ruling upholds previous decisions by lower courts and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.
• UW Health nurses argued the hospital operates like a private entity and should be subject to collective bargaining laws, but the court disagreed.

MADISON – UW Health is not legally required to recognize its nurses' union or engage in collective bargaining, a unanimous state Supreme Court ruled.

"When we examine the statutory language along with the statutory history, we conclude that Act 10 ended the collective bargaining requirements formerly placed on the (University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics) Authority," wrote Justice Brian Hagedorn in an opinion released June 27.

The court's ruling upholds previous decisions by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission and a Dane County circuit judge.

It also brings to the fore the lasting impact of Act 10, the 2011 state law engineered by Republican former Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin. Hagedorn, the author of the court's unanimous opinion, provided legal counsel in the creation and defense of the law, and Jacob Frost, the Dane County judge who previously ruled in UW Health's favor, appeared to...

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