International Union of Operating Engineers v. Schimel, No. 16-3834 (7th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Union (IUOE) challenged Wisconsin’s right-to-work law, which provides: No person may require, as a condition of obtaining or continuing employment, an individual to do any of the following: … Become or remain a member of a labor organization [or] 3. Pay any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges or expenses of any kind or amount, or provide anything of value, to a labor organization. Wis. Stat. 111.04(3)(a). IUOE, which had entered into several conditional union-security agreements with employers, filed suit. IUOE argued that Act was preempted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. 158(a)(3), and constituted a taking of affected unions’ property without just compensation. The district court determined that the Seventh Circuit’s 2014 decision upholding Indiana’s nearly-identical law controlled and dismissed IUOE’s complaint with prejudice. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting a challenge of preemption under the NLRA, even though the right-to-work laws prohibits the payment of any dues or fees to unions, and finding the takings claim premature.
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