Public Unions

Wisconsin Reined in Public Sector Unions. Now Those Reforms Are in Jeopardy.

Act 10 saved taxpayers billions and helped government run more efficiently. Fifteen years later, a questionable legal challenge may doom it.

C. Jarrett Dieterle | 4.11.2026 7:00 AM

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In 2011, Wisconsin made national news headlines when then-Gov. Scott Walker attempted to reform public sector collective bargaining as a part of his push for fiscal responsibility. At the height of the Tea Party movement, what became known as Act 10—which restricted the areas public sector employees could collectively bargain over—quickly transformed into a political hornet's nest.

Democratic state lawmakers infamously fled the state for Chicago in an effort to block a vote on the bill as it was winding its way through the legislature, and Walker eventually faced a recall election.

He survived. This year, Act 10 turns 15. By all available evidence, it has worked exactly as intended. But despite the law's positive impact for Wisconsin taxpayers and the state fisc, it is facing a questionable legal challenge that may finally doom it.

When Walker took office in 2010, Wisconsin was staring down the barrel of a $3.6 billion budget deficit. One of Walker's primary responses was to........

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