News brief

Union workers win in Wisconsin. Wisconsin public workers and teachers unions have scored a major legal victory with a ruling that restores collective bargaining rights they lost under a 2011 state law. The law effectively ended the ability of most public employees to bargain for wage increases and other issues as well as forced them to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits. Republicans vowed Dec. 2 to immediately file an appeal, which will likely go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Although the state Supreme Court is controlled 4-3 by liberal justices, an election in April will determine majority control for at least the next year.

The recent strike by East Coast dockworkers represents a new assertiveness among unions, say labor economists and historians, from the rise of independent unions at places like Starbucks and Amazon to the big contract win by the United Auto Workers last year.