No More

Chapter 178 of the Wisconsin Laws of 1977 (MED/ARB Law) extended compulsory binding arbitration of bargaining impasses to nearly all municipal employees in Wisconsin. This means there are no strikes.
In 1978, the compulsory binding arbitration amendments went into effect for most public employees, significant changes in the bargaining and contract administration processes were made. It provided compulsory binding interest arbitration as a final means to settle disputes involving municipal employees.
Compulsory Final and Binding Interest Arbitration is where the parties submit their final offer to the investigator appointed by the WERC. The MED/ARB process is initiated by either party's filing of a petition with the WERC. If a dispute has not been settled after a reasonable period of negotiations and the parties continue deadlocked with respect to any dispute concerning wages, hours and conditions of employment, the MED/ARB process may be commenced. Upon receipt of the petition for MED/ARB, the WERC is required to make an investigation to determine whether an impasse exists and whether there has been statutory compliance. Prior to the close of the investigation, each party is required to submit in writing a single final offer containing its final proposals on all unresolved issues and disputes. Final offers will only be accepted by the investigator where an impasse does in fact exist. The investigator will allow the parties to modify their final offers until he determines that the offers are final. The arbitrator thereafter selects one of the two final offers as the final award.