Former Milwaukee County Supervisor Dan Sebring is planning to sue Milwaukee Public Schools over a policy that allows certain staff members to take up to 10 days of paid leave each year for union activity.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a conservative firm representing Sebring, argues the MPS policy violates his freedom of speech by using his tax dollars to support union work he does not agree with. WILL filed a notice of claim Thursday.
Such policies have been challenged by conservative organizations in other states in recent years. In Arizona, the state supreme court upheld a paid release policy for the Phoenix police union as being in the public interest. A case involving the New Jersey teachers union has climbed to the state supreme court.
In Milwaukee, it appears union members used a combined total of about 330 hours of paid leave for union purposes in the first half of the 2019-20 school year, according to records provided by WILL to the Journal Sentinel. An MPS spokeswoman would not comment on the matter or provide information about hours of paid leave.