A federal judge has ordered the equipment-rental chain Sunbelt Rentals back to the bargaining table with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, after the company tried to frustrate a unionization drive at its Franksville office.

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Terry McGowan doesn't expect COVID-19 — and it's many ripple effects on Wisconsin's construction industry — to subside any time soon. The president and business manager of Wisconsin's largest construction union, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, said his members have adapted quickly amid a spate of job site restrictions aimed at keeping Wisconsin's essential construction crews safe at work.

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Donald Shaw Sr., the longtime leader of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, died last week at the age of 91.

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Even as COVID-19 has led to school closings, event cancellations and other social-distancing measures, Wisconsin's construction industry has largely made no plans to stop work – at least fornow.

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Federal officials filed an injunction last week to force the equipment-rental company Sunbelt Rentals into labor negotiations after it had fired employees who had led a unionization drive at its Franksville office this past summer.

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In response to protests that have sometimes turned destructive in northern Wisconsin, state lawmakers have introduced legislation to make it a felony to trespass on the site of a pipeline.

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Republican leadership in the state Legislature plan to intervene in a legal challenge of the state's well-known Act 10 law to contest arguments made by two labor unions that argue the law curtailing collective bargaining also limits their free-speech rights.

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The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139 unfurled banners and an inflatable “fat cat” figure Tuesday in a dispute with the Franksville office of equipment rental firm Sunbelt Rentals, which union officials say has refused to negotiate with workers who want to unionize.

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In one of his first public appearances since Election Day, Gov.-elect Tony Evers stopped in Coloma on Wednesday to tout trade careers and greet union leaders who helped him get to the high office.

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Workers walked off the construction of an apartment complex in Oak Creek on Tuesday after a Milwaukee-area union and out-of-state firm failed to reach a deal on the project's employment terms.

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