Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s innovative “Act 10”  addressed the state’s budget troubles by reigning in public employee perks, like collective bargaining.

The law was expected to be challenged and/or ignored by the unions.  And it was.

A conservative public-interest law firm has filed suit against Milwaukee Area Technical College, alleging the college participated in illegal collective bargaining and approved a labor agreement with the union representing faculty in violation of Act 10. Karen Herzog of the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel has the details:

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty’s lawsuit – the latest in a string of legal actions over the state’s hotly contested collective bargaining law – was filed Thursday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

A statement Thursday from MATC said college officials hadn’t been served with the suit yet, but they were aware it had been filed. “We are confident in our position that it was permissible to negotiate with our represented employees due to the pending legal issues surrounding Act 10 and look forward to offering our defense.”

Michael Rosen, an economics instructor at MATC and president of AFT-Local 212, which represents MATC’s faculty, counselors and professional staff, called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said it would “cost the taxpayers a lot of money.”

“Our contract was legal,” Rosen said. “Michael Best & Friedrich, the law firm that authored Act 10, advised the college we could legally negotiate a new contract and then the college got additional legal counsel, which affirmed that opinion.”

The one-year contract approved by the MATC board on Feb. 26 will save the college $14.3 million in the short term when it takes effect Feb. 25, 2014, according to Rosen. By eliminating early retirement health benefits for those hired after next February, the contract would save the college an additional $108 million over 25 years, he said.

“If it gets overturned, we’ll see a big exodus of senior faculty and rather than take a zero percent wage increase, we’ll negotiate a salary increase under Act 10,” Rosen said Thursday.

The collective bargaining law has been the subject of several lawsuits.

In one case, a federal judge in Madison ruled portions of Act 10 violated the U.S. Constitution. That decision was later overturned by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld Act 10 in its entirety.

Separately, a Dane County judge found that parts of Act 10 violate the state constitution in its treatment of municipal employees. That case is before the state Court of Appeals and is expected by both sides to eventually go before the state Supreme Court.

At least two other lawsuits over Act 10 are pending.