Maggie's Farm

Telling people they cannot quit for a better opportunity is blatantly unconstitutional. But that just happened in Wisconsin.

The Appleton, Wisconsin Post-Crescent reports Fox Valley Health Care Workers Now Playing Out in Court.

The seven workers quit ThedaCare, applied for positions at Ascension, and received job offers.

The seven did not have contracts or obligations at ThedaCare nor did Ascension recruit those workers.

Nonetheless, ThedaCare filed a lawsuit seeking to block the move.

Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis granted ThedaCare's request and until at least Monday.

In the complaint, lawyers for ThedaCare wrote that Ascension had "shockingly" chosen to "poach" the employees during a stressful time for health care. More COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in the Fox Valley now than at any other time during the pandemic, according to Wisconsin Hospital Association data, and ThedaCare has canceled non-emergency surgeries to make space.

ThedaCare-Neenah is a Level II Trauma Center, part of which means they have specialists like interventional radiologists available regularly to treat patients. Ascension St. Elizabeth Hospital, a Level III Trauma Center, can provide initial support to trauma patients and is able to transfer them to ThedaCare-Neenah for more care, according to definitions from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Ascension says it did not recruit the workers and that ThedaCare had an opportunity to make counter-offers but didn't.

Timothy Breister, one of applicants in the dispute said the pay, the benefits, and the life-style options offered by Ascension were better.

Its "not just in pay but also a better work/life balance," said Breister.

After approaching ThedaCare with the chance to match the offers they'd been given, Breister wrote that they were told "the long term expense to ThedaCare was not worth the short term cost," and no counter-offer would be made.

You Can't Quit

Effectively the judge ruled the workers cannot quit. Wow.

Ukraine got a signed commitment in 1994 to ensure its security

The U.S., in a burst of diplomatic energy and at a time of unmatched global influence, worked to prevent the unprecedented collapse of a nuclear superpower from leading to history’s largest proliferation of nuclear weapons.

This diplomatic activity manifested in security assurances for Ukraine embedded in what has become known as the Budapest Memorandum. With the entrance of Ukraine into the international order as a non-nuclear state, Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. pledged to “respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.” The memo reaffirmed their obligation to “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.” The signatories also reaffirmed their commitment to “seek immediate” UN Security Council action “to provide assistance to Ukraine … if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression.” These assurances upheld obligations contained in the U.N. charter and the 1975 Helsinki Final Act.

Ukraine, in turn, gave up the nuclear weapons within its borders,