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Dane County Executive Joe Parisi told county employees Thursday that their union contracts will be terminated Dec. 13, ending nearly three years of resistance to a Republican law that removed most public employee union rights in Wisconsin.

Parisi expressed regret but said one-year contracts for 2015 and 2016 were invalidated by the Wisconsin Supreme Court on July 31 when it overturned a Dane County Circuit Court ruling that provisions of the law are unconstitutional.

“We may not like or agree with the court’s decision, but Dane County cannot violate the law,” Parisi said in a letter to employees. “While we considered continuing to enforce the contracts beyond the end of this year, the consequences of doing so would have brought costly legal action and significant financial penalties.”

Union representatives said they were surprised and very disappointed that the county won’t honor the contracts, considering that there has been no outside challenge to their validity.

In the three weeks before the current contract expires, the unions will be hard pressed to organize voluntary dues payments and prepare to operate under a handbook and local ordinances, said Shannon Maier, president of AFSCME Local 720.