Archive for the ‘Collective bargaining’ Category
Monday, October 3rd, 2011
Do UW employees need a representative organization in addition to the existing governance institutions? What would be the primary objectives of the organization? How would this organization evolve?
A group of faculty and staff met last Saturday afternoon to discuss these questions. The individuals represented a reasonable cross-section of academic staff and faculty (in length of service) and most of the employee organizations such as PROFS, UFAS and academic staff governance groups. The meeting was organized by Wisconsin University Union (WUU) for the purpose of assessing interest in a campus-wide organization and figuring out what that organization would do.
There was a unanimous opinion that an employee organization is needed. Many of the discussion participants were members/leaders of the staff and faculty governance organizations and spoke to the limitations of those organizations. Academic staff discussed the inability of the Academic Staff Assembly to address most of the major issues facing the staff e.g. layoffs, promotions, pay inequities. And noted the low level of participation and interaction with those they purport to represent. Faculty noted that the Senate failed to take a strong position on the Public Authority proposal until it was effectively dead. Given the structural ties between the Faculty Senate and PROFS, that organization is often hamstrung from positions that most members of PROFS endorse. (more…)
Posted in Collective bargaining, Compensation, Shared governance, State worker benefits | 1 Comment »
Monday, July 18th, 2011
On June 15, 2011, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled to lift Judge Sumi’s injunction on the Budget Repair Bill giving the state the go-ahead to implement the bill as law. During the protests of February through May, people came together in attempt to stop the bill from becoming law – but now it is law and that’s that. In the media, I didn’t see any uproar, or questioning of this new law’s impact, or calls to know what’s in store for us in the future — I found just two (1, 2) recent articles which recounted the push-back and feelings of solidarity of the protests and emphasized the need to remember these feelings and our (i.e. public employees) connections to each other. Both articles, however, treated the fight for our collective bargaining rights as being over — we should look back on our solidarity and our fight and know that even though we “lost,” we tried our darnedest. But the assault isn’t over — it’s just beginning. Things are going to change and people’s lives are going to be affected – we just don’t know exactly how or when. (more…)
Posted in Collective bargaining, College costs, Compensation, Graduate student affairs, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
It is easy — indeed, it is natural after a series of crises to mistake a momentary calm for a return to normalcy. We, of course, want the threats to subside and to return to the way things once were which, even if they weren’t quite perfect, were familiar.
In that vein, we’d like to look back and regard the events of last semester as an aberration and not indicative of the life we live now or how we will live in the future. We’d rather not consider all of the facts and face the new reality: that we no longer know what life will be like in the future other than that it will probably be worse in some distinct but as of yet, unknown, ways. But “the facts get in the way” of our attempts to ignore our new and discomforting reality. (more…)
Posted in Collective bargaining, Compensation, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The UW-Madison Campus | 6 Comments »
Friday, June 24th, 2011
On Thursday, UW System notified all UW employee organizations that it would stop collecting dues effective in August. This will affect PROFS, ASPRO, WUU, and the Council for Supervisory Non-Classified Staff as well as the unions (AFSCME, TAA, etc.). (Note: UW Madison administration was not notified of this action until after the fact.)
While it had been anticipated that the state would end the deduction for the unions, the end of the deduction for organizations that do not engage in collective bargaining comes as a surprise. In Walker’s initial budget, the prohibiting language was limited to “labor organizations” which are defined as “an organization that engages in collective bargaining.” However, when the bill was amended in Joint Finance a more expansive amendment was added that prohibited dues deduction for any employee organization other than those representing public safety employees. (more…)
Posted in Collective bargaining, Compensation, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The University System | No Comments »
Monday, March 21st, 2011
The following press release was issued today (March 21, 2011) by the Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA):
At a meeting Sunday, March 20, 2011, the general membership of the Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA) approved a motion to oppose the New Badger Partnership. The TAA opposes the separation of UW-Madison from the UW System and the formation of the public authority model.
The motion reads: (more…)
Posted in Collective bargaining, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
There’s something paradoxical about a creature called a ‘budget repair bill’ wreaking massive damage on the state, but that’s where we’re at. The previous poster here at S&W raised the key issue of what BESIDES collective bargaining is in the budget bill, giving the specific example of the complete loss of benefits for limited-term employees (LTEs), including those who aren’t even paid out of state funds!
In addition to that egregious example, here are two more that show how destructive and miserably crafted this bill is: (more…)
Posted in Collective bargaining, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Now that I’ve got your attention…
Yes, let’s all stipulate that the governor has to balance the budget. What options does he have to do that? He can (a) cut spending and/or (b) increase revenues.
Both of these options have downsides, both political and economic; otherwise we wouldn’t keep kicking the can down the road as long as we have. Nevertheless, in a rational world, and pushed to the wall, we would weigh the pros and cons of both targeted spending cuts and targeted revenue increases and find the balance that is best for the long-term health of the economy and quality of life of Wisconsin. (more…)
Posted in Collective bargaining, State-University Relations, The University Budget | 1 Comment »