Well as we suspected, Governor Doyle included language in his state budget that would allow faculty and academic staff to unionize and collectively bargain. As you might know our senate has long opposed any decoupling of faculty and academic staff pay plans, and so before the budget was introduced we passed a resolution opposing any bill that started with faculty and academic staff seperate.
Well, the language is even worse than we could have imagined. Not only does it start with seperate bargaining units (up to 6 in all, 1 for Faculty at Madison, 1 for Faculty at Milwaukee, 1 for Faculty at the other campuses, 1 for AS at Madison, 1 for AS at Milwaukee, and 1 for the rest of us AS), but it strictly forbids any faculty and academic staff units from combining.
We encourage you to make your voice hear with your legislators (of course you'll want to contact them from your own personal phone or email) and let them know if you are also concerned about this langauge that is grossly unfair to academic staff in the UW System!
Following is the language of our most senate recent resolution:
University of Wisconsin-Stout Senate of Academic Staff Resolution
Opposing any Collective Bargaining or Enabling Legislation
Language Where Academic Staff and Faculty are Separated
WHEREAS, the UW-Stout Senate of Academic Staff has long opposed the decoupling of faculty and academic staff benefits and compensation plans; and
WHEREAS, as recently as September 4, 2007 the UW-Stout Senate of Academic Staff unanimously adopted a resolution stating, “while we would not be opposed to the right to choose to collectively bargain, we will continue to oppose any bill including collective bargaining bills that would separate faculty and academic staff pay and benefit plans and thereby treat the 11,000 academic staff in the UW System unfairly and inequitably;” and
WHEREAS, legislation enabling collective bargaining for the UW System academic staff and faculty continues to be introduced that would create separate collective bargaining units for the academic staff and faculty on each campus; and
WHEREAS, separate collective bargaining units for the academic staff and faculty will place academic staff and faculty in competition for salary and fringe benefits; and
WHEREAS, any collective bargaining scheme that establishes separate academic staff and faculty bargaining units on each campus places the faculty at Madison and Milwaukee in the best position to demand and receive the majority share of limited state compensation dollars approved by the Legislature. Faculty at the comprehensive campuses would be in the next best position to compete for the remaining limited resources, placing academic staff in a position to settle unfairly for what, if anything, remains; and
WHEREAS, any legislative proposal that starts with separate academic staff and faculty collective bargaining units but offers a mechanism which allows for combining the two units if both agree does not guarantee, and only provides false hope, that the faculty would ever seriously chose fairness over self-interest and permit the units to combine; now
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of Academic Staff at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, strongly opposes any legislative proposals, now and in the future, that would grant collective bargaining rights to University of Wisconsin System academic staff and faculty that would establish an academic staff collective bargaining unit separate from the faculty collective bargaining unit.
Unanimously adopted at the February 11, 2009 business meeting of the Senate of Academic Staff
