History

A union with no collective bargaining?   
History of our movement at UW-Green Bay

As you are probably aware, UW-System faculty and academic staff have been specifically excluded by the state legislature from collectively bargaining for a labor contract.  This of course is one of the main functions of many unions.  But to fully understand our union, you have to understand a little about the long history of the labor movement as it applies to our campus.   The first thing to know is that Wisconsin state employees were among the first to get collective bargaining rights, back in the mid-20th century.  But they were unionized long before that, and had a fairly successful track record of being able to work with their employers on a good faith basis to achieve improvements in working conditions.  When many state employees attained the right of collective bargaining in the 1950’s, UW Faculty were expressly excluded, although even State employed doctors and lawyers were allowed to collectively bargain.   During the entire second half of the 20th century, our forebears at UW were working to achieve this right for ourselves.  The organization that preceded UWGB-United on campus was called TAUWP (The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals), and some of us were TAUWP members when we finally got collective bargaining legislation for UW Faculty and Academic Staff through the state legislature in 2009.  We then worked to get broad support on our campus in order to have a successful election to unionize.  We received authorization to hold such an election in the spring of 2011.  Unfortunately for us, that very spring, the Walker administration enacted legislation to once again take away our right to collectively bargain. 

The legislation, called Act 10, was designed to “crush the unions” in the Wisconsin education system, and it also made it more difficult for state unions to effectively function; for example, unions could no longer have union dues be taken directly from member’s pay, something that was very convenient for both the union and its members.   Not coincidentally, Act 10 occurred at the same time that UW-System employees were made to pay more for our benefits, effectively reducing our income after a series of years without any cost of living or merit pay adjustments.   Thus, Act 10 made our campus very sympathetic to the union cause (and over 97% of voting faculty voted for unionization), but it also made some Faculty and Academic Staff reluctant to pay dues to a union without the right to collectively bargain. 

Our mission is to build our union into an effective means of improving our workplace conditions and enabling us to increase excellence in our educational mission.   Our collective voice allows us to more effectively communicate with administration as well as powers outside our campus community (be they neighbors, voters, or the state legislature).  We are much more powerful when we act collectively. 

The key is to understand that unions can accomplish much of their function without collectively bargaining for a labor contract.  We organize members so that we have the clout of a large constituent of faculty and academic staff.  We work with Faculty Governance, and we have strengths that complement the more formal campus power structure in meeting common problems and issues; and we strive to work with the campus administration in these matters.  One strategy is called “meet and confer” in which we have regular talks with campus administration.  It is in both our interests to work together, and in this way we can have a voice in campus planning rather than being dictated to as individual employees.  On behalf of UWGB-United, I invite you to join us in this important work.