Labor & Employment Law

UW-La Crosse Faculty Joins AFT in Midst of Walker?s Attacks

By James Parks

In the midst of Gov. Scott Walker’s assault on public employees, faculty at  the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse voted 249-37 in favor of union representation through AFT-Wisconsin, an affiliate of AFT. The vote follows Walker’s move to slash the rights of public employees and take away the freedom of academic staff and faculty to collectively bargain for good middle-class jobs.

According to Susan Crutchfield, an associate professor of English, Walker’s proposed bill galvanized the faculty’s resolve to form a union.

When it became clear that the governor’s extremist legislation had nothing to do with balancing the budget and everything to do with denying workers’ rights, UW-La Crosse faculty realized the urgency in this vote. Each of us stood up, took notice, and turned out to vote.

The vote at  UW-La Crosse is an extension of what’s going on across Wisconsin, Crutchfield said.

Like the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who have rallied in Madison, Superior, Fond du Lac, and dozens of other communities across our state, La Crosse faculty stood united today in saying, ?We deserve a voice in the workplace.”

Faculty and academic staff tried for years to win the freedom to collectively bargain, a right they finally achieved in 2009. Since then, faculty at two campuses?UW-Eau Claire and UW-Superior?have voted in favor of collective bargaining representation.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 25, 2011 (boomark / email).