Thank you!

Thanks to all the students who voted for the Living Wage referendum and against the Wisconsin Union Facility Improvement Plan. The Living Wage passed, 5,312 to 3,204, and the WUFIP was voted down 4,654 to 3,959.

Now we'll have to make sure that Chancellor Wiley will honor the students' decision. While the WUFIP vote is binding, the administration has given various signals as to how they will react to the Living Wage vote. Statements in the student papers after the vote say that the Chancellor "intends to work with ASM". Given that the margin of victory for the Living Wage referendum was over 2,000 votes, it's clear that a majority of students want their seg fees to support living wages for campus workers. If shared governance means anything on this campus, Chancellor Wiley will respect this vote.

Those who voted against WUFIP and for the Living Wage referendum have cast a vote in favor of dignity for all working people. AFSCME Local 171 thanks them for this effort, and looks forward to working with student labor supporters untill poverty wage jobs at UW Madison are a memory.

Stop LTE Abuse at UW Madison Campus!

There are two referendums on the ballot for the ASM elections that will take place at UW Madison March 28-30. One of them would raise seg fees $192 a year starting next year. This would raise over $230 million dollars to rebuild Union South and renovated the Memorial Union as part of the “Wisconsin Union Facilities Improvement Plan”.

Over 150 LTE's work at the Wisconsin Unions. They make as little as $7.25 an hour, and are dispropotionatey people of color. Many of them have worked there for years. Many of them have second jobs to support a family. All of them are working for poverty wages without benefits or union rights.

The other referendum would require any unit of campus that receives seg fees pay all their workers a living wage. A living wage is defined at $110 of the federal poverty rate for a family of four, currently $10.28 an hour. This referendum would affect Limited Term Employees and student workers at the Wisconsin Unions and the Athletic Department. People working their way through school deserve a living wage, just like everyon else.

AFSCME Local 171 opposes the real building referendum and supports the living wage referendum. We don’t believe the Wisconsin Union should be rewarded for paying hundreds of people poverty wages, and we want to pass the living wage referendum because it’s wrong to reward work with poverty.

Can’t afford to go to school at the UW? You can always get an LTE job at the Memorial Union! The articles below have details about the two referendums and problem of LTE abuse on the campus of UW Madison

Wisconsin Unions vs. LTE Reform

The Wisconsin Union has more LTE’s as a percentage of the work force than any employing unit on campus, with over 151 LTE’s and only 135 Classified employees (LTE figures were provided by the LTE Collaboration Group chaired by Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzell). Permanent work has been done by “temporary” workers at the student unions for years, and the Wisconsin Union administration undercut the University’s one attempt at LTE reform six years ago.

State legislators passed legislation in 2000 that gave the University authority to convert 50 LTE workers to classified, union represented workers. This victory came about through the combined efforts of campus unions and labor supporters, and was seen as a pilot project that would be expanded in the future.

We’re still waiting for the expansion of LTE reform. The pilot project was a success in all employing units but one. Half a dozen employing units took the opportunity to increase their permanent staff. The Wisconsin Union took the opportunity to undercut the LTE reform legislation.

None of the employing units were forced to take any of the fifty positions to be converted from LTE to permanent jobs. The Wisconsin Unions took four positions, and four long term LTE’s – among more than 150 – were converted to classified employees. Their wages went up about $5,000 a year and they started to earn benefits.

The Wisconsin Union administration then undercut this step forward by not filling other positions that became vacant, while continuing to hire LTE’s. While the individual workers who where hired for the converted position benefited, nothing was done to increase the number of workers making a living wage and benefits at the Wisconsin Unions.

In fact, the Wisconsin Union has continued to hire LTE’s while leaving permanent jobs vacant. There are currently 18 union represented jobs at the Wisconsin Union that go unfilled, while 151 “temporary” workers are employed. The Wisconsin Union administration now says that they will be asking to add 18 classified jobs in the next budget, but can’t explain why they don’t just fill the vacant jobs.

The Wisconsin Union, like UW Madison as a whole, has never acted in good faith with the unions on campus. We’ve seen union represented jobs left unfilled while administrators received pay increases of more that 20%. The administration never paid any attention to LTE’s except as a PR problem. If students vote to raise seg fees $192 to pay for the renovation of the Memorial Union, they can go back to ignoring the LTE's. Don't reward a poverty wage employer by voting to give them more seg fees. Vote against funding the Wisconsin Union Master Plan. Vote No!

Real Estate Rip Off!

The cost of an education at UW Madison continues to increase as financial aid is cut. Public funding for the University has fallen and students are being required to pay increased segregated fees for facilities that should be built with public money. At some UW campuses, seg fees top $1000 per year.

The referendum to fund the Wisconsin Union Master Plan is up for a vote during the ASM elections that will take place March 28-30. The cost to students will be $192 a year for thirty years, beginning next year. This will raise more than $230 million over the thirty years that it will be in effect.

Last April, the administration tried to sneak a similar referendum past students. This time, they’re spending public money on spin. The administration has contracted with an outside firm for $200,000 to develop and sell the plan, Wisconsin Union staff has spent uncounted hours promoting a yes vote, and student workers are being paid to sit through meetings urging a yes vote. Wisconsin Union Directorate officers were giving away t-shirts just for signing the petition.

This referendum shows everything wrong with the University. Students will pay millions of dollars to build a facility where most of the workers will be paid poverty wages (see other article on this blog for living wage info).

Maybe your kids will go to school here, and you can pay twice.

LTE Abuse at UW Madison

Abuse of Limited Term Employees has been a problem at UW Madison for twenty years. LTE positions were intended to cover short term vacancies – while a worker was on medical leave or while a permanent position was being filled, for example –but have become a shadow workforce, doing permanent work without the benefits enjoyed by classified civil service employees.

There are over 1200 hundred LTE’s on campus. Most do administrative support or blue collar work. Classified UW employees earn at least $9.69 an hour and earn benefits and a pension, and have the right under state law to organize a union. The benefit package is substantial, over $10,000 a year for a worker receiving family health insurance. Those represented by unions have protection against being fired for arbitrary reasons and a voice for decent working conditions.

LTE’s have none of these things. In addition to being paid poverty wages, they are subject to abuse by supervisors with no one to stand up for them. LTE’s can be fired for no reason at all, and those who speak up about problems at work usually are. LTE’s are prohibited by law from receiving benefits or organizing unions. Under state law, if an LTE is found to have worked over 1044 hours in one job, the LTE is fired. Nothing bad happens to the supervisor responsible.

Sometimes campus managers just ignore the law limiting the hours an LTE works. Sometimes an LTE moves around to different jobs – six months as a custodian, followed by six months in food service, followed by six months as a custodian. Sometimes they stay at the same desk doing the same work but paid from a different line item. The result is the same – the work is permanent and the LTE position is “temporary” in name only.

Lat August, Vice Chancellor Darrel Brazzel wrote to the president of the Wisconsin State Employees Union that UW Madison had no interest in converting LTE’s into classified positions. In mid February, he convened an LTE Collaboration Group to study the LTE problem. The group is to meet once a week until the end of March- until just after students vote on the referendum to rise over $230 million in seg fees to fund the Wisconsin Union Facilities Improvement Plan.

Nothing has changed since Brazzel wrote his letter in August, except that this referendum is staring him in the face. The University’s traditional practice of refusing to deal with labor unions in good faith makes it impossible to see this as anything other than a smoke screen.

Other articles on this blog detail of who works for less than a living wage on the UW campus and the racist nature of the LTE abuse at UW Madison.

Living Wage Referendum

A referendum on the ballot for the ASM elections to take place March 28-30 would require units of campus that receive segregated fees be required to pay all workers a living wage as a condition of receiving seg fees. A living wage is defined as 110% of the federal poverty rate for a family of four, currently $10.28 an hour.

There are 500 Limited Term Employees on campus paid less than $10.28 an hour. (Figures are from the LTE Collaboration Group, chaired by Vice Chancellor Darrell Brazzell. They are presented in bar graphs, so numbers are rounded). The Athletic Department employs 190 of these workers, 130 of them work at the Wisconsin Union.
Since both these units receive seg fees, they’d be required to pay a living wage as a condition of receiving seg fees.

Whether this referendum passes or not, LTE’s will receive substantially less compensation that classified civil service employees receive. Civil service employees receive health insurance – worth as much as $10,000 a year – a pension, paid vacation and sick leave. LTE’s receive none of this. Passing the Living Wage Referendum will make life a little bit easier for some of the poorest working people in Madison. If the Athletic Department can afford the Kohl Center and the Wisconsin Union can ask for $230 million in seg fees, then the janitors and the food service workers can ask you to vote for the Living Wage Referendum.

Poverty is violence. Do something concrete for the poor, and vote for the Living Wage.

Stop LTE Abuse on the UW Madison Campus!

There are two referendums on the ballot for the ASM elections that will take place at UW Madison March 28-30. One of them would raise seg fees $192 a year starting next year. This would raise over $230 million dollars to rebuild Union South and renovated the Memorial Union as part of the “Wisconsin Union Facilities Improvement Plan”.

Over 150 LTE's work at the Wisconsin Unions. They make as little as $7.25 an hour, and are dispropotionatey people of color. Many of them have worked there for years. Many of them have second jobs to support a family. All of them are working for poverty wages without benefits or union rights.

The other referendum would require any unit of campus that receives seg fees pay all their workers a living wage. A living wage is defined at $110 of the federal poverty rate for a family of four, currently $10.28 an hour. This referendum would affect Limited Term Employees and student workers at the Wisconsin Unions and the Athletic Department. People working their way through school deserve a living wage, just like everyon else.

AFSCME Local 171 opposes the real building referendum and supports the living wage referendum. We don’t believe the Wisconsin Union should be rewarded for paying hundreds of people poverty wages, and we want to pass the living wage referendum because it’s wrong to reward work with poverty.

Can’t afford to go to school at the UW? You can always get an LTE job at the Memorial Union! The articles below have details about the two referendums and problem of LTE abuse on the campus of UW Madison