Labor-union members rallied in front of the Memorial Union Wednesday to demand better working conditions and commemorate the violent labor strikes that took place 75 years ago in front of the unfinished student union.
Unofficially, the story goes that during a labor strike in Madison in the late 1920s, the construction firm building the UW Memorial Union hired “scabs,” or non-union workers, from Chicago. Upset, the labor union in Madison staged a demonstration leading to a confrontation where angry workers threw the scabs into Lake Mendota.
Whatever the official story, it is true the strike involved violent demonstrations that led to incidents requiring police officers to dress in riot gear and tote tear gas. Consequently, non-union workers completed the Memorial Union construction.
Wednesday night, on the steps of the Union, the South Central Federation of Labor held a rally that was, in some ways, a tribute to the 75th anniversary of the 1920s strike.
More importantly, according to Mark Thomas, president of the Madison-area American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees Local 171, the demonstrators were using the significance of the date as a way of drawing attention to the abuse of limited-term employees on campus and to show that “Memorial Union is the worst abuser of LTEs on campus.”
Chants of “No justice, no peace!” and “Same struggle, same fight, workers of the world unite!” were shouted by the gathering of about 50 marchers and supporters. Some carried signs reading, “LTEs are real people. Pay them real wages,” and “Memorial Union, 75 years of deception.”
Vice Chancellor for Administration Darell Bazell responded that LTEs, by definition, are not entitled to the same benefits or the same pay rate as full-time employees because the LTE job usually requires less expertise and leadership ability. LTEs are usually subordinate to full-time employees, he said.
Randy Brink, an executive board officer of AFSCME Local 171, said LTEs receive “no vacation, no sick days and no scheduled raises.” Brink said conditions are not much better today than they were during the 1920s and that UW hires LTEs to eliminate full-time employees and save money.
Thomas, Brink and other individuals present at the rally said some improvement in working conditions has been made, however.
Thomas cited recent legislation passed that reassigned 50 LTE jobs to full-time positions. But the UW continues to undercut those improvements “by eliminating permanent positions,” Thomas said.
Brink agreed.
“There’s no good mechanism for LTEs to become permanent employees,” Brink said.
Vice Chancellor Bazell said that under current state-budget restrictions, UW “lost $250 million” and is in the “process of cutting 250 positions … to comply with the budget.” He made it clear that UW “was cutting some of both” LTE and full-time positions, “depending upon the priorities of campus.”
Yvanne Jackson, who has been an LTE at Memorial Union for almost two years, said her time is almost up.
“I’ve worked for two years. Now I’ve got to find a new job,” she said.
In her time as an LTE, Jackson said she has received pay raises but they were “very small.”
The LTE marchers had many supporters at the rally, including several full-time employees and members of the Student Labor Action Coalition.
SLAC member Eric Freedman told the marchers, “SLAC will stand by the workers of Memorial Union … and continue to stand by them until the work is done.”
After the rally, demonstrators moved inside to the Great Hall for the kickoff of the SCFL’s award-winning lecture series “Labor History with a Bite.” The series is intended to present the discord — past and present — between union activists and the university. Several speakers were present at the discussion, including David Newby, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.
Newby said the LTE problem has been an “ongoing problem … it’s time to solve it. LTEs have been working for years with no benefits.”
Vice Chancellor Bazell and other UW officials have been meeting with members of the unions. A UW official said UW is instituting programs to ease tension and find solutions.
One example is a pilot program to convert LTEs to full-time employees.
Both sides agree that several problems remain, but everyone involved is interested in finding a cooperative solution.