A University of Wisconsin workers union held a protest and picket line outside the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building Monday morning to show their anger about the outsourcing of jobs to non-union workers.
The members and workers of AFSCME Local 171 protested the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s decision to hire non-union workers for the two food service locations housed within the new WID building.
Two-thirds of the building is located on UW property, while the remaining one-third is on private property. Both of the planned restaurants are located within the private sector of the building project, Janet Kelly, a WARF spokesperson, said.
Kelly said WARF is managing the construction of the building and while WARF is not opposed to hiring unionized workers, the organization is not obligated to do so since the restaurants are technically in the private portion of the building.
“For nearly a year, WARF and Wisconsin Union Food Services held good faith discussions about this unit servicing the food venues,” Kelly said. “However, a number of legal and financial issues complicated this arrangement and made it impractical.”
The union had a different opinion. Randy Brink, union president, said he never received a solid answer from WARF regarding the food service venues despite meeting with WARF multiple times.
“It felt like we had no other choice and we did what we had to do to secure these jobs for our people,” he said.
Brink also said the location of the restaurants in the private sector of the building does not mean WARF should overlook the union.
He noted a similar incident that occurred when the Fluno Center opened.
“We’re seeing a pattern here with hiring trends, and we have to be vigilant and make sure that we’re not losing our base of jobs for our unionized workers,” Brink said.
According to Brink, there were approximately fifty to seventy picketers at the protest.
“We were very pleased at the high level of turnout, and the whole group was very enthusiastic and spirited,” Brink said. “There were even some members who were from different unions across Wisconsin, including the president of the Wisconsin State Employees Union.”
Michael Imbrogno, a union member who participated in the picket line and protest, said “it felt great … to see the community get together behind a cause.”
Brink said the picket line is the first phase of action by the union to ensure its members have jobs.
If WARF does not reconsider contracting unionized workers, Brink said the next step for the union would be to protest outside WARF Managing Director Carl Gulbrandson’s residence.
Kelly said she hopes such a situation will never happen and Brink agreed.
“We would like to see this resolved quickly between both sides, but we will take further steps if this situation continues.” Brink said. “We are hopeful that this demonstration will spur dialogue between us and the other side of the fence.”
WID consists of two institutes: The Morgridge Institute for Research and the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. The entire facility is scheduled to have its grand opening Dec. 2.
