University of Wisconsin and other state employees gathered for a rally outside of the Wisconsin State Capitol on Tuesday. Protesters called for releasing the raise for University of Wisconsin employees and maintaining funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts at the university.
Organizers from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Wisconsin Professional Employees Council and other unions across the state are urging the Joint Committee on Employment Relations to release the raises previously approved in the state budget in early July.
But, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) has proposed canceling the planned pay raises for UW employees unless the university eliminates DEI programs, according to WisPolitics.
Representative of AFSCME Joanna Frasch said the effort was a shared fight between UW and state employees.
“We’re not okay with cutting DEI programs at the UW and we’re definitely in support of them on UW campuses and even in state employment,” Frasch said.
Frasch identified a correlation between Vos’s threat to release the raise that was previously approved in the biennial budget and the elimination of DEI programs and the Joint Committee on Employment Relations’s failure to meet to discuss the wage release.
JCOER is the committee who is responsible for finalizing this raise dispersal. Having yet to schedule a meeting to discuss this proposal, the raise for state and UW employees has been delayed significantly, according to Frasch.
WPEC Executive Council member at-large Scot McCullough said even if the decision is made to cut DEI programs and release raises for UW and state employees, other programs will continue to be attacked by these Republican representatives.
“The idea that the legislature or the state governments can attack some employees based on the program that they’re involved with is a very troubling precedent,” McCullough said.
Faculty members at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh face particular challenges amid a series of furloughs and layoffs. Professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a representative for the United Faculty and Academic Staff Chad Alan Goldberg said these impacts are a direct result of legislative stagnation.
“This is a politically manufactured crisis … There’s no reason for this other than a desire to undermine and destroy the public,” Goldberg said.
Individual who brought handgun into Capitol building taken into custody
WPEC Executive Council member at-large Barbara Smith said with each day JCOER fails to meet to discuss the pending wage raise, state employees are being deprived of the pay they have earned. Smith said receiving adequate compensation for performing essential public services should not be contentious.
Despite being placed at odds with state employee salary increases, protesters expressed support for the DEI programs Vos has threatened to eradicate in the Universities of Wisconsin.
The primary goal of DEI at UW is to promote equity by improving institutional access and promoting the values of diversity and inclusion across the campus, according to UW’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement.
“We strongly support diversity, equity, and inclusion programs,” Smith said. “These are small steps toward addressing the egregious inequities in our society, in our public agencies, and our campuses.”
