There aren’t many topics I’m unsure of my opinion on, but one that has me torn is unionized labor. The socialist streak in me supports fair wages and organized strikes, but the other part of me realizes labor unions are the reason my high school Spanish teacher spoke barely more Spanish than I did.
As the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission starts to push up on the University of Wisconsin System’s territory regarding the classification of academic staff, I’m betting those employees feel the same way I do. As the WERC plows forward in a legal battle to have university employees forcibly unionized, those employees find themselves facing the possibility that unions don’t always work in the best interests of the people they represent.
It all started in the summer of 2009, when then-Gov. Jim Doyle signed legislation giving the UW System’s faculty and staff the right to form unions with bargaining power if they so chose. Local unions immediately swarmed in and announced their intentions to absorb these employees into their divisions without a vote on the employees’ part.
The universities, said the unions, had always lived outside the law when it came to jobs, regularly creating extraneous positions for select individuals and labeling them as academic staff. For this reason, the unions said UW employees needed to be unionized without a vote and supervised, and they therefore appealed to WERC, the body that settles labor disputes.
If the unions win out, about 300 UW system employees, as reported by the Capital Times, would be reclassified and unionized without having a say. Because of this, the UW system is legally fighting what it views as designation without representation.
For current UW employees, unionizing might carry some benefits, but probably not enough for them to vote for it if given the chance. Unions require members to pay fees of hundreds of dollars per worker, which is probably an important financial motivator as to why unions want so badly to be involved in the UW System to begin with. In addition, UW employees already have power in wage and rights negotiation within the UW System; they are the researchers and scientists who bring the university money and don’t need a union’s help to act collectively.
Furthermore, those employees in danger of being reclassified are, for the most part, in postdoctoral positions who do not intend to stay long in their current job, at most 2-3 years. Postdoc positions are designed as a springboard to further research or other positions, so why would they need a union to help hash out retirement benefits if they aren’t going to retire in that job? Finally, UW employees already have many benefits, and by unionizing they might actually lose some of what they already have.
In short, it’s no wonder the UW System is fighting off unions that stepped in and told them, “It’s for your own good.” Many employees probably would have warmed to the idea of unions, but not to the unions’ current legal power play.
For now, the UW System has appealed to the courts, saying WERC and the unions have no authority to reclassify their employees and force them to unionize. WERC has until Jan. 24 to file its response to the court system, and at that point it’s in the court’s hands. If the courts decide WERC has the go-ahead to authorize forced unionization, the UW System will make sure to make it a messy uphill battle.
And if the courts decide WERC has no jurisdiction, the UW System will likely not vote to unionize. In either case, due to the union’s insensitive political tactics and their not-too-veiled money grubbing, don’t expect to see unionized UW employees any time soon.
Taylor Nye ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in anthropology and intending to major in Spanish.
