The Union's "long haul" campaign for collective bargaining rights cleared an important hurdle on Tuesday (5/12) as the Legislature's powerful Joint Finance Committee voted by a 12 to 4 margin to extend the basic right-to-decide (about collective bargaining) to faculty and academic staff employed by the UW System.  While the proposal for bargaining rights will need to be approved by the full Assembly and full Senate as part of the state budget, the Joint Finance Committee's approval marks an important step towards winning the campaign for equal rights that UFAS members have been waging for 30+ years.

During the two-week period between March 23rd and April 3rd, academic staff and faculty  members of the Union testified at each of the seven public hearings convened by the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee.  As an illustration of the Union's statewide breadth, Union members consistently made the point that the time has (finally) arrived for the University's core workforce to have the same basic workplace rights (to bargain collectively) as all other types of workers in Wisconsin's public and private sectors. 

If you haven't yet done so, you can join your fellow academic staff and faculty as part of UFAS today by completing and returning our online application.  If you support UFAS's initiatives, please remember: all of this happens because of the commitment of members, and so take a step in support of our professions and join today!

As the elections on November 4th continue to get closer, UFAS members across the state have been increasingly participating in concerted activity as part of the AFL-CIO.  In fact, as illustrated in the photo (left) of UFAS members joining a late-August "Labor Walk" in Whitewater, the academic staff and faculty members of UFAS have been going off campus, knocking on doors, and talking with people about the important choices that voters will face on November 4th.  For more information, check out the scoop.

Are you familiar with the so-called “Red Book,” which has allowed UW faculty and academic staff the chance to research salary data from across the UW System for more than 10 years online? Are you also aware that the “Red Book” was recently pulled offline by UW System Administration?