Walker thinks he can cripple our union by making payroll deduction for union dues illegal. By re-committing to our union and continuing membership, we are standing strong and sending a message: Walker can’t legislate away our union, he can’t decide that we don’t have power, he doesn’t decide – we do.

To join in building our union, click the button below and continue your union membership and our ability to fight Walker, his agenda and the stripping of our rights. You’ll be redirected to a secure website where you can sign up to continue your membership no matter what Walker says. This information is for union purposes only and will never be shared with an outside party. Deductions will only begin if payroll dues deduction is eliminated, and your information will be kept secure.

We can build our union and take back Wisconsin. It’s all up to us. Who decides? We decide!

Join Now to Protect Your Rights!

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La Follette Pension Study

The La Follette Workshop in Pubic Affairs prepared a study for the Wisconsin Legislative Council on alternatives for administering the Wisconsin Retirement System.  This report is NOT the report required by ACT 32 which is due to be released in June.   The La Follette report  was released in May of 2012.  For more details, click here. 

Defend The Wisconsin Retirement System

Retired WPEC member/activist Philip Anderson and retired WSP member/activist Roger Springman prepared an paper about defending the WRS retirement system. They are also part of a group of public retiree activists called POWRS. To read the paper, click here.

May 24 -- Members of any public employee union and their spouses, friends and significant others are invited.  The next social Is scheduled for Thursday, May 24, 2012 at the Madison Labor Temple from 4:30 to 6:30.  The Labor Temple is located at 1602 Park Street, Madison.   

For a copy of the flyer, click the link above.

                              Dates  and Locations of Future Socials:  

                                      June 21, 2012 -- Memorial Union Terrace

                                      July 19, 2012 -- Memorial Union Terrace

                                      August 23, 2012 -- Memorial Union Terrace

MADISON AREA

Badger Honor Flight/Jazz in the Garden -- Sunday, June 3 at the Flower Factory in Stoughton, from 12:00 to 6:00.   WPEC retiree, Caroll Schiller, is one of the organizers.  Click Here to see the flyer. 

Weldon Gee Memorial -- 4:30 on Monday, June 4 at the Great Dane Pub in Fitchburg.  Weldon Gee was a former WPEC member.  Click Here to see the flyer. 

Results of Executive Council Elections: 

A coalition of unions including AFT-Wisconsin filed a lawsuit over the controversial law last year.  The court ruled that the state cannot prevent public employee unions from collecting voluntary dues through payroll deductions and cannot require that they recertify annually.  To read a Wisconsin State Journal article about the decision and to read a copy of the decision itself,  Click Here. 

Update (5/2/12) -- The Walker administration appealed the court's decision regarding annual recertifications and paycheck deductions.  The administration also asked for a temporary stay of these decisions.  In a somewhat confusing ruling, the judge denied the request for a stay regarding payroll deductions and he also ruled that going forward, the State could NOT require annual recertifications.  However, he left in place the recertification elections that were already required (and held).  The next step is circuit court for the appeals which our attorney estimates could take 6 to 9 months.   

Section 16.705 of the Wisconsin Statutes requires DOA to submit an annual report on or before October 15 concerning the "number, value and nature of contractual service procurements authorized for each agency during the preceding fiscal year."  

The report required by October 15, 2011 has not yet been submitted by DOA.   WPEC President, Greg Georg, sent a letter to DOA in early February asking DOA to submit the report as required by law. 

To read WPEC's letter to DOA, Click Here.

To read last year's report, Click Here. 

In the summer of 2010, WPEC members at the Department of Health Services (DHS) reported concerns about the growing number of vendor employees working at DHS.  They were concerned that these vendor employees were being hired through the Medicaid Fiscal Agent contract with EDS-HP to perform duties that were not directly part of that contract. In response, WPEC requested a number of Medicaid contract documents.   A WPEC employee also filed a complaint with the LAB Fraud and Abuse Hotline that many of these hires seemed inappropriate because they were outside the scope of the contract and also noted that the  HP Account Executive overseeing these hires was a former DHS employee. 

LAB has not yet formally responded to the Hotline Complaint, but an LAB audit of the Medicaid program released in December of 2011 addressed some of the concerns.   They reported on the high number of vendor employees, the lack of involvement of purchasing professionals in these contract decisions, and the lack of oversight of this large new vendor workforce.  

To see copies of some of the documents, Click Here. 

We periodically ask for a list of the vacant positions from DOA. The lists we get do NOT include the University of Wisconsin, the State Legislature or the Wisconsin Court System.   The list from June 2011 showed 4,890 vacant agency positions. 

According to the Wisconsin Budget Report, April 2011, "Wisconsin continues its trend of having fewer state and local employees per capita than the national average, according to numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of state and local employees per capita in Wisconsin stayed about the same from 2008 to 2009, and remained well below the national average.   Click Here for more details.    

Changes in Wisconsin Election Law

The Madison City Clerk has put together a pamphlet summarizing the recent changes to Wisconsin election laws.  Although it's put out by the City of Madison, most of what it says applies statewide. 

Did you know that as a state employee, you can work at the polls without any loss of pay or benefits?  (click on the link above to read entire text)

We sometimes hear about job vacancies.  We're posting them here while they're current.

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