WEAC issues layoff notices for 40% of staff

Aug. 15, 2011 By Erin Richards of the Journal Sentinel

In the aftermath of legislation that clips the power of public employee unions in Wisconsin, the state's largest teachers union exhibited the first signs of a wobble Monday when it issued layoff notices to 42 employees.

The new legislation limits collective bargaining, but it also requires local unions to hold annual recertification votes, prohibits employers from automatically deducting union dues from a public worker's payroll and allows bargaining-unit members to opt out of paying union dues altogether if they wish.

The announcement of layoffs at the Wisconsin Education Association Council, which affects about 40% of its workforce, comes at a time when the organization is reaching out to members to rally support for the union.

WEAC Executive Director Dan Burkhalter said Monday that the layoffs and budget cuts are based on a projected loss of revenue as a result of Gov. Scott Walker's "union-busting legislation."

Burkhalter said WEAC's membership decreased because of extra retirements last year and districts limiting their hiring of new employees this year.

He said the cuts were not related to any prediction that there would be a further drop in membership as a result of the upcoming re-certification elections for local unions around the state.

The recertification elections are to be conducted by Dec. 1 for all bargaining units that don't have a contract in effect.

"By law, to continue on as the representative, the union needs to garner the re-certification votes of 51% of all eligible voters," said Peter Davis, general counsel for the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, which will oversee the elections.

WEAC is made up of about 98,000 state teachers and education-support professionals. It collected about $23.5 million in dues in 2009, the latest year of data for which federal tax filing information is available.

It's been holding membership continuation drives this summer in districts where teachers and other workers are no longer covered by a contract and even making house calls to connect with people in person.

WEAC spokeswoman Christina Brey said home visits were a choice made by local union leaders, and she heard positive feedback.

"We really need to look each other in the eye at this point," Brey said.

Burkhalter said that a little less than a third of WEAC's membership does not have a contract covering it anymore.

He wouldn't say how many people have volunteered to continue their WEAC membership - it's internal information, he said - but he added that the organization has signed up members since the bill passed.

Membership is steady in districts that signed or extended contract agreements with unions before the new legislation passed, he said. That includes large districts with lots of members, such as Milwaukee and Kenosha.

In Fond du Lac, where a contract was not extended, Fond du Lac Education Association President Hedy Eischeid said her group and WEAC are working in concert to recruit members and talk to people about why the union is relevant. Persuading teachers to pay dues comes at the same time another element of the Walker law requires most public employees to pay more for their health care and retirement benefits.

Eischeid said the local organization traditionally forwards a portion of members' dues to WEAC, the national organization (for WEAC members that's the National Education Association) and UniServ ("united service"), the regional offices that help deliver services to members.

She said Walker's legislation was intended to break the power of WEAC and local unions and make them ineffectual, and that's "a slap in the face" to people who consider the work that unions do important.

Eischeid said that in Fond du Lac, teachers have united in shared anger over the new legislation, and more than 90% of the local membership has committed to stay in the union.

"We won't have 100%, and there are some people that we will not get to join," she said. "We didn't have people who were 100% with us even when (the district) took dues out automatically. But now we're having important conversations about that, and the power of dialogue is strong."

Eischeid didn't disclose the cost of union dues in Fond du Lac.

In Milwaukee Public Schools, where teachers are operating under an extended contract, most Milwaukee Teachers Education Association members pay about $1,000 per year in dues. Teachers who decline membership still have to pay a $700 "fair share" payment for contract enforcement and bargaining.