Jun. 10, 2013 Green Bay Press Gazette
Prison guards in Wisconsin will vote later this month on whether to reorganize under its former union, a newly-formed group or to continue without representation.
The battle over who will represent Department of Corrections security and public safety employees in workplace and collective bargaining issues has already sparked a contentious lawsuit between the two groups in advance of the vote, which will be conducted by mail between June 28 and July 18.
The Wisconsin State Employees Union, also known as WSEU or AFSCME Council 24, represented prison guards for 80 years up until the state union was decertified as a union in the wake of Act 10’s passage and subsequent legal battles.
In October, though, a group of former WSEU local officers who were unhappy with the organization’s representation created the Wisconsin Association for Correctional Law Enforcement, or WACLE.
The group secured enough signatures to trigger a statewide vote.
In January, WSEU responded by securing enough signatures to also be included on the ballot. The Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission will oversee the vote, which requires either organization to secure 51 percent of the total vote in order to represent the group.
WSEU executive director Marty Beil said he is confident his organization will continue to represent corrections officers, saying WACLE was created by disgruntled former union leaders.
“This is a situation where about half a dozen or a dozen people want to take their ball and go home. They weren’t able to win elections and other stuff, so they decided to split off and start their own organization,” Beil said. “In this day and age with the political climate the way it is, that’s the worst thing for them and for correctional employees. It’s something (Gov.) Scott Walker would want to happen.”
In January, local WSEU groups filed a lawsuit against WACLE organizers in Winnebago County Circuit Court after several of them, anticipating a contentious vote, transferred about $100,000 in member dues into separate accounts, said Timoty Scheffler, one of WACLE’s attorneys.
Scheffler said legal precedent has indicated collected union dues should stay with the organization that represents workers, not with the union that originally collected the money.
“When AFSCME stepped in and said we want the money back, it pretty much went hyper right there,” Scheffler said. “It turned into a spat involving lawyers instead of saying ‘What’s our plan?’ It’s a real game of hardball over the money.”
WACLE questions whether Winnebago County is the proper venue for the case to play out and has stopped responding to the court, earning the ire of Circuit Court Judge John Jorgenson during a Thursday hearing in which he ruled in favor of WSEU.
“If these guys (from WACLE) are portraying themselves to be great leaders, but don’t respond to legal requests, you wonder what their motivation is,” Beil said. “We assume when we go to the portion of the hearing on damages that the court will order these guys return the money to the treasuries for existing members.”
Scheffler said it’s not quite so clear-cut. He said the outcome of the vote later this month will go a long way toward determining future responses to WSEU’s lawsuit and other proceedings.
“It’s an issue that could have been mediated or talked through instead of relying on a lawsuit,” Scheffler said. “If WACLE is successful in becoming the representative of corrections, our position is that the WSCU funds contributed by corrections employees will flow to them.”
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