(MADISON) A provision tucked into Governor Jim Doyleâ??s budget would give faculty at the University of Wisconsin the right to unionize and collectively bargain their contracts.
The idea would give faculty and academic staff the same kind of collective bargaining rights held by other state employees. They would not be able to strike, but they would be able to bargain over wages and hours.
UW-Platteville Professor Raymond Spoto is a long-time advocate of the idea and is a past president of the Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals. He says the rights would not be granted automatically. It would be up to faculty at each individual UW campus to vote on whether they want to bargain their contracts. Spoto says without that right, UW administration will never take the existing faculty governance system seriously.