Unlike most state employees, faculty and academic staff working within the University of Wisconsin System don’t have the right to form unions with collective bargaining powers.
Yet if ever there was a time when such an option might look appealing, it’s now.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced May 7 that he hopes to start filling the state’s massive $6.6 billion budget deficit over the next two years by rescinding 2 percent pay raises for non-union state workers. He also plans to make all non-emergency state personnel take eight days of unpaid furloughs in each of the next two years — which equates to another 3 percent pay cut.