After years of trying, it is likely UW System employees will be allowed to form unions under the next state budget, but it wonâ??t come for free.
UW System officials estimated that they would need to hire 32 staffers at a cost of $2.2 million annually to negotiate and administer collective bargaining agreements for UW faculty and academic staff, according to a May report by the stateâ??s Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The estimate includes an assumption that there would be 30 separate collective bargaining units across the UW System for some 20,000 employees.