UW-Stout faculty members vote to unionize

• University of Wisconsin-Stout

University of Wisconsin-Stout

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MENOMONIE - UW Stout faculty members voted to unionize yesterday, just hours before the state Senate decided to nullify that action.

The Republican majority passed the budget repair bill, which among other things would eliminate the ability of UW faculty and staff members to unionize. Democrats granted those privileges two years ago, when they controlled the governor’s office and both houses of the Legislature. Since then, faculty at the Eau Claire and Superior campuses voted to start a union. And La Crosse instructors did the same, after Republican Governor Scott Walker proposed the bill which won’t let them do it.

The faculty at Stout voted 196-31 to join the American Federation of Teachers. Associate professor Barb Flom said the bill galvanized the faculty’s resolve in forming a union. She called the bill “extremist legislation” to deny workers’ rights. And Flom said most Wisconsinites have made it known that they want to preserve the state’s rich tradition and quote, “move forward, not backward” in giving employees a voice at the workplace.

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