Academic staff members who work for the University of Wisconsin have asked Republican state lawmakers to do something to keep them from being assigned to labor unions without their approval, reports The Capital Times, in Madison. Four lawmakers plan to introduce legislation to halt the state employment-relations commission’s plan, which would affect about 500 people who work as doctors, student-services coordinators, and computer technicians, among other occupations.
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10 Responses to Republicans Hope to Halt Unionization Plan at U. of Wisconsin
22206165 - January 14, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Anyone who tries to comment on this inchoate report without some specific details is swimming in dangerous waters. Who are these “academic staff members”? How can they be “assigned to labor unions without their approval”? THE CHRONICLE should be a bit more careful with its postings…
sullivab - January 14, 2011 at 5:11 pm
It seems that the Ticker is truly a “rip and read” feature. It is rare that the items that appear here ever make it into a full-blown story.
sullivab - January 14, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Here is a link to the actual story: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/campus_connection/article_032a3b28-1f96-11e0-9528-001cc4c002e0.html
The actual story indicates that republican legislators initiated the action. It quotes republican politician and a UW spokesman, but it does not specifically mention that staff members have asked lawmakers do intervene. (There is, however, a link to a 7-month-old story that describes the concerns of some staff members.)
mathmaven - January 14, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Doesn’t it violate the National Labor Relations Act to deliberately interfere with attempts to unionize? Not every single affected employee must agree– just a majority.
unnikrishnan - January 18, 2011 at 4:38 am
Unionization is the antithesis of intellectual pursuit which should be the hallmark of universities. Faculty unionization destroys intellectual honesty, shifts focus from “learning” to “earning” and creates an unhealthy US and THEM feeling between administration and faculty.
If a group wants to unionize, the taxpayers must insist revocation of tenure as a reasonable bargaining chip for allowing a union on campus.
whitakal - June 27, 2011 at 9:22 pm
“… we don’t actually have college majors in ‘Images’ … ?” Really? About five years ago when I was teaching in the liberal arts at an elite university, students would be aghast if a syllabus did not include regular–even weekly–film presentations. If they could have, they would have watched the movie version of Plato’s Republic, no “cave” irony intended. I can’t imagine but that the situation has only worsened since then, with the easy availability of YouTube and in-classroom high-speed wifi. Certainly elementary and secondary classes are suffused with video clips on the Orwellian-named “smartboards.” It’s a lot easier to press play than read … or teach.
Keith Whitaker, http://www.wisecounselresearch.org
bullski - June 28, 2011 at 9:30 am
I just finished reading the book, and I heartily concur with your reaction…and the need to consider your final question. To add: I saw in the character Eunice the tug-of-war between the learned literate and the cultural neediness to extend one’s, uh, “f***kability” (read the book!) that I see constantly in many of my younger students. The “apparat” Steyngart creates for the book is pure genius.
peterwwood - June 28, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Dear Dank48, my editor at the Chronicle, apparently concerned that readers would mistake Shteyngart’s brilliance for my poor typing, inserted the “sic” after “Tolsoy.” The even better joke on Stendhal somehow missed this editorial assistance.
chuckkle - June 29, 2011 at 5:00 am
Interesting to see Peter Wood relishing the satire on majoring in “Images,” when his recent job as Provost and Academic Vice President at The King’s College, New York, involved a school that offers only three undergrad programs (i.e. majors) one of which is Media, Culture & the Arts and another is Business Management. The school also offers minors in Business, Education, Journalism, and Pre-Law all of which seem like the kind of undergrad study Wood has been dismissing and/or bemoaning for a long time. Is that something funny I smell?
Chuck Kleinhans
peterwwood - July 5, 2011 at 6:03 pm
I regret not seeing professor Kleinhans’ reply sooner. As usual, he is buffoonishly off the mark. The King’c College created its program in Media, Culture & the Arts years after I left. King’s didn’t consult me, but if it had, i would have told them the idea is risible. As for ‘education,” one of my small contributions to the college when I was its provost (2005-07)was to close its undergraduate degree program in this field. The college did not at the time have majors in journalism or pre-law. I was not aware that it had added them, if indeed it has. That funny smell chuckkles detects is coming from his own fecal imagination.
Peter Wood