Capitol Protests (by Brent Nicastro)
Capitol protests.
Republicans threaten state civil service protections
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports today that Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature have hatched a scheme to weaken Wisconsin's civil service protections, which have prevented politicians from using government jobs as patronage for their supporters and from firing employees for political reasons for more than a century.
United Way's Agenda for Change
United Way is launching its Agenda for Change If you make a personal contribution of $25 or more, you will be entered in a vacation sweepstake. [NOTE: this does not include donations made through the State Employees Combined Campaign (SECC)] To make a donation, send a check payable to United Way of Dane County to:
Ann M. McNeary, AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison, United Way of Dane County, 2059 Atwood Ave., Madison, WI 53704.
Also, for help during difficult times, you can call United Way's 2-1-1 for information and referral to available community resources.
AFT-Wisconsin statement on the end of Scott Walker's presidential campaign
AFT-Wisconsin President Kim Kohlhaas, a teacher in the Superior School District, issued the following statement today in response to Scott Walker's announcement that he is ending his presidential campaign:
"Today marks the end of Scott Walker's illusions that the American people want to buy what he's selling. AFT-Wisconsin members and other working Wisconsinites have been getting the word out about the damage that Walker has done to this state...
UW merger with tech colleges a bad idea
Be sure to check out the op-ed by retired Milwaukee Area Technical College instructor and former Local 212 Executive Vice-President Charlie Dee that lays out why the secretive plan to merge the Wisconsin Technical College System and the UW Colleges would be a disaster: "The first thing a responsible committee would do is research what happened when other states tried this. It would discover that mergers in Minnesota, Georgia, Alaska, Connecticut and New Jersey have failed to produced expected savings, but instead have created myriad problems."
Higher Education Council Statement: Protect Tenure and Indefinite Status
In response to attacks by Wisconsin Republicans on academic freedom in the University of Wisconsin System, the AFT-Wisconsin Higher Education Council has drafted a statement calling on the UW System Regents and chancellors to uphold protections for academic staff and tenure-track faculty that ensure academic freedom and high quality research and education at every UW System institution.
AFT-W Convention, Oct. 23-25, 2015, Madison
Come One, Come All!
If you aren't one of WPEC's elected delegates, you can attend as a guest. But either way, you must be registered by Oct. 1.
For more details about the Convention, go to www.aft-wisconsin.org, click on Membership and then Convention. You might have to log in first.