In June 2009, Governor Jim Doyle signed legislation granting faculty and academic staff in the UW System the right to collectively bargain.  This legislation – which extends this basic human right to faculty and academic staff – is the result of many years of lobbying by AFT-Wisconsin and its affiliates. We now join colleagues in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, and twenty-nine other states who had the right to bargain collectively for decades.

The struggle to win collective bargaining rights is first and foremost about protecting the quality of higher education in Wisconsin. Academic unionism is the best means for protecting tenure, extending job security rights to academic staff, and safeguarding academic freedom for all university faculty and staff. Through collective bargaining we will come to the table with the UW System administration and negotiate over such terms and conditions of employment as fair, equitable salary increases; health insurance premiums; and workload. As equal partners with the UW System, the union will work to improve the working lives of faculty and academic staff and the learning conditions of the more than 175,000 students in the UW System.