The State Employees Council of AFT-Wisconsin issued the following statement today in response to proposed changes to state civil service law, and urged Wisconsinites to contact their legislators to oppose this attempt to weaken civil service:

The recent Republican proposal to reform Wisconsin’s Civil Service rules is an attempt to degrade the work of state employees, and will only serve to introduce more corruption into state government.

The Civil Service System was created to counteract the influence of politicians on state jobs.  Allowing politicians to essentially appoint public employees

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.  Under the guise of "modernization," Walker and his supporters are proposing to weaken just cause protections, eliminate the state civil service test, shorten the appeals process for workers being disciplined or fired, and centralize all state hiring under

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.  UW System employees are encouraged to print the statement and display it in their workplaces.  AFT-Wisconsin members are also circulating a petition in support of the statement; to obtain a copy of the