The Wisconsin Labor History Society is currently accepting essays for its 2014-15 Labor History Essay Contest, open to all Wisconsin high school students in grades 9-12. Up to eight prizes between $100 and $500 will be awarded to outstanding essays of up to 750 words on the topic "Unions have been important to my family and my community because..." Essays must be postmarked by February 13 for consideration. Please distribute this contest flyer or share the contest website with any interested high school students and with your fellow union members to spread the word!
Welcome to AFT-Wisconsin's new website! Our new site, which uses AFT's StateWeb system, will allow us to better share information from the national AFT and our state federation with AFT-Wisconsin local union members. We hope you find our new site useful—if you have any suggestions for useful pages or features, or if you have any news from your local that you'd like to share, please contact AFT-Wisconsin Communications Director Aaron Bibb at bibb@aft-wisconsin.org.
AFT-Wisconsin members highly value and honor education. As part of our values, we offer scholarships for children and grandchildren of current or retired AFT-Wisconsin members who will be attending technical colleges or universities. This year a $1,000 university scholarship and a $500 technical college scholarship were awarded.
AFT-Wisconsin has a long tradition of offering educational scholarships to support dependents of members in good standing who wish to pursue higher education at a technical college or university. Currently, AFT-Wisconsin offers one $1,000 university scholarship and one $500 technical college scholarship. The application period for 2015-2016 scholarships is now open; applications are due to AFT-Wisconsin by March 15, 2015, and winners will be notified by May 1, 2015.
Yesterday’s election results were disappointing, to say the least. With Scott Walker’s reelection, we’re going to have some tough fights on our hands in the coming months. We must remain vigilant against many threats that are likely to come our way, including forced public school privatization, outsourcing of state positions, further cuts to higher education, and centralization of power in the state technical college system. But while the political environment in the Capitol will continue to present us with challenges, remember—AFT-Wisconsin members are resilient.
This morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued its ruling in Madison Teachers, Inc. v. Walker, in which the Court’s conservative majority overturned Judge Juan Colas’s 2012 decision that found most of Act 10 unconstitutional for municipal employees. The decision did not affect our state employee and UW System unions, which have been operating under Act 10 since 2011. As expected, a majority of the Court upheld the law, which is no surprise—the conservative ideologues that make up the Court’s majority have reliably sided with Scott Walker and big-money special interests in nearly every major case over the past few years. This decision is aptly summarized by Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, joined by Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, in her dissent, which states that "the majority's failure to address the actual issues presented in this case allows it to reach results that countenance the needless diminution of multiple constitutional rights." While I (and our legal counsel) strongly disagree with the Court’s opinion, today’s decision closes the books on the major legal challenges to Act 10.
