Academic Staff Assembly Document #374

11 December 2006

Resolution on Collective Bargaining 
Academic Staff Criteria When Considering Enabling Legislation

Whereas, the Academic Staff Assembly voted on February 13, 2006 to not endorse SB 452, which proposed enabling legislation for collective bargaining; and

Whereas, a subcommittee of the Academic Staff Executive Committee met to discuss the acceptable conditions of any proposed enabling legislation; and

Whereas, the subcommittee developed the following principles to guide drafting of acceptable enabling legislation; and

Whereas, the subcommittee presented these principles for discussion to the Academic Staff Assembly;

Be it resolved that the Academic Staff Assembly consult the following criteria during future discussions of enabling legislation:

1. The Board of Regents would have the sole responsibility for negotiations and administration of any collective-bargaining agreements.

2. Permit the academic staff of the UW-Madison to elect whether it wishes to engage in collective bargaining as a set and distinct group or allied with faculty of UW-Madison and/or staff on other UW System campuses.

3. Subordinate all other provisions of the enabling legislation to the overriding provision that nothing in the law or in the bargaining agreement shall be construed or allowed to diminish academic freedom, job security, or prohibit or restrict the full exercise by the unclassified staff of its functions in any currently existing shared-governance mechanisms or practices.

4. Clarify which of the unclassified staff would be considered supervisory or management personnel.

5. Exclude from the definition of unfair labor practices the failure to implement improvements in compensation or working conditions gained at a campus regardless of whether the academic staff are represented or not, if such improvements are based upon comparisons with comparable higher education institutions or other competitive practices.

6. Include effective fact-finding provisions to resolve bargaining impasses.

Subcommittee members: 
Janice Czyscon 
Michael Jacob 
Frank Kooistra, Chair 
Kim Manner 
Mark Zehner