Members of a campus committee will meet with Chancellor John Wiley Thursday in an effort to convert some of the university's Limited Term Employees into full-time staff.
The LTE Collaboration Committee, made up of unionized campus workers, students and faculty, wants to convert approximately 400 of the 1,300 LTE positions at the Unions' Recreational Sports and University Health Services to full-time status, which would offer benefits and union representation.
According to Shayna Hetzel, vice president of External Relations of the Wisconsin Union Directorate, the proposal will not convert student employees.
Students aren't classified as LTEs during the year,\ she said. ""Students can only be considered LTEs during the summer when they don't have class.""
Mark Guthier, director of the Union and a member of the LTECC, said the proposal is asking that the university look at work that has been performed on a regular basis by LTEs, and put as many of those employees as possible to full time.
""Jobs that are more seasonal and irregular in nature won't be covered by this proposal,"" Guthier said. ""But the type of work that is happening year round on a daily basis, those are the types of employees that the committee will be recommending to switch to full time employees.""
UW-Madison junior Ashok Kumar, recently elected Dane County Board supervisor and LTECC member, said that there are three different categories of LTE employees: regular, seasonal and irregular.
""Regular LTEs are the employees that will be affected by the proposal,"" said Kumar, also a member of the UW-Madison Student Labor Action Coalition.
The proposal also calls for the creation of an LTE Advisory Committee, consisting of students, workers and administrators. The committee's purpose will be to act as a watchdog over the proposal to make sure that it is fully implemented. It will also deal with complaints by management as the proposal is enforced.
Kumar said although students will not be affected by the proposal, that is the next step.
""This has been a 10-year campaign, we are getting it now because of the workers, LTEs and students, that have been putting a lot of pressure on the administrators,"" he said.
Guthier said the LTE Collaboration Committee is already planning their next steps.
""The next step of the proposal is to involve more of the campus employers,"" Guthier said. ""We are currently working with a few big employers on campus, but we must expand.""
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