The Teaching Assistants’ Association decided to not retain its official status as a union, despite a report showing a vast majority of teachers unions throughout Wisconsin voted to recertify.
Under the law passed earlier this year that restricted collective bargaining rights for public employees, unions are now required to vote annually to recertify.
According to a report released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, 177 of Wisconsin’s 208 local teachers unions operating under the new rules voted to recertify.
But the TAA, the union that represents UW-Madison’s teaching assistants, decided that the certification wasn’t worth it.
“We thought that we would have more power if we didn’t waste time with this kind of recertification charade,” TAA co-president Alex Hanna said. “We are putting our efforts towards recalling and we are also putting our efforts towards reorganizing our own members.”
But the Wisconsin Education Association Council, Wisconsin’s largest teachers union, said a certification vote would give public unions a voice, albeit a limited one compared to what they had in the past, to negotiate wages with the administration.
“The overwhelmingly positive results send a clear signal to Governor Walker that his divisive approach to governing and his cuts of $1.6 billion to schools do not reflect Wisconsin values,” Mary Bell, president of WEAC, said in a statement Thursday. “As a union, our members will stay united as a voice for educators, students and schools, as we continue to focus on the upcoming recall election.”
The Walker administration responded to the results in a statement, saying the new collective bargaining law gives workers the ability to make decisions about union dues and other issues that affect their paychecks.
“Some have chosen to stay certified while others chose not to. The important thing was that they were given the freedom to choose,” the statement says.
Hanna says the TAA is having “huge success reorganizing our members on our own terms” since its decision not to recertify.
