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Members of a local union joined forces with University of Wisconsin students Thursday to protest the treatment of limited-term employees at the entrance of Memorial Union.
Participants in the rally included American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 171 members, LTE workers and UW students. Demonstrators called for pay reforms for the UW employees to increase their wages.
University of Wisconsin students will be given a chance to vote on a referendum aiming to raise wages for LTE's next week, as well as one regarding the Wisconsin Union Facilities Improvement Plan.
The LTE "living wage" referendum would prohibit the Associated Students of Madison from recommending student segregated-fee funding for UW organizations that do not pay all of their employees a wage equal to or greater than 110 percent of the federal poverty line.
The Wisconsin Union referendum would raise student segregated fees by a maximum of $96 per student per semester to help fund the renovation of Memorial Union and the construction of a new South Campus Union.
Both referendums were addressed during Thursday's rally.
Mike Imbrogno, the treasurer for Local 171, is trying to put pressure on the university and the Wisconsin Unions to raise the wages for all LTEs.
"The university is exploiting the LTEs and making them work for less than a livable wage," Imbrogno said after the rally.
Imbrogno helped lead the group of approximately 30 rallying workers and students that stood in a circle and chanted, "What do we want? Living wage! When do we want it? Now!"
Many LTEs currently earn as little as $7.25 with no benefits, and representatives of Local 171 say they are concerned about the amount of pay that LTEs receive, noting that it is less than employees at Wal-Mart make.
Carl Aniel, a Local 171 member and kitchen employee at the Union, said that UW is being "criminal" in its dealings with LTEs.
Concerns that 130 of the 151 LTEs currently employed by Memorial Union make less than a living wage were repeated throughout the rally.
Molly Glasgow, a member of the Student Labor Action Coalition, which supported Thursday's rally, told demonstrators to take a stand against the unfair wages.
"We can't leave it up to the administration, we have to put a stop to LTE abuse," Glasgow said.
Glasgow added that many LTEs have one or two additional jobs in order to make up for the lack of money they get from working at the union.
UW has set up a committee that deals with LTE's and their issues, but Imbrogno, who is on the committee, said he is worried that UW is "not getting the job done."
Another member of the committee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that if UW made the LTE positions full time, he would not be able to compete for his own job and would probably be laid off, despite having worked at the Union for nine years.
Imbrogno, however, also addressed the WUFIP referendum, questioning why the Wisconsin Union needs to make the renovations to the unions.
"The university always says that the Union can't meet students' needs, and when I ask them which group could not get a meeting space, they don't give a straight answer," Imbrogno said.
Matt Rock, a UW junior, attended the rally and said he thought it was "very informative," adding it may have influenced his feelings about the referendum.
"I learned a lot about the give and take between both sides," Rock said. "Before I was in favor of the referendum, but now I'm not so sure."
Overall, Imbrogno said he was pleased with the rally.
"The rally went pretty good. I thought there was a spirited crowd," he said.
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people may disagree about the cost of the Union renovations and who should pay, but if you walk through either building, or have had a meeting in a Humanities classroom due to lack of space, there is little doubt about the neccessity
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Why didn’t you speak to anyone from WUD or the Union. This was a one-sided, biased article. You can do better.
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Wow that’s a good news story. Too bad it’s all one sided. The Badger Herald news writers need to go to the Journalism school and find out what responsible writing is. Drew Hamm: Did you do any research about the LTEs at the Wisconsin Union or did you merely regurgitate information that the U171 and SLAC fed you????
And when you say the rally indicated that the wages at the Union are less than that of ‘Walmart’….don’t you mean Wallmart [sic] ?
I’m not sure if I’m going to vote yes or no for either referendum. But I am sure that the Badger Herald is getting worse and worse at covering stories and doing research to provide a balanced NEWS story and not promoting someone’s propaganda without checking the facts.
You’ve had Eric Varney comment against every ‘news’ article you’ve had about the WIsconsin Union. Why didn’t you have someone comment against U171?
You should be ashamed of your ‘reporting’
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If people would like the facts of the LTE situation at the Wisconsin Union, please check out our website at: www.union.wisc.edu/wufip
There you can find real information about the Union’s efforts to remedy the situation. There are many LTEs that work seasonally as Hoofer instructors; there are numerous LTEs that work as ushers in the Union Theater who are retired folks just trying to remain active in the community; there are many LTEs that have the Wisconsin Union job as their secondary job to a full time or other part time with benefits job [get it, limited term employment?]
The Union has also budgeted to convert 9 LTEs to FTE positions in the 06-07 fiscal year.
It is incorrect to pit the two initiatives against one another. WUFIP has nothing to do with LTEs except for the fact that it will improve working conditions, increase employment and provide break rooms…all things that the local 171 have been pushing the Union to fix. We are trying to fix them but it takes money and construction. WUFIP will give them those needed things.
Questions? Feel free to email me. [email protected]
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I’m pretty sure Drew meant Walmart. If you’re not sure, you can go to walmart.com to check.
You should be ashamed of your ‘spelling’
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The article was written about the U171 rally and their support of the LTE “living wage” referendum, NOT WUD or the Union. While some may think the rally is “propaganda,” it is still news, and Drew was reporting on it. Had WUD or the Union held a rally to support WUFIP or against the “living wage” referendum, I am sure the Herald would have done a story on it as well. Or, if there was a scheduled debate between both sides, THEN an article on said debate would feature quotes and aguments from both sides. To assume every piece of journalism must be investigative instead of about what the actual event entails is erroneous.
Besides, those that want to have WUD or the Union’s side heard can still use their first amendment rights and write an editorial to the Herald board, or, as we are all doing right now, post a comment on the Herald website.
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These peopel don’t have to work here, if they don’t like it let them leave. Nobody is keeping them here.
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Where the inconsistency comes in, however is that whenever WUD does a forum about WUFIP, SLAC, or Eric Varney is contacted to comment on the plan. The Herald is being inconsistent in its practices. In addition, just because SLAC claim something about LTEs doesn’t make it true, however this article presents it as such.
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“These peopel don’t have to work here, if they don’t like it let them leave. Nobody is keeping them here.”
You don’t have to go to school here, if you don’t like paying workers enough to feed their families, you can leave. No one is keeping you here either.
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I live in Wisconsin and I’m entitled to go here, maybe your out of state should pay more or you can go somewhere else. Maybe these people should just be happy they have a job and quit complaining, or get more skilled to work at a real job.