Wisconsin Public Unions Opt Out of Rigged Recertification Votes

by Laura Clawson, Daily Kos Labor

In addition to stripping public workers of collective bargaining rights, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's infamous anti-union bill:

...also requires that unions go through yearly recertification votes to keep their official status rather than retain that status indefinitely after an initial vote creating the union, as had been done in the past. Unions can still exist without that official status, but government employers, such as schools and the state, don't have to recognize them or bargain with them over anything.

To win the recertification election, unions must get 51% of the vote of all the members of their bargaining unit, not just the ones who take the time to cast ballots—a much higher bar than state elected officials have to clear to win their offices.

This Thursday was the deadline for unions to file for a recertification vote, and most have decided to take a pass on the expense of holding an election across multiple sites and to such an anti-democratic standard. (The same standard, remember, that Republicans shut down the FAA in order to impose on union representation elections for air and rail workers.)

Mark E. Andersen had previously written about the decision of one union not to participate in recertification, because "'Investing resources in this process would divert resources from other forms of activism,' said Adrienne Pagac, co-president of the Teaching Assistants' Association," who also referred to the process as "illegitimate."

Other union representatives echo that:

Marty Beil, executive director of the 23,000-member Wisconsin State Employees Union representing largely blue-collar workers, said none of the units in his group will seek recertification.

"We looked at the law and we find the law at best an exercise in wasted resources," Beil said. "We've chosen to use our resources to organize our members and advocate for our members."

Some members of unions that are not going through the recertification process are paying their dues voluntarily. And indeed, their money is better spent recalling Scott Walker than running expensive, rigged recertification elections that still don't win them the right to bargain collectively over the vast majority of important issues.