MacIver News Service | December 20, 2013
[Madison, Wisc…] A closer look at the results of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) recertification elections show that 16,977 government workers did not vote in favor of their union.The MacIver Institute calculated the total number of members that voted “No” and those that simply did not vote. Since public unions are required to get 51 percent of their members to vote in favor of recertifying each year, a non-vote is essentially a no vote.
In total, government workers rejected 81 school district unions during the recertification elections that ended on Thursday. The above map shows where each decertified union is located in the state. Some school districts had multiple collective bargaining units, so many of the dots represent more than one union.
Support staff and teachers made up the largest groups of workers to oppose recertification. Of the more than 80 unions decertified, 22 represented support staff and 22 represented teachers.
Rep. Tyler August (R-Lake Geneva) said he is happy that Act 10 gave workers a voice when it comes to being in a union.
“It is giving workers a choice,” August told the MacIver News Service. “If you want to work for your school district, you want to work for your municipality, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a member of a union.”
The elections went from November 29th until noon on December 19th and involved 408 collective bargaining units around the state associated with school districts. Workers cast their votes using a telephone voting system.