By Patricia Bogumil
editor
The Waterford Union High School board officially holds the authority to establish base wages for staff, following results of a recent phone-in recertification election.
In that election, conducted from Nov. 29 to Dec. 19, 39 of 80 WUHS teachers voted “yes” to keep union representation for wage negotiations, one teacher voted “no.”
Under the rules of Wisconsin Act 10, teachers who choose not to vote in a recertification election are counted as a “no” vote. Since 40 of the 80 WUHS members did not vote, the union did not receive the 41 votes needed.
Act 10 mandates that teacher unions hold annual recertification elections to keep representing their members for collective bargaining.
The Waterford Graded teachers union, with most members choosing not to vote, also lost its bargaining power after its recertification election.
Results show that 22 of the 111 Waterford Graded teachers voted in their recertification election. Of those, 17 voted “yes;” 5 voted “no.”
The 17 “yes” votes fall far short of the 56 votes needed.
Decertification means the teachers no longer have a union that will negotiate base wages with the school board, explained WUHS Superintendent Keith Brandstetter.
Staff members can still belong to a union if they wish, he added, but the union cannot represent them in negotiations.
Southern Lakes United Educators Union has represented Waterford High and Waterford Graded district teachers for years. It did not reply to requests for comment for this story.
Brandstetter said a challenge to the WUHS vote had been considered, but has since been dropped. Joe Vogt, president of the WUHS union, explained that in early voting some members’ votes were associated with the Watertown district rather than Waterford. Also, some WUHS members had issues with their ID numbers, he said.
“We wanted to make sure the votes were correctly counted for recertification,” said Vogt.
Where the union decides to go from here is still being discussed, said Vogt.
The recertification challenge issue is listed on the agenda as an item for discussion for the WUHS board’s Feb. 19 monthly meeting.
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I would only have one question as to whether there was a forum for the vote to take place. Being a Union member for over 30 years and retired, there should have been a procedure in place by the Union to nullify any such vote if a forum wasn’t established.
I believe you mean quorum! And you say you were a teacher? OK.
Obviously the teachers don’t want to be in the union. If they did, they would have voted for it!
He said he was in a union. I didn’t read anything that said he was a teacher. He could be a union plumber or an auto worker not all union members are teachers.
D Mankel, I wonder if you are as critical of your own ability to read comments as you are of others’ ability to write them. I think if you are going to be snarky about the quality of someone’s spelling or grammar, you shouldn’t start a question with a conjunction. The way you interact with people online sometimes reminds me of the stereotype of the entitled 14-year-olds that do not yet grasp how they come across or impact others. Please keep in mind that we are all real people. By all means make your point, but let us all remember the wise words of Dr. Frank Burns: “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.”
Thank you for the clarification. I am not a teacher nor ever was. I am merely making a statement of fact. Most Unions have clauses in their contracts so voting isn’t scewed. If the teachers didn’t want a Union then they have a right to vote it out. It’s that simple.
…and that is clearly what happened here!