Lakewood UniServ was organized in 1973 and hired Larry Kelley as its first Director. Lakewood consisted of 10 districts West and South of Milwaukee including St. Francis, Oak Creek, Muskego, Mukwonago, Hamilton, Kettle Moraine and New Berlin. Oconomowoc and Watertown were unaffiliated at that time.

In 1974, in order to facilitate the hiring of Jim Gibson as another Director Lakewood was divided into Lakewood East and Lakewood West. Jim Gibson was assigned Lakewood East which ultimately became Council 10. Larry Kelley was assigned to Lakewood West which eventually became Lakewood UniServ Council as we know it today.

Through the hard work of Larry Kelley, Oconomowoc affiliated with Lakewood in 1975 but Watertown remained unaffiliated. At that time, Watertown was very active and had even gone through a short but bitter strike. Its affiliation was courted by Cedar Lakes, Winnebagoland, and CAUS. Eventually, Jerry Kreitzman, who was one of the main activists from Watertown, was drawn to the idea of forming the United Lakewood Educators (ULE) for the purposes of coordinating negotiations in the western suburbs of Milwaukee. As a result of such organizing by 1975-76 the ULE included teacher units in Hamilton, Kettle Moraine, Muskego, Mukwonago and Watertown. Once Watertown affiliated with the ULE it became evident to the local that it would be worthwhile to affiliate with the Lakewood UniServ Council in order to fully integrate the bargaining strategy of ULE with the servicing resources of the UniServ.

Lakewood began organizing ESP units in Watertown in 1980 and hired Jim Brenner, the Ex-President of Lakewood on a part time basis. As New Berlin clericals became organized in 1982, Jim became full time. Kettle Moraine’s ESPs were organized in 1989.

Throughout the years, organizing our members has significantly increased the benefits and salaries for teachers in Lakewood UniServ. Interestingly, in the thirty year bargaining history of Lakewood, only two of the UniServ’s districts have needed to resort to strikes to resolve their contracts (Muskego Norway and Watertown) although Mukwonago came within 2 hours of a strike in 1972. Regardless, even today the Lakewood UniServ Council retains a commitment to membership activism and with your involvement in the union we will continue to make history for our teachers.