What is WEAC?
WEAC membership includes:
- 68,000 teachers, counselors and library media specialists in public K-12 schools.
- 17,000 education support professionals—secretaries, teacher aides, bus drivers, custodians, cooks—employed in public K-12 schools.
- 3,000 faculty and support staff in the Wisconsin Technical College System.
- 7,850 active retired members.
- 1,800 university students who are studying to be educators.
- 750 education and information professionals who are employed by the state and work in the Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Technical College System, State Historical Society, at other state schools and libraries,
and in state prisons and other institutions, including the Centers for the Developmentally Disabled.
- 10 academic staff employees in the University of Wisconsin System.
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WEAC began as a statewide educational organization in 1853. For more than 100 years, membership included teachers and administrators. In the 1960s, following passage of a collective bargaining law for public employees, the Wisconsin Education Association evolved into a pro-active teachers union and in 1972 changed its name to the Wisconsin Education Association Council. It was involved in many teacher strikes during the late 1960s and 1970s. Following the bitter 1974 Hortonville teachers strike in which all 84 teachers were fired, the Legislature passed the mediation-arbitration law, creating a system for resolving contract disputes without strikes.
In 1993, the Wisconsin Legislature passed laws that weakened educators’ collective bargaining rights. Labor strife has returned to many communities. In the 1980s and early 1990s, WEAC expanded its membership to education support staff, as well as UW, technical college and State of Wisconsin education and information professionals.
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The Local Union
The local union (for example, the Arcadia Education Association) is the primary membership unit and responsible for issues that directly affect the compensation, working conditions and professional interests of members. The local bargains a contract with its employer. Locals also carry out a broad range of professional and community relations programs. WEAC has 700 local affiliates.
The UniServ System
A UniServ (short for Unified Services) is the regional organization of local unions. The Medford Education Association, for example, is affiliated with Central Wisconsin UniServ Council (CWUC), based in Mosinee. The UniServ assists locals in bargaining, political action, public relations and many other areas.
A UniServ unit is a group of local associations, in the same geographic region, whose combined membership generally totals between 1,200 and 1,500. Each UniServ unit—in financial partnership with WEAC and the NEA—hires staff to assist locals in collective bargaining, member rights, public relations, professional development, political action, and other areas. Each of the units has its own governance, with members electing officers. UniServs elect one representative for every 1,200 members to serve on the WEAC Board of Directors.
Five large locals serve as their own UniServ units—Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay.
WEAC
WEAC is the state-level union. Members run WEAC through an annual Representative Assembly and a 64-member elected board of directors that meets at least eight times a year. Each local is entitled to one delegate to the Representative Assembly for every 50 members. At the Representative Assembly, about 1,000 delegates make major policy decisions and adopt a budget. RA delegates elect WEAC officers, including the full-time president, vice-president and secretary-treasurer. The WEAC president oversees policy implementation on a daily basis and is WEAC’s chief spokesperson. Currently, Mary Bell, a Library Media Specialist from Wisconsin Rapids, is serving her first year as president. WEAC staff members, under the direction of the executive director, carry out the policies of the organization on a day-to-day basis. Visit www.weac.org for more information.
NEA
The National Education Association, based in Washington, D.C., is America’s oldest and largest organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. Founded in 1857, the NEA now has more than 2.8 million members who work at every level of education, from preschool to university graduate programs. NEA’s work ranges from coordinating innovative projects to restructuring how learning takes place to fighting congressional attempts to privatize public education. The NEA, governed through an elected Representative Assembly, provides national research and bargaining support, legal support, political action and lobbying services, and a vast library of books, brochures, pamphlets, videos and other communications services on professional and educational issues. Among the services it offers are on-the-job liability insurance,
a monthly member magazine, computer support, and professional development opportunities. Visit www.nea.org for more information.
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