WEAC History Book Chp 6

Teachers became a major political force in Wisconsin after 1972, when WEAC's reorganization allowed the union to participate more fully in the political process.

The pain and risk of reorganizing started paying dividends almost immediately for Wisconsin’s teachers, with the gains for schoolchildren and teachers in the 1973–74 legislative session, the success in the 1974 elections, and improvements in wages, benefits and working conditions won in post-strike negotiated contract settlements throughout the state.

But strikes are difficult and risky for everyone involved, and the Hortonville strike and its aftermath were sufficiently unpleasant to convince voters and legislators throughout the state that something needed to be done to avoid teacher walkouts. It was just as obvious to everyone that WEAC, the UniServ units and the local education associations were not going to go away. The question, for everyone who was honest enough to ask it, was, “How do we find a way to compel school boards to bargain with teachers in good faith?”

The answer came in more amendments to the Municipal Employment Relations Act, namely the Mediation Arbitration Law of 1977. The amendment provided for a system of arbitration between a local bargaining unit’s contract demands and a school board’s last, best offer. WEAC would win about half of the arbitrations in the next 15 years, but the mere existence of the law improved the chances of every member in the state of getting a fair settlement. School boards knew that if they did not bargain in good faith and make reasonable offers they would lose in arbitration and have to grant the union all of its contract demands. Oftentimes those contract demands had little to do with salaries and fringe benefits and more to do with school quality issues, employment rights and the protection of the value of the teaching profession. There was not a teacher strike in Wisconsin in the time between the passage of the mediation arbitration law and the onset of the 1993 qualified economic offer law. The relative peace also led to relative prosperity for Wisconsin teachers, as compensation, benefits and the profession itself became more attractive, and school quality throughout the state improved.

The passage of Senate Bill 15 in 1977—the mediation arbitration law—was preceded by the failure of the first binding arbitration bill, Assembly Bill 605, in 1974. Following this failure, WEAC reorganized WEPAC into the Wisconsin Education Association Council Political Action Committee and changed the way the political action arm was funded. The new system resulted in more resources for the PAC and the ability to make the maximum contribution to all of WEAC’s recommended candidates.

More importantly, local education associations, UniServ units and WEAC staff redoubled their grassroots organizing efforts in the wake of the failure of AB 605 in preparation for the 1976 state legislative elections. Hundreds of teacher members throughout the state became involved in their local state legislative elections by knocking on doors, distributing flyers, stuffing envelopes, putting up yard signs and making phone calls in an effort to put more pro-teacher, pro-education legislators in office. The WEAC PAC and the statewide grassroots effort targeted anti-teacher, anti-education, anti-binding arbitration incumbents and candidates for defeat.

In November 1976, WEAC-backed candidates won 85 percent of their races, many of them against long-term anti-education incumbents. This solidified teachers’ standing as a major force in state politics, and sent a message to all elected officials that it was a politically bad idea to mess with teachers, public schools and WEAC.

A string of double-digit percentage pay increases, improvements in insurance and fringe benefits packages and other bargained job improvements quickly followed the passage of the 1977 binding arbitration law. In 1978, the Manitowoc teachers won the first arbitration, with Fair Share as the only contested issue.