skip to main navigation skip to demographic navigationskip to welcome messageskip to quicklinksskip to features

New Collective Bargaining Law

WEAC members:
For background on the changes to the
state's collective bargaining law, click here.

Current Collective Bargaining News

All news

WEAC President Bell testifies in favor of governor's budget provisions to reform collective bargaining

4/1/2009 4:36:40 PM

On March 23, 2009, WEAC President Mary Bell testified before the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, which was conducting a public hearing on the governor's proposed 2009-11 state budget. Following is the portion of her testimony related to collective bargaining reform:

The Governor’s budget also includes several changes to our collective bargaining law including repeal of the Qualified Economic Offer or “QEO”, removing "greatest” and “greater” weight criteria in arbitration for school districts, allowing longer term contracts, as well as merging of bargaining units to promote efficiency and economies of scale.

The Governor’s budget also includes several changes to our collective bargaining law including repeal of the Qualified Economic Offer or “QEO”, removing "greatest” and “greater” weight criteria in arbitration for school districts, allowing longer term contracts, as well as merging of bargaining units to promote efficiency and economies of scale.

We support these changes for several reasons.

a. Collective Bargaining Reform will restore fairness to our bargaining law. Collective bargaining is a basic right that Wisconsin’s citizens support and value. Everyone in Wisconsin benefits when the voices of our teachers and support professionals are heard through a fair collective bargaining process. In 1993, Wisconsin’s teachers were singled out and subjected to severe bargaining limitations that deny teachers the rights that other workers receive within our state. Restoring fairness to our bargaining law is an important step in turning the page on the politics of the past and moving Wisconsin forward. None of our neighboring states restrict teacher salaries under a system like the QEO (Qualified Economic Offer). Wisconsin can do without the QEO too.

b. It takes teamwork to build successful schools and collective bargaining reform can help to improve school quality. In its current “one-sided” construction, the threat of the QEO cuts off discussion on important issues like class size, professional development, new approaches to teacher pay and other school quality issues. For the collective bargaining process to address school quality issues, our school officials, teachers and support professionals must work together on a level playing field.

Bargaining reform will open the door to dialogue between teachers, support professionals and school officials, pushing them to think creatively and explore new approaches to old problems. The QEO will no longer serve as an excuse to avoid difficult conversations, because teachers and school districts will have the right to submit their wage proposals to a neutral arbitrator.

c. Collective Bargaining Reform will promote greater efficiency in our schools. Collective bargaining reform proposed is more than just repealing the QEO. The bargaining reform offered through the Governor’s budget creates new opportunities for greater administrative efficiency in our school districts. By allowing smaller groups of teachers and support professionals to join together for collective bargaining (both within and across districts), school districts will be afforded new ways to share costs, pool purchases and resources, and take advantage of greater economies of scale. Also, allowing school districts to negotiate longer term collective bargaining agreements (up to 4 years) will dramatically reduce the legal and administrative costs associated with collective bargaining.

d. Our schools are among the best because of talented, caring and committed staff and collective bargaining reform will help schools attract and retain high quality teachers. Historically, Wisconsin has benefited from having some of the best schools and teachers in the nation. This great tradition is threatened because our current collective bargaining law weakens our ability to attract and retain high quality teachers.

Since the Qualified Economic Offer was imposed:

  • Teacher pay in Wisconsin has dropped from 15th in the nation to 21st – the lowest point in 40 years.
  • Teacher salaries have lost 11% to inflation.
  • Per capita income in Wisconsin (which measures the increase of all wage earners) has increased at more than twice the rate of teacher pay.

This happened because of caps on overall compensation. When health costs went up, pay went down to stay under the cap. But the QEO also involves “phantom” costing, where the salaries of teachers no longer employed by the district are included in the costs of salary adjustments. Educators, in other words, never receive the full 3.8% that appears on paper. Veteran teacher often received little or no increase, and salary schedules sometimes took rollbacks.

For the first time since passage of the QEO, starting teacher salaries are now higher in all of our neighboring states (even Iowa), making it even more difficult for Wisconsin to attract and retain great teachers. It’s time to give Wisconsin’s teachers a fair shake.