Faculty & Staff
Classified Staff Union Representation
Wesconsin's classified state employees at Porter are represented in collective bargaining on a narrower set of topics than a typical private-sector contract.
Who this covers
Classified staff — facilities, dining, clerical, and technical support positions covered by the state civil service system — are a separate employment category from faculty and academic staff (see Faculty Senate and Staff Senate, which represent shared governance, not collective bargaining). Some classified positions at Porter are represented by a statewide public-employee union local.
What bargaining actually covers
Wesconsin’s 2011 changes to public-sector labor law narrowed collective bargaining for most state employees to base wages only, capped at the rate of inflation, decided in an annual certification election of the bargaining unit. Working conditions, benefits, and grievance procedures for classified staff are set through civil service rules and state statute rather than negotiated contract language the way they might be in a state with broader public-sector bargaining rights.
The annual recertification vote
Each bargaining unit must hold an annual vote for members to recertify the union as their representative, with a majority of all eligible members (not just those who vote) required to continue — a higher bar than a normal majority-of-votes-cast election.
Grievances outside of bargaining
A classified employee with a workplace concern outside the narrow scope of wage bargaining files it through the state civil service grievance procedure or, for a protected-class discrimination concern, through Title IX or the campus Office of Human Resources equal-opportunity process, not through the union contract.