WEAC Desperate for Power
Passage of Act 10 gave Wisconsin teachers the power to refrain from supporting or joining a teachers’ labor union in order to get or keep a job. With a 50% loss in membership, the Wisconsin Education Association Council is turning its money and power to local races in an effort to recoup some of their power, which has been drastically reduced now that teachers can speak for themselves. Molly Beck has the story in the Wisconsin State Journal.
Four years after public school teachers lost their guaranteed spot at the bargaining table, Wisconsin’s largest teachers union has lost more than half its membership and its spending at the Capitol has all but disappeared.
Either way, membership is down more than 50 percent from the union’s 98,000-member levels before Gov. Scott Walker signed his signature legislation in 2011 that significantly diminished collective bargaining rights for most public employees.
A decade ago, WEAC spent $1.5 million on lobbying during the 2005-2006 legislative session, state records show. The next session: $1.1 million. During the two sessions leading up to the passage of Act 10, WEAC spent $2.5 million and $2.3 million, respectively.