Pioneering Struggles of Public Worker Union
Featured at Labor History Conference, April 27
The Wisconsin Labor History Society¹s 21st Annual Conference will look at the dramatic, pioneering struggles of the state¹s public employees to gain strong union contracts.
The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, April 27, 2002 at the Pyle Center on the University of Wisconsin - Madison Campus, at 702 Langdon St.
Entitled, "Public Employee Unions: How public workers organized to move from 2nd class status," the conference is to bring in unionists to tell of hitting the streets, battling public opinion, storming the Legislature and of gaining solidarity to bring justice to public workers.
Wisconsin¹s public employees were among the first in the nation to recognize their interests lie in trade unionism and not in the trust of governmental leaders; as a result, Wisconsin was the first home of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, now the AFL-CIO¹s largest union, which was founded in 1936, and was the earliest state to enact laws that had teeth to respect the rights of public workers to form unions.
Participants in the historic struggles of public employees to gain recognition and economic justice will tell their stories, and prominent academics and others will offer further discussion.
Joseph Slater, an assistant professor of law at the University of Toledo, will open the event, speaking on the challenges public workers faced into developing their structure. Slater has written extensively on public employee unionism throughout the United States, including Wisconsin.
Howard Bellman, a mediator and arbitrator, who was a commissioner of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, will relate the progress of the law in a presentation that will close the event.
The Wisconsin Labor History Society will also award prizes to winners of high school labor history essay contest, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award to a labor activist. The annual meeting to elect officers and conduct other business will be held during the conference.
The conference is open to all interested persons. Registration fees, including lunch, are $20 (or $10 for unemployed persons or students) and may be mailed to: Wisconsin Labor History Society, 6333 W. Blue Mound Rd., Milwaukee WI 53213. Further information may be gained from Ken Germanson, president, at 414-449-4777.
Laurie Wermter
Wisconsin Labor History Society
wermter@library.wisc.edu