SB 233

Current law grants certain protective occupation participants under the

Wisconsin Retirement System (public safety employees) and certain municipal

transit employees the right to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions

of employment. State government and municipal government employees who are

not public safety employees or municipal transit employees (general employees)

have the right to collectively bargain over a percentage increase in base wages that

does not exceed the percentage change in the consumer price index. Current law also

prohibits municipal employers from collectively bargaining with municipal general

employees in matters that are not permitted under the Municipal Employment

Relations Act (MERA). Under this bill, all municipal employees have the right to

collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment under MERA,

and all state employees have the right to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and

conditions of employment under the State Employment Labor Relations Act

(SELRA). In addition, this bill provides University of Wisconsin (UW) System

employees, employees of the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority, and certain home

care and child care providers the right to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and

conditions of employment.

Under SELRA and MERA, each collective bargaining unit containing general

employees must have an annual election to certify the labor organization that

represents the collective bargaining unit. If, at the election, less than 51 percent of

the actual employees in the collective bargaining unit vote for a representative, then,

at the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement, the current

representative is decertified and the members of the collective bargaining unit are

nonrepresented and may not be represented for one year. This bill eliminates the

requirement to have an annual certification election. Once the majority of employees

in a collective bargaining unit elects a labor organization as their representative,

that labor organization remains the representative unless a percentage of members

of the collective bargaining unit supports a petition for a new election and

subsequently votes to decertify the representative.

Currently, the term for a collective bargaining agreement covering a general

employee may not exceed one year and may not be extended. This bill generally

limits the term to two years and eliminates the prohibition on agreement extensions.

Current law prohibits the deduction of labor organization dues from salaries of

general employees. This bill allows employees who are represented by a labor

organization to have the organization dues deducted from their salaries.