Having been our chancellor for a little more than a month, John Wiley was surprisingly defensive concerning where his loyalties lie on workers' rights. Last week he wrote a polite spin letter that portrayed him as the concerned chancellor, but let everyone know that UW-Madison would not take a specific stand against what he labeled as \sweatshops."" If Wiley was trying to impress upon staff and students that he had serious humanitarian concerns, putting the word sweatshops in quotations was a bad move.
Also, according to the letter, the university has been at the forefront of curbing global labor abuses with the ""encouragement of its students."" Wiley might be reminded that the university dragged its feet on the issue, and the reason we have one of the strongest labor codes of conduct in the country is because the students held a sit-in and got arrested for it. I'm glad Wiley has publicly stated he supports the ""fundamental features of worker rights"" and supported a symposium on ""a living wage for workers"" because he has his work cut out for him. UW-Madison has quietly been one of the worst exploiters of labor in the community. Maybe Wiley does have a reason to be defensive.
Increasingly, UW-Madison has been abusing the state's limited-term-employee system. Wisconsin state statute 230.26 requires that LTEs be hired for jobs that last for less than six months of full-time employment; but acting more like a profit-driven corporation than a public institution, the university has been using LTE labor to fill positions that should be classified as permanent. They continually sneak around the six-month limitation by firing and then rehiring the same worker for virtually the same job. It is cheaper for UW-Madison to operate in this underhanded manner than to hire people under the title of permanent civil servant because almost all LTEs are not represented by a union. The few LTEs that are union-represented at the Memorial Union are not allowed to bargain for benefits or better wages. Without the protection of the Local 171 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, LTEs are refused a living wage, the right to a stable schedule, job security and health benefits. The university is literally regulating people into poverty.
Wiley cannot claim ignorance on the issue of LTE abuse because he has held an administrative position here for the last 11 years. Both Wiley and Vice Chancellor John Torphy have received a letter from the Coalition for a Code of Conduct for Quality Jobs. This letter outlined the university's abuse of LTE workers and improper subcontracting out of union jobs in the Fluno Center.
Could it be that the university is acting more like a corporation than a public institution due to the administration's push toward increasing privatization? A letter was sent to the UW Foundation requesting that it do for LTEs what it has done for Wiley, namely that the UW Foundation raise the wages of exploited LTE workers. Not surprisingly, the UW Foundation declined to use some of its $1 billion in assets to lessen these people's hardships. As a private corporation, it replied that Wiley signed a private contract with it ""outside his relationship with the university"" and that this would demand a ""significant amount of his time."" Now that our chancellor is beholden to private corporate interests in addition to his responsibility as a public official, where will he stand when confronted with the choice between people or profit?
If Wiley really wants to ""influence worker rights on a sustained basis"" through concerted action, then he must make money for full-time permanent positions a top budget priority and sign a code of conduct for labor. UW-Madison sets the standards of a civil society and exists to serve the community. These employees are the bread and butter of the university, and it is intolerable that they be sequestered into economic slavery. Wiley has the power to reverse this trend. Let's hope that university officials do not take a very long time to get their act together on fair and equitable labor standards here at UW-Madison.
