Despite her popularity with organized labor, UW-Madison’s teaching assistant’s union decided not to endorse former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk Tuesday, at least for the time being.
The UW-Madison Teaching Assistants’ Association voted against two gubernatorial recall-related resolutions at its general membership meeting Tuesday: one to establish the terms of endorsement, and a second on endorsing Falk.
The first vote rescinded a resolution stipulating that any candidate endorsed would have to support the unconditional reversal of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-2013 state budget.
According to TAA co-president Alex Hanna, keeping those endorsement conditions would “limit” the TAA and the ability of the 3000-member union to participate in the recall election.
“[The resolution] would effectively mean there would be no candidates that would meet that criteria,” he said.
Also at the meeting, the group voted against an official endorsement of Falk, who, if elected, has promised to veto any state budget that does not restore collective bargaining rights.
“We had members speak strongly about her, how she’s pledged to veto any budget that would not include collective bargaining,” Hanna said.
He added it was the opposing viewpoint that determined the final vote, one that cautioned against moving behind Falk before other Democratic candidates emerge.
“A lot of members said we needed to wait and see what the field looks like,” Hanna said.
Falk’s defense of collective bargaining rights does not necessarily mean that the Democrat would reverse all of the cuts made by the Walker budget, including those to certain public employee benefits, he added.
Falk has already received the endorsement of several educator unions, including the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state’s largest.
—Ben Siegel
