Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Supporting Worker’s Rights at the UW Hospitals and Clinics for the Good of the City.
Body
WHEREAS, due to the efforts of its nurses, physical therapists, technicians, and healthcare professionals, UW Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) is a recognized national leader in cancer treatment, pediatrics, ophthalmology, surgical specialties, and organ transplants; and,
WHEREAS, over 2,300 city of Madison residents are covered under collective bargaining agreements at UWHC, agreements successfully negotiated for over 30 years and resulting in the high quality of care seen performed by the committed workforce of UWHC; and,
WHEREAS, contracts agreed to through collective bargaining have ensured that employees are free to report problems, raise concerns, and question potentially unsafe decisions without risking their jobs, that nurses are not assigned to consecutive shifts with no rest, and that workers have been able to place prudent limits on the number of patients a healthcare worker has to care for; and,
WHEREAS, the state Legislature and Governor wield power over the relationship between UWHC and its employees, despite UWHC operating as a separate public authority with its own board of directors and not being directly funded by taxpayer dollars; and,
WHEREAS, in 2011 Act 10, aka the “Budget Repair Bill”, stripped collective bargaining rights from most public employees, including those at UWHC; and,
WHEREAS, employees of a public authority, such as UWHC employees, unlike other public employees, have no protections under the State Employees Labor Relations Act, the Wisconsin Employment Peace Act, nor the National Labor Relations Act; and,
WHEREAS, as a result of Act 10 and the lack of protection afforded to them by other laws, over 5,000 members of the UWHC community, including the 2,300 from Madison, will become “at will” employees when their contracts end in 2014 and 2015; and,
WHEREAS, “at will” employees are subject ...
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