Labor and Elections

Three key points

Work this information into your building meetings and one-on-one conversations.

Labor Day celebrates the rights educators can achieve through bargaining.

Transparent salary schedules allowing for predictable pay. Duty-free lunch. Reasonable class sizes. A grievance process to prevent against arbitrary discipline. Wisconsin was the first state in the nation in which public employees earned the right to bargain collectively and educators here were among the first to use it.

We are on the cusp of winning back our rights.

For over 15 years, most of what we could once negotiate has been off limits: health insurance, hours, safety, workload, staffing. What remains is base wages, capped at inflation, subject to an annual recertification vote no other election in this state requires. Restoring our right to negotiate with our employers takes a governor and a legislature willing to give workers a fair shake. That's what's on the ballot on Tuesday, November 3.

In Wisconsin, educators are the margin of victory for labor.

Wisconsin was the closest state in the country in the 2024 Presidential Election, decided by nine tenths of a percentage point. The 2022 governor's race was decided by a 3.4 margin. Other races here are settled by numbers smaller than the staff of a middle school, which is why we need you to pledge to get involved this fall.