AFT, Local 212

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A Message From Local 212 President Michael Rosen:

LOCAL 212 SPEECH COORDINATION DAY
August 23, 2007

Good Morning. I am Michael Rosen-live and in person!
Welcome back to a new academic year!

Or if you are new to MATC, welcome to Southeastern Wisconsin’s premier work force development college- Milwaukee Area Technical College.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with our new faculty. They are an impressive group.

Let me tell you about one of them. Many years ago Lisa Hugdahl was a student in our Adult High School. Lisa had math phobia and waited til the very end of her coursework to even take a math class. But with the help of MATC’s faculty she conquered her fears, earned her high school degree and her Associates Degree. She then transferred to UWM where she earned both a BA and a Masters in none other than mat. Today she returns to MATC to teach and inspire our students just as you taught and inspired her. Welcome Lisa!

When students are asked what they like most about MATC, they always respond that our faculty, counselors and professional staff are the college’s greatest asset.

So if you are new, welcome to our ranks, to MATC, and to AFT 212. We look forward to the contributions you will surely make.

Not all of us have been on vacation this summer. I want to thank your Bargaining Committees and their chairs, Linda Baehr of the full time faculty, Ed Putnam from the professional staff and Sally Lindner from the part time faculty who have worked all summer in an attempt to get you a decent contract.

I also want to acknowledge some members of Local 212 who have stepped forward to carry on the very important work of the union. We have a new Committee on Political Education (or COPE) Chair, Marwill Santiago, and a new Grievance Rep for the Technical and Industrial Division, Aimee Davis. I also wanted to recognize 212’s Web Site Director, Susan Retzer, who won four national first place American Federation of Teachers Communicators awards and was selected to present at their national meeting.

And thanks to all of you who are members and 212 activists. You are the heart and soul of MATC and our union!

This college is facing some very serious challenges.

The state legislature has reduced our funding by more than 50% since 1990, from 30% of our budget to less than 13% today.

This has caused the college to rely on residential property taxes, which have grown from 48% of our funding in 2000 to over 60% today!

Even our students, many of whom are low and moderate income, contribute more than the state, as tuition has increased dramatically over the past decade to make up for lost state funding.

So what does the Republican controlled Assembly propose?

To slash our funding by another $12 million dollars!!! This is an unconscionable attack on the working class students, dislocated workers, immigrants and others who attend MATC.

As if on cue, almost as if it was orchestrated, a handful of north suburban politicians have seized on the increase in MATC’s property taxes to propose seceding from the district!

The Journal Sentinel has become their official mouthpiece, running eight news stories, two misinformed editorials and numerous columns about what is essentially a non-story! The truth is that village board members making headlines criticizing MATC don’t even have the authority to leave the district! That authority resides with their school districts which have remained silent on the issue.

But the attacks on MATC continue.

And make no mistake about it; these attacks are aimed at you.

The heart of the tech college system is its faculty and academic staff, whom the Republicans have charged as overpaid. When you hear them say that MATC needs to control costs, be aware that they are talking about cutting your program, your pay and your benefits!
This is why Local 212 is active in politics. Our members have been meeting with legislators and sending them emails and letters on the importance of MATC to our students and Wisconsin’s economy. Thanks to all of you who have worked on this.

MATC is a public institution, and it depends on public support and, yes, tax money to survive. Our ability to protect the college and to succeed at the bargaining table depends in large part on the political support we have in Madison and Washington.

And because of your support for our COPE program we have been successful in helping friends of MATC and Local 212 get elected: friends like our own member, Barbara Toles, who has led the fight in the state legislature against cuts in our funding. Or friends like Gwen Moore, who as Congresswomen has successfully worked to restore federal Pell and Perkins funding for our students that President Bush tried to cut!

Let me give you one more example, of how important your COPE committee is.

Wauwatosa used to be represented by a state senator who supported slashing MATC’s funding! We backed his opponent, Jim Sullivan, big time in the last election, with both money and volunteers. Sullivan won and his victory helped create a pro MATC majority in the Wisconsin Senate.

So when you are asked to contribute to COPE today and in your divisional meetings tomorrow, please sign up. The contribution is voluntary and will be deducted from your check once a month. You won’t miss $10 or $20 dollars a month. If you already give, please consider increasing your contribution – it is priceless insurance for MATC and your jobs!

MATC faces other challenges as well. Many of you have already been forced to implement ill advised state-wide curriculums. Your union has fought and will continue to fight against this one-size-fits-all approach to education. We are firm in our conviction that educators should control the curriculum, not state bureaucrats! We hope that the administration will join us and fight as hard as Local 212 has against this ridiculous mandate.

MATC has been serving this community since 1913 when it was established to help eliminate child labor. MATC will prevail against those who do not value our students and our work - who do not believe that working class people deserve a college that provides them with the skills they need to secure family supporting employment. But we can only succeed if the entire MATC community works together.

Unfortunately, MATC’s administration has spent the last two years playing political games during negotiations. They suggested expedited bargaining and then proposed 130 take-a-ways! They bargained in the press. And they provided the public with a distorted picture of our salary and benefits, now coming back to haunt them from Cedarburg and Germantown!

This has forced all of us to waste two years and most of our energy defending the college and its work. Rather than playing political games and demonizing the faculty and staff, the administration should settle our contracts so that all of us can focus on the real work of this college: training the area’s skilled labor force and expediting the dreams of our students for a middle class life!

I wish I could report today that we have a contract settlement, but I can’t. We are closer to a settlement than we were in May, there are only a few issues remaining that divide us, but a full year after Dr. Cole received an 8.5% increase in compensation, our bargaining teams, Frank, Charlie and I are still committed to a fair and just contract.

We will not sell out the benefits of future members just as those who preceded us did not sell any of us! We are all in this together, and with your support we will achieve a settlement of our contracts sooner rather than later.

Dr. Cole in his remarks said that he hoped the contracts would be settled soon. With all due respect we do not need his hope or even his prayers! Dr. Cole has the power to settle these contracts. Dr. Cole-Just do it!

Dr Cole concluded his comments with a quote that we should all work every day to make the world a little bit better. Dr. Cole you can make the MATC world a little better – settle the contracts!

Skilled labor shortages are growing in Wisconsin. Bucyrus Erie and Joy Global need welders! There are shortages of nurses, tool and die makers and machinists. Without skilled employees, businesses can’t compete and Wisconsin won’t prosper.

MATC is the solution to these shortages. The education and training we provide links those who want to work and the employers who need them. We are the key to the entire region’s prosperity.

Let me be clear. MATC is being attacked by narrow special interests that do not care about our students or the regional economy. The administration needs to recognize that the faculty, counselors and professional educators who work with our students in the classes, labs and clinicals are not their enemy! We are this college’s most valuable asset. The administration needs to settle the contracts and work with us to protect Milwaukee’s most valuable economic development asset -- MATC!

I spent two weeks in the San Juan Mountains and in Canyon de Chilley this summer. I visited a couple of tech colleges while there. I can tell you that none of them matched MATC. They didn’t match up in size, in technology, in faculty credentials or in offerings.

We are Milwaukee’s most important college. Our students need us. Businesses rely on us. If UWM or Marquette vanished, those students would be able to pursue their educations elsewhere. If MATC disappeared, 95% of our students would lose their last and best hope for a better life for themselves and their families.

So as you start another semester changing lives and training the next generation of welders, firemen, auto technicians, machinists, nurses, aircraft mechanics, web site designer and chefs, keep in mind how crucial your work is for this community.

And remember that Local 212 is not THE union. It is YOUR union. It is YOU. Our ability to serve our students, promote the college, get resources for the college from politicians, and fight off the enemies who would strangle the college is totally a function of your participation.

Our students are waiting. Let’s get to work!

Michael Rosen, President

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