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Wisconsin Labor History High School Essay Contest

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The Wisconsin Labor History Society is currently accepting essays for its 2014-15 Labor History Essay Contest, open to all Wisconsin high school students in grades 9-12.  Up to eight prizes between $100 and $500 will be awarded to outstanding essays of up to 750 words on the topic "Unions have been important to my family and my community because..."  Essays must be postmarked by February 13 for consideration.  Please distribute this contest flyer or share the contest website with any interested high school students and with your fellow union members to spread the word!

This past Spring, UFAS members visited over a dozen departments in the College of Arts and Sciences to solicit feedback and concerns regarding how pay and working conditions at UW-Eau Claire can best be improved. Although volunteers were unable to meet with members of every department, and because we were unable to include the other colleges and administrative units in our canvassing, the information we received is clearly not representative of the campus as a whole. However, the results were somewhat illuminating.

The questionnaires asked respondents to rate ten issues on a scale from 1 (least

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In April, members of the United Faculty and Academic Staff of UW-Eau Claire approved a resolution at the spring General Membership Meeting asking the administration to improve its budget transparency and to address long-standing inequities in salary for faculty and academic staff.

The resolution was approved unanimously on April 18, 2014 and sent to the University Senate, where it was received as an announcement. One month later, in his end-of-the-year message to faculty and staff (sent May 27), Chancellor Schmidt listed "Sustainable and transparent budgeting" as one of the four high-priority

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Volunteers from AFT-Maryland affiliate agencies conducted a concentrated effort to get out the vote for Maryland’s primary elections Tuesday, June 24. Affiliate agency members walked through neighborhoods, distributed literature on pertinent legislative issues, and were present at polling places, encouraging Maryland residents to exercise their right to vote.

The AFT-Maryland “get-out-the-vote” activities were a coordinated effort conducted in cooperation with the Maryland/District of Columbia AFL-CIO.

AFT-Maryland’s affiliate agency members include AFT Healthcare-Maryland, the Baltimore

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Welcome to the Indiana Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO

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Dear IFT Members:
 
I saw where Gov. Mitch Daniels and his cronies are boasting about their $2.2 billion budget surplus.  You and I know where it came from.  The vast majority of their windfall came from the pockets of working men and women, public education, and social services.
 
Once again these actions beg the question: What are you willing to do about it?  Are you going to throw up your hands and simply accept what they have done to public education or are you willing to stand up and fight for what you believe in and have dedicated your life to?  Together, in a unified act of solidarity, we can reverse the harm that has been done in the Statehouse.
 
Will it be easy?  No!  But it will be better than accepting and working under the devastating blows that were leveled on us by the last two legislative sessions.  We must make sure that we do the following:
1.    be registered to vote,
2.    make sure all family members are registered,
3.    study the positions or voting records of those seeking office,
4.    vote,
5.    work hard for candidates that will support public education, and
6.    work hard to defeat incumbents that voted to harm us.
 
We would all be shocked if we knew how many of our union brothers and sisters in public education and other unions:
1.    are not registered to vote,
2.    were registered, but did not vote, or
3.    voted, but voted for those that harmed us.
 
I implore you to get involved and work hard to elect those candidates that will reverse the harm that has been inflected on you and your families.  Call your local leadership and ask what you can do.  Your future and the future of public education are at stake.
 
In Solidarity,
Rick
President, IFT
 
P.S.  What are you going to do with your $100 tax credit? I’m going to give mine to John Gregg for Governor (http://www.greggforgovernor.com/) and Glenda Ritz for Supt. of Public Instruction (http://www.ritz4ed.com/).