United Faculty and Academic Staff, AFT Local # 223

Statement from the UW-Madison University Labor Council on Smart Restart

August 5, 2020: We are the University Labor Council, a coalition of unions representing workers throughout UW–Madison. We are food service workers, trades workers, academic staff, faculty, custodians, non-academic staff, and graduate-student workers. The University works because we do: we disinfect dorm rooms, feed and educate our community’s young adults, ensure that the university is fiscally responsible, and build safe and efficient infrastructure. Every working day, we give our skills and our time in service to the Wisconsin Idea.

Pronunciamiento del Consejo Laboral Universitario de UW-Madison sobre el “reinicio inteligente” (“Smart Restart”)

Somos el Consejo Laboral Universitario de UW-Madison, una coalición de sindicatos que representa a los trabajadores de toda la universidad. Somos trabajadores de servicio de comida, artesanos, personal académico y administrativo, catedráticos, trabajadores de limpieza y trabajadores de posgrado.

TAA-UFAS Worker Safety Survey Summary

What does the survey tell us?

Simply put, UW-Madison workers are uncomfortable with the administration’s plan to bring students back to campus:

86.4% of all respondents across campus reported feeling either extremely uncomfortable or uncomfortable.

COPE and the 2020 August Primary

With a fast-approaching primary on August 11, the UFAS Committee on Political Education (COPE) has reached out to candidates running for State Senate and Assembly in the Madison area to share our Future of our University: Solidarity not Austerity statement. We asked candidates to review the statement and indicate whether they support it. Candidates were also encouraged—optionally—to share the statement on their social media accounts.

Worker Health and Safety Survey

Dane County continues to see record high numbers of new COVID cases, news from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement threatens our international students and co-workers, all while administration moves forward with plans for students to be back on campus this fall. We know that many in the campus community—faculty and academic staff, grad and student workers, administrative and blue collar employees—are deeply concerned about worker health and safety in light of these issues with a variety of questions and suggestions.

UFAS Steering Committee Affirms the Black Lives Matter Protests

The Steering Committee of United Faculty and Academic Staff (AFT #223), in solidarity with activists and other labor unions across the country, stands in outrage and grief at the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade. They are the most recent in a long string of such murders of Black people by the police. This includes the murder of 19-year old Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. on the near Eastside of Madison on March 6, 2015. His killer, Matthew Kenny, is still an officer with the Madison Police Department.