The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Labor mulls union vote

In a press release sent out by Local 317, the union trying to organize the employees, anonymous workers from Marquette claim to have had difficulty dealing with university management.

“We bring up a problem and management says, ‘We’ll look into it and get back to you,’ but they never do,” the press release quotes one worker as saying.

The release also claims that pay is missing from employee checks and that pay raises are far lower than the average rate of inflation in Milwaukee.

Director of University Communication Ben Tracy said the administration has held seven meetings in the last two weeks to answer questions about the process. He said the administration was willing to abide by the decision of its employees, but that the administration doesn’t think a union is necessary.

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“We don’t feel that an outside party will necessarily improve anything,” Tracy said. “These issues are generally better dealt with when there are only two parties involved.”

Local 317 Business Manager Mark Maierle said a union didn’t necessarily mean a third party.

“First of all, it’s not a third party,” Maierle said. “The union would actually be the workers.

“The fact of the matter is, people don’t feel they’ve been successful negotiating with the management on an individual basis.”

The union would act as a collective bargaining agent, according to Maierle.

Professor of management Thomas Bausch said the list of grievances was “typical” of complaints that could lead to unionization.

Maierle said the unionization attempt resulted from the issues.

“These are serious issues that (the workers) haven’t had addressed,” Maierle said. “We are confident that we will win the election.”

Michael Duffey, professor of theology, said that according to Catholic church doctrine, should the workers decide to organize, they would be well within their rights.

“The church has for a long time supported the unionization of workers,” Duffey said. “If the facilities service people wanted to form a union, they’d be well within their social and religious rights to do so.”

Maierle declined to name the workers quoted in the press release, saying that the workers “wouldn’t want their names mentioned in association with employment issues.” He said the reluctance to be identified didn’t necessarily spring from any fear of action taken on the part of the employer.

This is the second attempt by Facilities Services to unionize. According to Tracy, the first attempt, in 2001, failed by “a healthy margin.”

Local 317 is a chapter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrialized Organizations. It is affiliated with the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the International Union of Operating Engineers.