One major state workers union is saying "no thanks" to Gov. Jim Doyle’s call for them to give up a promised raise to help fill a gaping state budget hole.
The workers won’t give up the 2 percent raise scheduled for June as long as the state continues to outsource additional work to contractors, said Bryan Kennedy, president of AFT-Wisconsin. The union has roughly 10,000 white-collar state workers including computer staff, public defenders and university teaching assistants.
"As long as the state continues to contract out, we will not discuss giving back the pay increase," said Kennedy, arguing that state workers are cheaper for taxpayers than contractors. "It’s a non starter."
Earlier this month, Doyle said he would rescind a pay raise for 9,500 non-union state workers to help fill a $1.6 billion hole in the state budget opened by falling tax collections and the struggling economy.
If the state’s 38,600 union workers don’t agree to give back their pay raises as well, Doyle has said that he could seek the savings by laying off up to 400 of them. Those layoffs would come on top of up to 700 layoffs and 16 days of unpaid leave for state workers also being sought by Doyle to solve the budget gap.
Department of Administration spokeswoman Linda Barth on Wednesday repeated the possibility of added layoffs if unions don’t go along with the pay cuts. She said state agencies are also looking at cutting spending on contracting.
As recently as April and early May, state agencies without enough staffing have taken steps toward possible contracting for computer work in spite of cost figures that show state workers would could do the projects for hundreds of thousands of dollars less, according to documents provided by AFT-Wisconsin.
If all union workers give back the 2 percent raise, that would save some $30 million in state and federal money spent on salaries. Marty Beil, executive director of the 20,000-member Wisconsin State Employees Union, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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