The UW-Madison uses the limited term employee (LTE) system to deny union rights and benefits to its workers. LTEs work in departments all over campus. LTEs do the same work as permanent workers, but with lower pay, and no benefits or job security or union representation. Hundreds of LTEs on campus have been working in the same "temporary" job for 5, 10, even 20 or more years, with no chance for advancement. More and more permanent jobs on campus are not being filled with permanent workers, but instead with "temporary" LTEs. Is this the way a prominent university should be run? Help stop temp slavery at UW. _______________________________ Are you an LTE? The Student Labor Action Coalition is in the process of helping organize LTEs (limited term employees) on the UW-Madison campus. Tell us your stories! We are collecting testimony from LTEs to augment the statistics with real people. We would like to know: How did you end up an LTE? What were you told or promised, and what really happened? How are you treated? What do you do? and more... You can use your name and workplace, or you can be totally anonymous, depending upon what is comfortable for you. Contact us: E-mail: slac@studentorg.wisc.edu or come to a SLAC meeting. The Student and Labor Action Coalition meets Thursdays at 7PM in the Memorial Union (see the "Today in the Union" board for room number) at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. Join us! ________________________________ Student Labor Action Coalition Madison, WI http://slac.rso.wisc.edu/ ________________________________ LTEs UNITE! Stop long term LTE abuse! Some background about LTEs on the UW-Madison campus LTEs are supposedly hired to fill temporary positions of no more than 1,043 hours, or six months of full-time work, per year. In reality, as many as 300 or more LTEs on the UW-Madison campus have been doing the same job, year after year, for as many as 10 or 20 years, as "temporary" workers. There are various ways to get around the limit on hours, such as re-hiring LTEs with a different title, to do the same job in the same place, over and over. LTEs do the same jobs as state workers, but get paid lower than the minimum rate for the comparable state position they are working in. LTEs do not receive the benefits regular state workers get, such as sick pay, vacation, retirement or health insurance. LTEs have no job security and are prohibited by state law from collective bargaining. Once hired as an LTE, it is very hard to become a permanent worker. Even if the employers want to hire a particular individual who has been working as an LTE, the position must first be opened for any state worker in the same title to transfer into if they wish, then posted on the web and advertised in the newspaper, and a test and interviews must be conducted, and in the end, the former LTE could very well lose their job to a new person, and the employers could lose an experienced worker. The University and Legislature are taking some small steps to improve the situation, but much more needs to be done. A budget provision affecting fifty University of Wisconsin-Madison LTE workers passed the legislature in July 2001 with bipartisan support. The provision, supported by top UW administrators as well as union members, created a Board with the authority to convert up to fifty long term UW Limited Term Employee positions to full time classified civil service positions. Why would anyone be an LTE? Some people want a temporary job for the summer, or before they go back to school or move somewhere else. But many LTEs just needed a job. If you need a job and are broke and have bills to pay, and have been searching fruitlessly for work, and you are finally offered at least an LTE position, would you take it? ____________________________________ Limited Term Employees (LTE) facts at UW-Madison: (from the April 2001 report to SLAC from the chancellor's office) - There was a total of 5,823 LTE appointments in 2001, of which 3,788 (65%) were for less than 600 hours. (Please note that one person may have had more than one appointment during the calendar year.) - The largest numbers are for custodians (412) and program assistants (800). Custodian, program assistant and food service related positions account for over 40 percent of the LTE appointments of less than 600 hours. - There were 1,287 LTEs who were payrolled in October 2000 who were also part of the 5,823 LTEs payrolled in 2001. - 527 of the 1,287 LTEs who were payrolled in October 2000 were LTEs in both years 1999 and 2000. ____________________________________