AFT Local 212 welcomes new bargaining unit.
AFT Local 212 at MATC welcomes Milwaukee PBS Production Engineers and Specialists
Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) Certifies American Federation of Teachers, Local 212 as the sole bargaining agent for Milwaukee PBS technical employees.
Milwaukee, WI, 2/11/2021
For immediate release
Following a January vote by Milwaukee Public Broadcasting Service (MPBS) engineers and production specialists, the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission certified the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Local 212 as the exclusive bargaining agent for the MPBS professionals who are employed by the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC).
AFT Local 212 currently represents three separate bargaining units at the college: full-time faculty, part-time faculty, and paraprofessionals. The production specialists at MPBS will be the fourth. During the January elections, twenty-one employees at MPBS were eligible to vote. Of the eighteen who cast their ballots, 16 voted to give Local 212 the authority to bargain on their behalf.
First organized as a union of full-time teachers in 1967, Local 212 has a history of inclusion. Shortly after organizing full-time faculty, Local 212 organized the college’s paraprofessionals and in 1993, they organized part-time faculty and continue to be one of the few higher education unions to include both full and part-time instructors.
Local 212 is looking forward to representing the MPBS engineers and production specialists who provide MATC students hands-on training while producing award-winning shows like 10Thirtysix, Black Nouveau, and Adelante. “MPBS employees are skilled and talented professionals who are committed to MATC students and to high-quality programming that serves the greater community,” says Dr. Lisa Conley, President of AFT Local 212. “We are thrilled to have an opportunity to represent them.”
The new relationship means that engineers and production staff at MPBS will now have representation on the major governing committees at MATC. “This is going to give us a voice at MATC, which we’ve been sorely lacking,” says Senior Engineer, Jeff Moorbeck. They are also looking forward to finding, “some other ways we can have an impact on station policy.”
American Federation of Teachers, Local 212 is the largest post-secondary teacher’s union in the state and seeks to foster an equitable society by enriching, empowering and transforming the lives of MATC’s students and educational professionals and to meet the needs of the communities that we serve.
Contact
Steve Johnson
Director of Labor Relations
(414) 571-4650
sjohnson@local 212.org
