WI Unions

This past spring there was an uprising by unions, in particular the teachers union, in Wisconsin. The people had elected a Republican governor and legislature and these new representatives wanted to reduce the cost of government by gaining more control over government unions including State and Municipal employees and teachers. The debate centered around employees paying more toward their health and retirement benefits and more importantly the state wanted to limit collective bargaining.
After a few weeks of turmoil the state won the day and now we are beginning to see some of the results. The Kaukauna School district near Appleton was able to turn a $400,000 deficit into a $1,500,000 surplus by asking the teachers to pay more for their health insurance and to contribute more to their retirement plan. This sort of thing will be happening to districts around the state. This will allow the district to avoid teacher layoffs and possible hire new teachers and this will reduce class size.
There is another potential savings coming soon. In Wisconsin the teachers union own a health insurance company called WEA Trust and as a part of bargaining the schools were forced to purchase their health plans from this company. Under the new rules, the districts will send out bids to find the best deal. As you might expect since this company was the only game in town their cost escalated and the profits were used to promote the union. This Trust has already announced it will match any offer. They apparently do not know how bids work since a bidder is not given the option to match, they just submit their best offer and hope.
An article appeared in the Washington Times written by Byron York and here is an excerpt.

In the past, Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health insurance coverage from something called WEA Trust -- a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. "It was in the collective bargaining agreement that we could only negotiate with them," says Arnoldussen. "Well, you know what happens when you can only negotiate with one vendor." This year, WEA Trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums.
Now, the collective bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,'" says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust, but saving substantial amounts of money.

In addition there will be changes in the work rules that were not previously allowed by the union, including asking teachers to work six periods per day instead of five and increasing the work week from 37 hours to 40 hours. This will reduce class size from 26 to 23.