Six hundred state employees represented by seven locals of the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers/AFT (WFT) rallied for contract justice at the state capitol in Madison Feb. 17.

 The rally was part of the WFT's campaign to pressure the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER, referred to as "joker") to release the contracts to the Legislature for a floor vote. "A deal is a deal" was their message.

Days before the rally, JCOER rejected the contracts that cover 2001-2003, compounding employee frustration, which was already peaking because of the Department of Employment Relations' year-long delay in forwarding the negotiated agreements to the Legislature.

"We find ourselves in a very difficult situation where we have contracts that were bargained with the state under the previous [gubernatorial] administration," says Bob Beglinger, WFT president. "The state asked for contracts that reduced their costs--and employees accepted that. The JCOER now refuses to honor those contracts even though Gov. Jim Doyle has funded the contracts in his budget."

The contracts at issue cover 14 of the 17 state employee bargaining units and would provide an average 5.5 percent raise for the term of the agreements.

Pat Devitt, a state attorney and president of the Wisconsin Public Defenders Association/WFT, says the raises are less than the raises lawmakers awarded themselves. Specifically, Devitt says legislators received a 5 percent raise in 2001 and a 3 percent raise in 2002--for their part-time elected positions. "So a freshman legislator earns almost $10,000 more than a new public defender," Devitt says.

"I've never seen anything like this," says Marie Stewart, a waste management specialist at the Department of Natural Resources and president of the WFT's science professionals local. "We know it is political. The money is in the compensation reserve waiting for us."

"It has a lot to do with politics and posturing," says Devitt, "by people who see the current governor as a potential opponent down the road."

At press time, two JCOER members were reconsidering their positions against the contracts. "We would like to see the contract issue settled," says Tom Stoebig, a regulatory specialist at the department of agriculture and a member of the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council/WFT. "Unless there is something statutorily improper about the [bargaining and ratification] procedure, then I think it is the duty of the JCOER to move [the contracts] forward. To do otherwise smacks of politics."