About 2400 unionized state employees are closer to receiving long-awaited pay raises. Both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature have passed new one-year contracts for members of five smaller unions. If Governor Scott Walker signs them, the employees would get one percent pay hikes retroactive to June 30th.
The bargaining units include professional education-and-legal employees, patient care workers, building craft trade employees, and statistical and research personnel. Many larger unions decided not to seek negotiations under Act 10, which limits bargaining to pay raises at-or-below inflation. Non-union state workers were given one-percent pay hikes in July, and some unions had complained that the state was not acting quickly enough on the union packages.