October 17, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                                                               Contact: (608) 266-0484

Senator Cowles Statement Following

Joint Committee on Employment Relations Vote

MADISON – Senator Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) released the following statement after the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER) voted on a compensation package for state employees included in the 2023-2024 State Budget on Tuesday morning:

“Nearly 30,000 people work for the UW System, in a variety of roles that support students. While an extremely limited few of these employees direct the System’s DEI initiatives, all of them are being punished by today’s JCOER vote to withhold salary increases from UW employees.

Without action to resolve the pending UW System compensation plan, we may be accelerating the brain drain and creating new workforce retention issues at UW-Green Bay and other Wisconsin campuses in the near future.

I applaud Senator Marklein for raising these points in the Committee’s meeting today, and hope to see action on these raises from JCOER taken soon.”

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