MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A union attempting to organize University of Wisconsin System employees is questioning the administration's plan to hire an outside consultant to advise top executives on collective bargaining strategy.

AFT-Wisconsin is concerned the firm will help the system defeat attempts to organize and questions why state human resources officials can't provide the training requested, said spokeswoman Jill Bakken.

But UW System President Kevin Reilly assured lawmakers this month anyone hired will be neutral on the question of collective bargaining and will provide necessary expertise.

Democratic lawmakers who lead the Legislature's higher education committees, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout of Alma and Rep. Kim Hixson of Whitewater, said they were monitoring the situation closely.

"The concern is a lot of consultants have made a lot of money helping organizations keep unions out," Vinehout said. "Right now, I would say we have to wait and see what happens."

Hixson, a UW-Whitewater faculty member, said he shared his concerns with Reilly in a recent meeting.

"I told him as a faculty member I would be concerned if my dean was a part of this training," he said. "There would be a lot of problems if my dean was talking to me about collective bargaining, even if it was just information. A dean has power over tenure and promotion."

The UW System has asked for proposals from consultants to train Reilly and his cabinet on their roles during union organizing drives, including "effective strategies" for communicating with faculty and staff. Responses are due Monday.

The request comes after the state budget signed by Gov. Jim Doyle in June gave more than 17,000 UW System faculty and staff the right to form unions for the first time to negotiate wages, benefits and working conditions. AFT-Wisconsin has said it expects faculty and staff on some campuses to begin organizing drives as early as this academic year.

Vinehout said she expected UW-Eau Claire employees to organize as a way to bring more state funding to the campus. Hixson said he expected his UW-Whitewater colleagues to consider doing so to help increase their lagging pay.

The UW System had historically opposed giving collective bargaining rights to faculty and staff, but switched its official stance to neutral on the question in recent years. In the request for bids, the system said it expects any consultant's work history to demonstrate "a neutral stance on collective bargaining" before it would be hired.

Spokesman David Giroux said system executives have little experience in the detailed federal and state laws governing union drives, and want to be sure they comply.

"Being neutral doesn't mean not ever saying anything. We'll want to be part of the dialogue," he said. "Right now we don't even know as an organization where those boundaries are clearly and want to make sure we know where that is from the start. This is a basic training program for our leadership. Nothing more."

Bakken questioned why the system must hire a consultant when state officials who routinely work with labor unions could do so. Giroux said he believed no one in the state had the expertise in higher education the system was seeking.

"Truly neutral" trainers suggested by the union, including nonprofit arbitration groups, are free to bid on the work, Giroux said, which is expected to cost the system up to $25,000. Because the budget did not set aside money for this purpose, Giroux said the system was reallocating money from elsewhere to pay for it.

The move comes as the administration and AFT-Wisconsin are clashing over the union's attempts to move thousands of nonunion academic employees into existing collective bargaining units without a vote. The union contends the jobs have been improperly classified and plans to ask the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to add them to unions.

The workers in question include information technology employees, student service workers and communications specialists. The administration has vowed to oppose that attempt, saying the employees should have the choice, but not be forced, to join a union.

In July, the system's top human resources official, Al Crist, warned the union to stop interrupting employees during work to talk about their jobs after incidents involving organizers at UW-Madison. Giroux said he was not aware of any additional problems.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)