Michael Childers, PhD
Professor
Pronouns: he/him/his
Contact
michael.childers@wisc.edu
ph: 608-262-9839
Education
BS in Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
MS and PhD in Workforce Education & Development, SIU Carbondale
Bio
Michael joined the School for Workers in 2005 after completing his graduate degrees and a postdoctoral fellowship in Workforce Development. He brings diverse management and engineering experience from a wide variety of industries, including basic steel, machining, metal fabrication, and plastics manufacturing. In addition to teaching Labor Relations at the Wisconsin School of Business, he conducts courses for stewards, bargaining teams, financial officers, and leaders. Michael’s teaching interests also include industrial engineering topics such as time study, production standards, lean production, job evaluation, and incentive & gainsharing pay systems.
Michael has been honored as a University of Wisconsin System Teaching Fellow and a UW-Madison Teaching Academy Fellow for demonstrating excellence in teaching and a commitment to improving the quality of teaching and learning across campus. He is also a Morgridge Center Fellow and serves on the executive committees of both the Teaching Academy and as Chapter President of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious interdisciplinary honor society.
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Teaching
Teaching areas
- Labor-Management Relations
- Collective bargaining
- Production standards
- Time study
- Financial officer training
What students are saying
“Michael is an amazing professor! He has relevant materials, know-how, and great experience.”
“I just wanted to take some time to thank you for this semester! It was clear you care about your students and I knew this from the first day… I spoke to many students in the class and they all appreciated it more than you know. We don’t get professors like you often!”
“Michael did a terrific job drawing on real world experiences and working with students to share solutions with each other.”
“Michael is easy to listen to and really took the time to answer any questions.”
Research and scholarship
Research interests
Labor Relations, Labor Unions, Production Standards, Time Study, Ergonomics
Selected publications
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Childers, M. Book Review: On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane by Guendelsberger, Emily. Labor Studies Journal, 2025.
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Childers, M. Book Review: Invisible People: Stories of Lives at the Margins. Vol. 46, no. 2, Labor Studies Journal, 2021, pp. 214-5.
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Childers, M., A. Ibarra, A. Kulwiec, and D. Nack. The Recent Evolution of Wisconsin Public Worker Unionism since Act 10. Labor Studies Journal, 2020.
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Read moreTaylor, D., M. Childers, J. Manzo, F. Manzo IV, and R. Bruno. The State of the Unions 2018: A Profile of Unionization in Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, and in America. Midwest Economic Policy Institute, 2018.
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Manzo, J., M. Childers, D. Taylor, F. Manzo IV, and R. Bruno. The State of the Unions 2017: A Profile of Unionization in Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, and in America. Midwest Economic Policy Institute, 2017.
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Manzo, J., M. Childers, D. Taylor, F. Manzo, and R. Bruno. The State of the Unions 2016: A Profile of Unionization in Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, and in America. Midwest Economic Policy Institute, 2016.
Awards and achievements
Faculty in Residence for UW in Florence program Spring 2026
Morgridge Center for Public Service Fellow
UW-Madison Teaching Academy Fellow
UW System Wisconsin Teaching Fellow
American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Chapter Executive Board
Media
Areas of expertise
- US Labor – Management relations
- The processes of union organizing, collective bargaining, strikes, and lockouts
- Role of unions, how they operate, and their impact on society
- Job evaluation, work standards, and employee monitoring systems, and how these are bargained in union settings
- Union governance and engagement on societal topics such as green jobs, Medicare for All, and Black Lives Matter.
Recent news and media