Michael Childers

Michael Childers headshot

Michael Childers, PhD
Professor

Pronouns: he/him/his

Contact

michael.childers@wisc.edu
ph: 608-262-9839

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Curriculum vitae 

 

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

Awards and achievements

A red circle with a checkmark in the middle.Faculty in Residence for UW in Florence program Spring 2026

A red circle with a checkmark in the middle.Morgridge Center for Public Service Fellow

A red circle with a checkmark in the middle.UW-Madison Teaching Academy Fellow

A red circle with a checkmark in the middle. UW System Wisconsin Teaching Fellow

A red circle with a checkmark in the middle.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

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