Teaching and project assistants at UW-Madison will stage a work-in today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the state Capitol to call attention to their nearly two-year wait for contract approval from the state legislature.
Every two years, the Teaching Assistants Association negotiates a new contract with the university that must be approved by the state legislature. The TAA is still awaiting approval of their contract negotiated in the spring of 2001.
\We're getting to the point where we're supposed to start negotiating again. This spring it will have been two years,"" said Dawn Biehler, director of external and internal press for the TAA.
The contract in question asks the Legislature for better working conditions and a raise that, according to Biehler, keeps up with inflation. They requested a 1 percent raise for the first year and a 5 percent raise for the second year. Since the contract has not been ratified, the state owes the TAs roughly $450 each.
""For a TA making about $10,000 a year, $450 is a large chunk of money,"" Biehler said.
Thanks to pressure put on the Joint Committee on Employee Relations (JoCER) by the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers, the committee will meet Thursday to decide whether to ratify the contract.
""We're still debating several strategies to deal with the situation,"" said Geoff Ihle, the chief negotiator for the TAA. ""But we're concerned about how [the JoCER's decision] will affect the students.""
Many members of the TAA have begun wearing buttons and T-shirts stating a need for support for them as well as for the many unions that have been affected by the budget cuts.
""Wednesday we're going to work in a different place. We're going to do it under the [Capitol] dome to show them how important our work is,"" Biehler said.
Many also said they plan to attend the meeting Thursday.
""We're concerned because basically our working conditions are the students' learning conditions,"" said Jay Burlingham, vice president of bargaining for the TAA.
