The past week has been a fantastic display of the democratic process: It is great to see people caring and exercising their rights. However, this is hardly the first time something like this has happened in Madison.
Back in the early '70s, teaching assistants from UW-Madison went on strike. They did it for very similar reasons that the protests are happening today. They were not given representation within the infrastructure of the university and had no say in financial matters. In other words, they had zero collective bargaining rights.
One big issue was taxes. A portion of each TA's paycheck was withheld as part of tuition and yet they were still forced to pay taxes on their full paycheck, meaning they were essentially paying taxes on money they never received in the first place. And because they didn't have the collective bargaining rights of today, TAs had no way of fixing this problem.
Eventually they organized and created the Teaching Assistants Association (TAA), which was essentially a union for the protection of TAs. The creation of the TAA here at UW-Madison was the first teaching assistant union in the entire world. The strikes lasted for about a month with the university and the TAA eventually coming to an agreement of terms.
Overall, the newly formed TAA gained recognition and exclusive representation from the university, bargaining rights, more job security and a clearer grievance process. The bargaining continued and grew for several years, encompassing healthcare, salary increases and much more. These basic and fundamental rights that our TAs enjoy today are once again being called into question.
Like the '70s, the TAA has repeatedly organized walkouts to defend their collective bargaining rights that Gov. Scott Walker is trying to eradicate. So what's different about these protests? Collective bargaining rights for TAs are not all that is being threatened. Bargaining rights for public unions across the state are on the verge of being eliminated, too.
As of now, Walker has denied any attempts at compromise.
Looking back on past TAA strikes, it would seem like some sort of negoiations are necessary. If history teaches us anything it's not to make the same mistakes twice. Others have stood in the way of the TAA, stripping their bargaining rights, not recognizing them as a legitimate union and refusing to compromise. These tactics are risky. Especially now, with the thousands of union members at their side, I find it hard to believe Walker can come out of this unscathed.
Many classes on campus have TAs, whom professors rely on quite heavily. Can you imagine if they all stopped coming for a month? Public schools around Madison have already been shut down leaving superintendents pleading with Walker to compromise. The TAA has gone on strike for very long periods of time in the past, and it seems to me like they are in this one for the long haul. By looking back at past strikes we can see that compromise is inevitable. Someone's going to have to budge in the days to come, and I hope they compromise for the better.
Nick Fritz is a sophomore majoring in marketing. We welcome all feedback. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
