NEWS
TAA pickets UW buildings, garners negative response from some legislators
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Matthew Dolbey:
Related Stories:
- Yale employees end strike (March 10, 2003)
- TAs and PAs walk out, ready to face circumstances (April 27, 2004)
- TAA and OSER set for more negotiations (April 26, 2004)
- Not crossing the line (April 29, 2004)
- The TAA holds informational picket at Bascom Hall (March 25, 2004)
by Matthew Dolbey
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Hundreds of teaching assistants and project assistants picketed in front of University of Wisconsin academic buildings Tuesday and will continue to do so today, much to the frustration of state officials.
The Teaching Assistants’ Association picketed many buildings on the UW central campus, including Social Sciences, Humanities, Vilas Hall and Bascom Hall. Bascom Hall houses administration as well as classes.
More than 1,200 TAs and PAs walked off the job today, verbally expressing disapproval of faculty, staff and students who crossed picket lines to attend classes. Many visible signs around the picket lines displayed the TAA’s demand for higher wages and no-premium health care.
Officials from the Office of State Employee Relations did not say the administration would act punitively on the illegal strike at this time but said OSER looks forward to continuing bargaining.
After a contract is reached by OSER and the TAA, it will move to the Joint Committee on Employee Relations and then the Wisconsin Legislature.
But the two-day walkout, to be followed by a grade strike, garnered negative responses from the offices of both majority leaders in the Republican-held Assembly and Senate.
“It certainly sends a message,” said Steve Baas, press secretary for Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo. The strike sent a strong message of a “total disregard for state law” and “disregard of responsibility for their job” and was counterproductive, Baas said.
“This isn’t Samuel Gompers and the sweatshop we’re talking about,” he said.
Gard’s constituents and many other Wisconsin taxpayers would not support the illegal job action by the TAA, Baas said.
“People who are being paid for by taxpayer money should at least acknowledge the realities that taxpayers have to deal with,” Baas said. “I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of sympathy from taxpayers. … A mill worker up in Peshtigo … fearing a layoff (would not support this).”
Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, R-West Bend, a member of the Joint Committee of Employment Relations, said in an e-mailed response that she is deeply disappointed with the decision of the TAA.
Despite the TAA’s determination to hold out for more compensation or $0 monthly health-care premiums, its situation is no different from that of other state bargaining units, Panzer said.
“Every contract approved in this session has required state employees to contribute at least a nominal share of health-care costs,” she said. “People make better health-care consumers when they have a financial stake in the system. Teaching assistants are no different. The proper place for the TAs to be is in the classroom. By walking off the job and threatening to withhold grades for the end of the semester, they unjustly punish the students they pledge to help.”
Even traditional supporters of the TAA have expressed reservations on the job action.
Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, voted for the TAA’s right to organize decades ago and said he sympathizes with unions that try to negotiate contracts for what they believe they need. The TAA must understand that the balance of power tips toward the conservatives this term, he said.
“You’ve got to realize that the state Legislature is currently controlled by conservative Republicans,” Risser said. “I would anticipate that even if they put [no-cost health care] in the contract … I doubt the Legislature would approve it.”
The job action might not have been the right move, since the strike is illegal under Wisconsin law and is prohibited by the contract and contract extension negotiated with the TAA, Risser said.
“I would certainly hope that an agreement could be reached without having to resort to illegal acts,” Risser said. “The people who really suffer here are those who are trying to get an education. I’m not convinced that this [strike] is in the best interest of the TAA.”
The strike itself, however, was “very successful,” according to Teaching Assistants’ Association publicity chair, material sciences and engineering TA Jonathan Puthoff.
Puthoff did not hear of any major incidents that would compromise the TAA’s pledge to the UW administration to refrain from physical or verbal intimidation of students or faculty.
He did admit, however, that sometimes individuals’ emotions get the best of them.
“Our membership has been going through a lot, and we’ve really been treated unfairly,” Puthoff said. “You get worse treatment sitting in section, though.”
Some picketers chanted, “Don’t cross the picket lines,” booed students going to class and called others entering picketed buildings “scabs.”
UW Communications reported that about half a dozen individual minor incidents occurred, ranging from picketers blocking access to loading docks and entries, to minor disruption of delivery trucks.
Casey Nagy, special assistant to Chancellor John Wiley, said in a press release the vast majority of the picketers were civil and orderly.
“A disintegration of that promise would be regrettable,” Nagy said. “At the end of the day Wednesday, we need to have enough mutual respect to go back to the bargaining table and move ahead with negotiations.”
Director of OSER Karen Timberlake said she sent a letter to TAA offices, asking the union to call off the strike as soon as possible.
“It’s scheduled for two days, but it doesn’t have to last for two days,” Timberlake said.
TAA officials said they have yet to receive the letter, and Puthoff said the plan for the walkout would continue as planned, culminating in a march to the Capitol Wednesday.
