The Teaching Assistants’ Association, which represents University of Wisconsin teaching assistants and project assistants, announced Wednesday it will file a formal complaint against the state of Wisconsin for regressive bargaining.

“We have moved further and further from our original position and they’ve hardly budged at all,” TAA Political Action Committee Chair Mike Quieto said.

According to Quieto, the bargaining team for the state has not been coming to the bargaining table in good faith and has violated the collective-bargaining law. Because of its unwillingness to come to an agreement, the TAA will file a complaint Monday with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, the agency that enforces the collective-bargaining law within Wisconsin.

The TAA and the Office of State Employment Relations representatives have been bargaining for the past 22 months and have been unable to come to an agreement regarding TAA members’ 2003-05 contract.

The TAA and state negotiators currently remain conflicted about zero-premium health care benefits. In addition, the TAA believes its members are not receiving wages that are competitive to their peers at other institutions.

The TAA requested a mediator last week to step in and help with communication between the two groups, however state representatives rejected its request, which is why TAA members now say filing charges is the next appropriate step.

TAA co-president Jonathan Puthoff said he hopes the charges against the state will make it budge from its current standstill offers.

“Offers they have [recently] been proposing have been worse than previous ones, while we have been putting forth proposal after proposal to meet them in the middle,” Puthoff said.

Quieto said the charges are necessary because state negotiators have been moving backwards by offering raises to the union in May 2005 and then taking them off the table this past March.

“The state has been obstructing our attempts to ratify a fair contract for nearly two years now,” Quieto said.

Quieto added that TAA representatives have done all they can to settle negotiations by trying new approaches such as slowing down bargaining and then hurrying up with offers; neither of which have worked, Quieto said. He added that TAA members felt frustrated because they feel they have made several efforts to settle a fair contract.

“Its unfortunate we have to now file charges in what should be overall a simple and straight process,” Quieto said.

UW Dean of the School of Letters and Science Gary Sandefur said TAs are very important to the school and he hopes the state and TAA members can settle their negotiations as soon as possible.

“It is always a worry because there isn’t a contract, so we don’t know what is going to happen between one month and the next,” Sandefur said.

Negotiations for TAA members’ 2005-07 contract, which under normal conditions would currently be underway, may be stalled or have to go on during the 2003-05 contract negotiations.

TAA members are currently working under an extended contract containing last biennium’s measures until both sides reach an agreement.

OSER representatives could not be reached by press time.