OPINION & EDITORIAL
TAA: Accept deal on table
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by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Thursday, April 8, 2004
UW-Madison’s Teaching Assistants are at an impasse in their contract negotiations with an offer on the table that would allow them to maintain a reasonable pay level and keep their grasp on one of the most comprehensive health care plans a Wisconsin citizen can access.
Under threat of their first job action in 24 years, the nation’s oldest recognized Teaching Assistant’s Union is facing an offer on the table from Wisconsin’s Office of State Employee Relations that would require TAs to pay a $9 monthly premium for individual health benefits and a $22 monthly premium for family coverage.
The TAA, to which just over 60 percent of TAs belong, claims that in order to remain competitive and attract quality personnel, UW must fully pay health benefits to its employed graduate students. Yet the prospect of paying a $9 monthly premium as a part time employee would be salivating for many private sector employees, and is even endorsed as politically acceptable by the AFL-CIO, the TAA’s parent union.
Representatives from the state’s negotiating team have repeatedly told The Badger Herald that the threat of job action on the part of the TAs will not change their stance in the negotiating process; they claim that because all other employee units that bargain with the state biannually for salary and benefits are being asked to pay for a portion of their health care premiums, the TAA must not be granted an exception. The TAA counters that the only way they would be willing to pay this health care premium is if the state were to offer a sufficient salary increase.
State negotiators want state employees to act as consumers when choosing health plans, thereby holding down costs associated with providing top-notch health insurance to the employees and their families. In turn, health insurers will be forced to compete ? creating more efficient, less expensive coverage. This private-sector model of health care provision is designed to hold down the enormous cost of ensuring Wisconsin’s public employees as health care costs nationwide continue to increase.
The TAA maintains “free” health care is an obligation it is owed by the state because under their terms of employment at UW, it was a guaranteed benefit. However, this is the precise reason contracts are re-negotiated each biennium. The bill for TAs health coverage must be footed somewhere. Eventually, it will land at the feet of Wisconsin taxpayers.
We urge the TAs to make the small sacrifice of paying a $9 per month health care premium, end the negotiating impasse, make the responsible choice for future health care costs, and quell the chatter of an illegal and potentially catastrophic work stoppage.
