Opinion

Call for law

Over the past 48 hours, members of the Teaching Assistants’ Association have abandoned classrooms and lecture halls, opting instead to take to picket lines. They have chanted classic melodies of the oppressed, using slogans like “What do we want?” and “When do we want it?” And they have distracted many of their own members and undergraduates from the grizzly realities of a University nearly shut down, opting to play music on Bascom Hill and put on an all-around party that might well blend into the upcoming festivities on Mifflin Street but for the absence of a keg.

But there is one major problem: the TAA is not permitted to strike.

Indeed, as Karen Timberlake, the director of the Office of State Employment Relations, explains in a letter to the TAA leadership dated April 27, the strike is a violation of both teaching assistants’ contracts and state law.

Insofar as the TAA and its membership have engaged in illegal actions, the crime is certainly not victimless. Tuition-paying students have seen classes cancelled for the past 48 hours — the world-class education they have signed up for has been brought to a halt. Many of those who have attempted to go to class have been harassed with screams of “scab” and slogans of the like.

In light of this, it is our feeling that laws do exist for a reason. To allow this criminal action to go unpunished would set a dangerous precedent for future acts of lawlessness, as well as send a message to the victims — students — that the state is disinterested in protecting the rule of law.

We call on appropriate law enforcement officers to take note of the illegality that has been perpetrated on the UW’s campus over the past 48 hours and to prosecute the TAA’s membership accordingly.

We are fully aware that some TAs have dissented from the majority’s position on this strike and have conducted classes normally. We applaud their actions while asking the appropriate state agencies to make every effort to exclude them from the prosecutions for which we call.

What do we want? Legal action! When do we want it? Now!