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Endgame

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by Badger Herald Editorial Board

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

After two years of talks, allegations of negotiating in bad faith and a disastrous and illegal two-day strike in April 2004, the Teaching Assistants Association and Wisconsin's Office of State Employment Relations are still no closer to an agreement for the 2003-05 contract period.

That's not a typo. The TAA and OSER still haven't agreed on a contract that would have ended June 30.

The battle over a contract for teaching assistants has played out over the past two years like a bad game of chess, with neither side acknowledging their gambit isn't paying off. The TAA has refused OSER's contract, and OSER has refused to alter its offer. In March, when the TAA and OSER last met, it remained a 4.6 percent pay raise with $11 per person health-care premiums.

The TAA, whose members received health care with no premiums under the previous contract, maintains that teaching assistants shouldn't pay premiums due to an increased cost of living and low pay comparable to peer institutions. In addition, they are concerned about possible future increases. OSER, meanwhile, argues that the UW teaching assistants should play by the same rules as other state employees and contribute to health-care costs.

Both sides are afraid that conceding this point may weaken their stance on future negotiations.

Neither group has approached the table in good faith since negotiations over the 2003-05 biennium started in 2002, only weeks after the 2001-03 biennium dispute had been resolved. The TAA has consistently walked away from offers that would have given their members a higher effective salary, insisting that health care is non-negotiable. For their part, OSER has refused to budge on premiums or take steps to address the pay disparity between UW and other Big Ten schools.

Yet, somewhere between 2002's opening negotiations and last spring's self-righteous rhetoric, the TAA has lost sight of the big picture. While a teaching assistant position brings with it responsibility for undergraduates and an increased workload, it is not a career. It is a rite-of-passage. The position of teaching assistant is much more akin to a modern day apprenticeship than typical employment. They receive valuable experience, learn skills of the trade and hear feedback in an environment that allows them to experiment and grow before they enter their professional careers.

This is not unlike a medical residency, working as a lab assistant or a paid internship. It is on-the-job training. And while UW teaching assistants make less than other Big Ten schools, their take-home pay averages over $17 an hour, or more than $31 an hour for in-state students when factoring in benefits like tuition remission. Out-of-state graduate students can see an adjusted wage of nearly $50 an hour.

Thirty-one to 50 dollars an hour for a part-time employee who may not return to the classroom next semester — compare this to a medical residency, where first-year residents can expect 80 to 100-hour weeks, often in 30 to 36-hour blocks with little or no sleep, and all for an average salary of $32,000, or $6.15-$7.70 an hour. Yet residents persevere, acknowledge the learning experience and have faith that the temporary unpleasantness will be replaced by a lifetime in a career that makes them happy.

The TAA may have a legitimate beef with the state Legislature, who, in the face of budget deficits, has repeatedly cut spending for the UW System. But with the new biennium already begun without a contract and the previous contract far from ratified, it must learn to recognize the difference between a real fight and a cosmetic fight. It must to see which wars are worth waging.

OSER holds all the pieces in this particular match. The TAA's gambit didn't work. The chessboard is stacked against it, its pawns surrounded by a legion of queens. It is time the TAA protect its king and accept the OSER offer before even the board is lost.

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Anonymous (September 14, 2005 @ 1:42am):

But what does the TAA have to lose by not accepting? Are they working under the terms of their old contract?

Anonymous (September 14, 2005 @ 9:06am):

Was the Ed. Board inspired by The Mendota Beacon's editorial against the TAA yesterday or what?

Anonymous (September 14, 2005 @ 5:48pm):

"But what does the TAA have to lose by not accepting? Are they working under the terms of their old contract?"

Yes, they are.

Anonymous (September 14, 2005 @ 5:51pm):

"Neither group has approached the table in good faith since negotiations over the 2003-05 biennium started in 2002, only weeks after the 2001-03 biennium dispute had been resolved."

That's an unfair characterization. It's not bad faith for the TAA to walk away from an offer that an overwhelming majority of their members think shortchanges them. By contrast, according to state law, it is bad faith for the state to offer money, then pull it from later negotiations, which is exactly what they have done.

I won't argue that the TAA is blameless. I'm a member, and I thought we should have accepted the $11 monthly premiums in exchange for the 4.6% raises. If the state wanted to raise the premiums even more in future contracts, we could always bargain about it. But the TAA did not bargain in bad faith. Only the state did.

Anonymous (September 14, 2005 @ 6:05pm):

"This is not unlike a medical residency, working as a lab assistant or a paid internship. It is on-the-job training. And while UW teaching assistants make less than other Big Ten schools, their take-home pay averages over $17 an hour, or more than $31 an hour for in-state students when factoring in benefits like tuition remission. Out-of-state graduate students can see an adjusted wage of nearly $50 an hour."

That's just ridiculous. Tuition remission is a feature of every respected graduate program in the country. Without it, only the wealthiest people could afford to go to graduate school. Additionally, most graduate students have to generate their own funding. Some do so through fellowships, some through research that brings in grant money, and some as TA's. By using TA's who are paid at most 20% of what even junior faculty members are paid, the university can keep your tuition low because its costs for staffing classes are lower and because the faculty are left with more time to pursue funding.

As an experienced TA with a 50% appointment, I will make $12,100 this year. According to my contract, I am supposed to work 720 hours. Assuming I limit myself to 720 hours of work over the course of the semester, that means I am making a little under $17 per hour. But it is a very rare week indeed that I work only 20 hours as a TA. Most weeks, I'm closer to 40 hours, and I probably average 35 hours per week every semester. To be generous to your position, let's say I only work 30 hours per week. Over the course of the 36 weeks that a TA is expected to work during the academic year, that works out to 1080 hours of work, and $11.20 per hour.

If we use the actual number of hours I work, however, 35 hours per week times 36 weeks yields 1260 hours of work and an hourly wage of $9.60. And on top of that, I have to carry a full course load, do my own research, and take care of my family while making a wage that is right around the poverty line for Madison.

Yes, residents at hospitals are paid poorly too. But as you should have learned in pre-school, two wrongs don't make a right. Your editorial, by trying to do just that, was simply unfair.