Nearly four months after the end of a turbulent spring semester of contract negotiations, the stalemate between the Teaching Assistants Association and the Wisconsin Office of State Employee Relations will continue this fall semester.

After a summer off, the TAA plans to focus resources on areas other than the contract, according to Mike Quieto, co-president of the labor union.

Quieto said the TAA is ready to go back to the bargaining tables any time the state is willing.

“I speculate that the state doesn’t feel like it has room to negotiate right now,” Quieto said, adding he expects the OSER is waiting until some political or economic changes in the budget to begin negotiations.

OSER has opposite sentiments, according to department director Karen Timberlake.

“If the [TAA] feel they’re ready, I encourage them to get a hold of my office and set up some dates,” Timberlake said.

She added the practical reason negotiations have stopped is because the TAs take a break during the summer and the legislature is not in session until January.

Quieto said once bargaining starts back up, he hopes the state will be willing to “make movement, since they haven’t actually made any concessions.”

Timberlake said it is going to take hard work and open-mindedness on both sides of the issue, but added the state budget situation is what it is, and the TAA “knows where the state needs to be.”

“I hope the passage of time will help the TAA reevaluate [its] position,” Timberlake said.

While negotiations remains a priority, Quieto said the TAA’s current focus is to recruit new members and train new volunteers for bargaining. The group also hopes to figure out what current members want to do, as well as work as a fully functioning employee union.

The old TAA contract, which expired nearly 14 months ago, will continue to operate under an extension. It currently gives no-cost health care as a benefit.

The main focus of the disagreement has been over the economic aspects of the contract, including health-care benefits and wages for TAs and project assistants.

The debate’s presence grew throughout the entire 2003-04 school year, and culminated in a two-day walkout in the end of April. The ongoing battle affected many UW students and faculty.

Both OSER and the TAA said they do not know what to expect in the upcoming school year.

Timberlake said the dynamic of this issue on campus is entirely up to the TAA, because they were the architects of all the events and activity on campus.

Quieto also said it is up to the members to decide what actions will be taken.

The TAA wasn’t entirely dormant over the summer, Quieto noted. Some members took a birthday cake to the state Capitol and sang on the one-year anniversary of the expired contract, June 30.