On Valentine’s Day the chant “If they don’t listen, we shut it down!” rang across Library Mall in protest of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal. Since, Teaching Assistants’ Association leaders have said a TA strike will not be ruled out as an additional form of protest.
Michael Billeaux, TAA co-president, said “a strike is not off the table” as a measure to combat the governor’s proposed budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin System.
“There hasn’t been a strike authorization vote, and the leadership can’t just wave a wand and call a strike,” Billeaux said. “It’s not ruled out but it’s also not happening tomorrow.”
TAA, the first teaching assistants’ union of its kind in the United States, represents over 3,000 of UW’s teaching and program assistants. The union co-sponsored the Library Mall protests Feb. 14. Although the organization was reduced to unofficial status and lost much of its funding due to Act 10, the organization still maintains a relationship with the university, Billeaux said.
According to the UW Data Digest, there were 5,379 graduate assistants on campus in 2013. The data shows 562 graduate students were responsible for lectures, 2,509 taught discussion sections, 649 taught labs and 7 headed seminars. Seventy percent of graduate assistants teach in the College of Letters and Science, according to the Data Digest.
“The TAA has always been a strongly member-driven union, so what we’ve done over the years has been independent of our financial situation,” he said. “We’ve been successfully able to mobilize members and communicate to members about what we’re doing.”
Regarding the legal implications of a strike, much remains unclear. According to Rutgers professor Barry Eidlin, it is unclear to what extent the university would take legal action against teaching assistants if a strike were held. Since the state does not recognize TAA, he said the consequences would not amount to a cut-and-dry legal case.
For Billeaux, the legal implications of striking appear bleak. He said the university could seek an injunction ordering teaching assistants back to work, fining them up to $1,000 per day and imprisoning strike leaders for up to a year if they do not cooperate. However, he remained unsure as to whether the university would employ such harsh measures, and said TAA is currently working with university administration to find the best way to deal with the cuts.
Eidlin said with widespread opposition to the cuts, a broad array of measures will be necessary to combat them, including the possibility of a strike.
“You need a wide array of tactics to express opposition, and so I think this is certainly a valid tactic in the arsenal of those who want to see this proposed cut not implemented,” Eidlin said. “Often times the only way they can be taken seriously is withdrawal of labor to show how much their labor as workers matters to the university.”
In the meantime, Billeaux said TAA is encouraging its members to combat the cuts in a variety of ways. They are organizing a phone banking session in collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers, encouraging members to reach out to legislators, and are putting pressure on administration to detail what public authority status means for them.
“The cuts will be pretty devastating for the university, but with the work that the TAA is doing, it will make us a stronger organization no matter what happens,” Billeaux said.
