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TAs at Wisconsin go on strike
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Grad Life
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By dkung
Posted Wed Apr 28, 2004 at 02:24:25 PM PDT
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Unionized teaching assistants at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison began a two-day walkout Tuesday after failing to reach a contract agreement with the state's bargaining team. The Teaching Assistants Association (TAA), the oldest graduate student union in the country, is fighting to keep its current health care coverage in the face of minimal wage increases. Failure to reach a settlement might push the TAA to withhold Spring semester grades. (story from the AP wire)
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| The Teaching Assistants' Association said about 500 members
decided at a meeting Monday night to picket some campus
buildings Tuesday and Wednesday and hold a rally at the
state Capitol Wednesday.
Boian Popunkiov, a graduate math student and teaching assistant who is co-president of the group, said the association asked 1,200 of its 1,900 members to cancel their classes. The assistants are graduate students who
create assignments, write and grade exams and lead student discussion groups. They have been without a contract for 10
months.
``As negotiations have progressed, the state has agreed
that TAA members are paid significantly less than graduate
assistants at similar universities. But we have been unable
to agree on a contract that would bring the union to parity
with other schools,'' he said.
Karen Timberlake, director of state employee relations, has
said under state law and contract provisions a work
stoppage would be illegal, so the state ``will be
considering a full range of options as it unfolds.''
The
major conflict is over the state's insistence that the
group begin to pay some of its health insurance costs. The
assistants' average salary is $12,144 for 20 hours a week
for nine months.
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