Skip to Menu

Contract Progress!

September 29, 2009

As you've heard, our contract has been moving through the corridors of state government.

Recently, we took a big step forward. The state legislature's Joint Committee on Employment Relations voted to pass along our contract. Because we are state employees, the state legislature oversees ratification of our contract as our ultimate employer.

From here, the contract will get taken up, just like any bill, by both houses of the state legislature. When they pass it, the bill that includes our contract (along with two other state employee unions) will get signed into law by the governor.

We're getting close to officially having a new contract in place with wage increases and more fair workplace protections. Stay tuned for how you can help move along our contract in the next stages.

posted by Webmaster

Fall AGEL Conference

As many of you know, we are not alone as a grad student workers' union. We are one of many grad union locals affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, a union of professional workers that includes not only academic workers like grads and faculty but also K12 teachers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, and public employees. Within the AFT, we grad unions have something called the Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals, or AGEL. In addition to AGEL, our union participates in the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions, a grouping of grad locals across many unions (including the UAW, UE, CWA, and NEA) in both the U.S. and Canada.

Each fall and spring, AGEL puts on a conference for grad union activists to come together for discussions, trainings, strategizing, and good ol' fashioned union solidarity. This fall, our brothers and sisters at Michigan State University, the Graduate Employees Organization, will be hosting AGEL. It will take place on Novemeber 5-8 in East Lansing, MI.

If you are interested in attending this fall's AGEL, please let us know using this quick form.

Please be aware that our budget for sending people to travel to the conference is not unlimited, but we'll do our best to get everyone who is interested to the conference.

posted by Webmaster

Fall General Membership Meetings

The fall semester's TAA General Membership Meetings have been scheduled. They will take place on:

October 21st - 5:30 PM - Memorial Union (TITU)

December 1st - 5:30 PM - Memorial Union (TITU)

Our General Membership Meetings, or "GMMs," are where the membership of our union hears updates on union business and makes decisions on key items of union business. Often these topics include matters like contract negotiations, resolutions of the union, elections of particular union roles, and committee work. In addition to being forums for democratic participation in the union, GMMs are also a great place to meet fellow grads from across the campus who are part of our union.

We definitely encourage all members to attend the GMMs.

As we get closer to each GMM, we will have an announcement on agendas for the meetings. In the meantime, if you have questions, please feel free to contact our Co-Presidents, Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

Note: GMMs are run by Robert's Rules of Order. Trust us, it's not a scary thing and learning parliamentary procedure to a level needed to participate meaningfully is easy - and we're not really sticklers, especially with new folks. You can check out a quick "simplified guide to Robert's Rules here to use as a cribsheet. But really, the best way to learn is to just come to a meeting, ape what others are doing, and jump right in.

posted by Webmaster

Get Your Union T-Shirt Here

The 2009-2010 TAA t-shirt has proven to be a big success. We are getting requests from a lot of different people to get one for themselves after seeing them around campus.

Typically, new t-shirts tend to get distributed to new grads who are joining the union for the first time - and to folks that show up at the office for some union activities. But this year, we'd like to open everything up to all members. So we are going to order a run of t-shirts for all union members who are interested in getting one for themselves.

Check out a bit on the shirts here.

If you would like to get a 2009-2010 TAA t-shirt, the thing to do is to fill out this really quick online form. Then, someone will follow up with you about getting your shirt in your hands.

With any questions, just let us know via email.

posted by Webmaster

You Don't Have To Be a Genius To Be Pro-Union...But It Doesn't Hurt

September 27, 2009

As one of the most well-known and important academics, intellectuals, researchers and general public figures of the 20th Century (and probably more than that), Albert Einstein possessed a towering genius. He also proudly proclaimed a pro-union sentiment that resonates today with academics, intellectuals, and professionals. It turns out that being strongly pro-union doesn't require being a genius, but it doesn't hurt either.

This year's TAA t-shirt memorializes a union brother from days past in Albert Einstein, a charter member of the faculty local at Princeton. But it also memorializes his pro-union sentiment for academic and intellectual workers. Take a look at the links below, in case you haven't seen the shirt around campus (the more fashion-conscious among us have noticed them on hip grads in droves)...

TAA 2009-2010 T-Shirt Front

TAA 2009-2010 T-Shirt Back

Unions are for academics and for intellectuals, people like us. Great minds produce great work and need great unions to advance their interests. If it was good enough for Albert Einstein, it's probably good enough for us.

posted by Webmaster

What Do We Want? How Are We Going To Get It?

September 17, 2009

What do we want as grad student workers? How are we going to get it?

The answer to the first question is probably plural: there are lots of answers. More specifically, what are our priorities as grad student workers? That's a question that we as a union need to answer because we are a democratic union, with members providing the stuff of our agenda.

The answer to the second question has two parts. First, the simple answer: working through our union. Our union goes after its priorities via the three pillars of union activity: collective bargaining, political action, and organizing.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, the bigger answer: It's another set of answers that we as a grad student workers union needs to determine.

This Monday, we are holding an education and strategy session focused around building a contract campaign. We need you to be there to help answer these questions.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Contract Campaign Education & Strategy Session
WHEN: Monday, September 21 - doors and food @ 5:30 PM, program at 6:00 PM
WHERE: Memorial Union, TITU
WHY: To determine what we want and how we are going to get it

We're calling it a "contract campaign" session. But don't let the title throw you off. A contract is an institutionalization of what we achieve of our priorities in a binding document. But a contract is an end that follows from our work in collective bargaining, political action, and organizing.

Further, these three pillars provide us avenues to achieve things that go beyond a contract. Many things we would want to achieve as priorities can occur outside a contract. But putting together a contract campaign provides a central rallying point and concrete end around which we put in place the means to achieve those priorities.

Winning on a contract campaign and more broadly on our priorities will require an engaged, activated, organized, and mobilized union. Our membership as a union needs to be part of this from the start through the finish, and at every step of the way. As a democratic union, we are committed to our membership not only setting priorities and making big decisions, but also carrying them out. That's why we need you to be a part of learning about the contours and content of what we can achieve and how as well as a part of strategizing on putting that into place.

So come on out this Monday for the Contract Campaign Education & Strategy Session. We'll have free food and beverage, some education from union leaders, and a discussion around what we want and how we will get it.

If you have any questions, please let our Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom know. Otherwise, we'll see you on Monday!

posted by Webmaster

Moving Our Contract Forward

September 14, 2009

Many of you know that our 2007-2009 contract is still held up in the corridors of state government. We need your help to move it forward - putting in place new provisions like wage increases and workplace protections. If you care about getting our new contract in place - and everyone should - and you can help, let us know by filling out a quick online form.

As a quick backgrounder, here's how our collective bargaining works in a nutshell (if you know this, skip to below the italics):

We are state employees, so we bargain with both the UW and the state government through the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER). Our contract negotiations with these two entities lead to a "tentative agreement" which our union membership then votes upon to approve or reject. As an aside, you should also know two things about how TAA members drive the contract negotiation process: (1) TAA members participate in forming the bargaining platform that our Bargaining Team advances in contract negotiations and (2) Our Bargaining Team is made up of TAA members, assisted by TAA staff and a representative from AFT-Wisconsin, our parent federation.

After we approve a tentative agreement - which we did for the 2007-2009 contract in early December of 2008 - the Office of State Employment Relations drafts the contract into a bill that the state legislature considers. First, the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JoCER, or "joker") considers the bill. After this committee passes the bill, it goes to the whole state legislature. From there, when both houses of the legislature pass the bill, the Governor signs it and our contract becomes a law. Then, it is implemented and we enjoy all the great new provisions.

Right now, we're stuck between OSER and JoCER. There's some background to this - and if you'd like to know the full story, send an email to Political Education Committee chair Peter Rickman. To move the bill, we need to put some pressure on the state legislators who are on JoCER. Fortunately for us, two of the key players represent parts of Madison and the two co-chairs of the committee are from the House of Labor (i.e. they come from union backgrounds). So we have allies that will work with us to move passage of our contract.

To make this happen, we need to do some organizing in the political arena. Good organizing consists of lots of union members getting involved. So we need you to be involved! Let us know that you want to be involved by filling out a quick online form - our Political Education Committee will follow up with you to get you set up with next steps.

And with any questions in the meantime, please feel free to be in touch with Political Education Committee chair Peter Rickman.

posted by Webmaster

Contract Campaign Education & Strategy Session Monday

For those who have attended one of our recent union workshops, you are familiar with the three aspects of how unions advance the cause of their members: collective bargaining, political action, and organizing.

For those who haven't had a chance to be at one of our workshops or learn much about unions or how the TAA works (and if you haven't, stay tuned because we'll have future workshops), succinctly put, unions advance the interests of their members by an overlapping combination of these three aspects. Through collective bargaining, we negotiate a contract that codifies our rights and privileges, at various times making big and incremental gains. Through political action, we work to affect the authoritative decisions of the structures of public institutions where those decisions affect our interests. As a special note here, as a union of public employees, the democratic political process affects us greatly. We also build power through organizing, the actions of strategically connecting together ideas, resources, and people.

Through our union, we can make gains for ourselves as grad student workers, taking on the issues that affect us - and we do this through these three aspects. One of the best examples of how we can do this uniting together all three while mobilizing and activating all corners of our union is through a "contract campaign."

A contract campaign works toward achieving goals and priorities by activating and mobilizing members, culminating in action on the issues we deem most important to us. The concrete end of working through the means of the three aspects of unionism is a contract. With the 2009-2011 contract negotiations upon us, the imperative of running a contract campaign is staring us square in the face.

To put together a strong, effective contract campaign, we're kicking off the planning and execution of such a campaign with an education and strategy session next Monday. At the session, we'll go through three quick educational components on a) our current contract b) how our collective bargaining process works and can work and c) narratives of past struggles and victories and how this might translate to a 2009-2011 contract campaign.

We need you there to help our union build a strong contract campaign. The session will take place on Monday evening at the Memorial Union (TITU). We'll have more details as we figure things out - but we'll definitely have free food and beverage for all. So if you have questions or want to RSVP (and we do ask that you RSVP), please contact us at taa@taa-madison.org. See you then!

posted by Webmaster

Union Activism In Your Building

As we work to build a vibrant union strengthened by the activism and involvement of its members, we are engaging in a number of projects. One is a really easy and quick way for you to get involved in your union and build our union. We are working on doing a semester-beginning lit drop to all grad student workers represented by the TAA.

The project is moving building to building and we need some TAA activists to help propel it forward. Can you help in your building and/or in buildings where we don't yet have coverage?

If you can, contact project organizer Jason Tatum to let him know that you want to be involved. He will work with you to help you understand the project, what roles you can play, how to carry out the work on the project, and all relevant details.

The essential work we need activists to help with is dropping a literature packet in the mailboxes of the grad student workers our union represents. Again, it's an easy - but important - way for you to get involved in your union, building it and strengthening it by informing people about the union and building membership.

Below you'll find a list of the buildings where we need coverage. If you're in one of these and can help, let Jason Tatum know and he'll set you up.

Vilas Communication
Grainger Hall
Educational Sciences
Noland Zoology
Weeks Hall
Mechanical Eng Hall
Brogden, Psychology
Medical Sciences Center
School of Social Work
Chemistry
Chamberlin Hall
Sterling Hall
Birge Hall
Van Vleck
Bascom Hall
North Hall
Ingraham Hall
Social Science
Van Hise
Observatory Hill Office
Human Ecology Building
Agriculture Hall
Russell Laboratories
Gymnasium, Natatorium
Warf Office
Rennebohm
Waisman Center

posted by Webmaster

Organizing Working Group Meeting - Save the Date for 9/16

September 7, 2009

Save the date for September 16th at 6 PM: our union will be hosting an organizing working group meeting to put together some concrete action around the TAA's agenda and program for this academic year. We'll be in the Memorial Union, TITU.

Save the date and plan to be there if you think that:

- We should have better pay and a fair wage for the important work we do.
- Segregated fees should be remitted just like tuition is.
- Health insurance coverage and affordable premiums needs to be protected.
- The changing academy is eroding our profession and negatively affecting higher education.
- A stronger union means grad student - and all academic - workers are all better off.

If you think that any of the above are true - or if you think that our union needs to get something else on its agenda too (and yes, there are other things beyond these), you should be there.

As important as the agenda, it's putting it into action. So if you think that these things are worth fighting for, they're worth organizing around. And because our union, like our university, works because we do, we need to make it happen. Save the date for September 16th and plan on being there to get to work through our union to fight for grad student workers.

For what it's worth, there will be more details to follow. If you have any questions, please be in touch with our Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

posted by Webmaster

Union Workshops This Week

This past week, we started a new program for the TAA by holding union workshops. At these workshops attendees not only enjoyed the fine fellowship of other grad student workers along with some free pizza and beverages, folks got to learn more about unions, the theory and history behind organized labor, and the TAA - including much more in-depth about who we are and what we do. Dozens of new members of the union turned out this past week for the workshops, and we are continuing them this week.

This week, union workshops will be at 6 PM at the TAA office on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

The workshops have included - and will include - a combination of presentation of materials from elected leaders and staff from the TAA as well as a lot of free discussion, Q&A, and strategizing from all attendees about the work of our union. These workshops are the building blocks for rank-and-file members of our union for informed and empowered participation in the union - as well as being building blocks for our member-driven union to take action around a coherent agenda and program for grad student workers for this particular year.

So consider yourself invited, whether you've been around as a member for a few years or if you're brand new, whether you've been active and involved or if you've never seen the inside of the TAA office (by the way, we're at 254 W. Gilman St, above the American Apparel store).

Again, the workshops this week are on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, starting at 6 PM. If you are going to attend, please RSVP at least by the day of the workshop to our general email account. You can also let us know if you have any questions

posted by Webmaster

Contract Still Closed

At this past Friday's Welcome Back Happy Hour, we held a brief General Membership Meeting to cover one agenda topic: Did we want to re-open our tentative agreement with the State and with UW to give back our scheduled pay raises which will go into effect when the contract is ratified?

Overwhelmingly, we voted "no."

We the members of the TAA had been asked to give back the wage increases scheduled for our new contract (including a roughly 10% wage increase for new grad assistants) because of some State and UW budget gamesmanship and tomfoolery. The Executive Board of the TAA, made up of elected members of our union, put forward a recommendation and motion at this past Friday's General Membership Meeting to reject the request to give back our wage increases.

As we voted upon the motion, a few voices spoke up in favor of adopting the motion, while a few more had questions on practical implications. Ultimately, out of the hundreds of attendees at the Welcome Back Happy Hour and the General Membership Meeting, a voice vote was sufficient to adopt the motion, reject the request, and to keep our wage increases.

Now, we turn toward passage of the tentative agreement, which has still not been carried forward by the Office of State Employment Relations - with whom we actually negotiate our contract - and the state legislature's Joint Committee on Employment Relations. We continue to expect that they will ratify the contract in the fall legislative session and that our "new" (2007-2009) contract will go into effect sometime soon this semester.

posted by Webmaster

 

Previous Posts

Archives