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AFT-Wisconsin Convention Round-Up

October 31, 2009

This past week, delegates from the TAA attended and participated in the AFT-Wisconsin convention. As we noted earlier last week, being a part of a broader labor movement, including our state federation of unions, is a really important part of having a strong local here in the TAA. We also outlined some of the business to be handled at the convention.

On Wednesday at the convention, former TAA Co-President Tim Frandy wound down his tenure as a member of the AFT-Wisconsin Executive Board as the Vice President of the Graduate Employee Council. On Friday, we elected a new VP of the Grad Council from the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association. Traditionally, the TAA and the MGAA trade off holding the vice presidency of the council and a seat on the AFT-Wisconsin board. More on elections and other business conducted by delegates below...

Thursday's convention business included workshops geared toward the different councils and constituency groups, including two sessions for workers in higher education. The big topic was organizing in higher ed and how AFT-Wisconsin is building a campaign to unionize faculty and staff at UW System schools. Organizing drives are off the ground on multiple campuses and are doing well. Also of note, the state employees' council went through multiple sessions on tackling the State of Wisconsin budget crisis and the K12 teachers' council went through a session on building political power around education issues.

The convention also included two special events on Tuesday. First, AFT national's Executive Vice President, Loretta Johnson (the #2 elected official of the national union), addressed delegates in a keynote speech. Loretta's story is pretty incredible: she started as a paraprofessional in the Baltimore schools in 1966 and led the unionization of education support workers there; from there, she rose to become the president of AFT-Maryland, before becoming a vice president of AFT. In 2008, she was elected Executive Vice President of AFT on the first all-female slate to lead a national union.

Later in the evening on Thursday, contributors to and members of AFT-Wisconsin's Committee on Political Education (COPE), our political action committee, attended a special reception to celebrate our political work in 2008 and 2009, look forward to our work in 2010, and to hear from State Senator Julie Lassa. Senator Lassa is one of the best friends of AFT-Wisconsin in the state legislature, a champion of public employees like us and an ardent opponent of privatization of public institutions. She spoke of the challenges facing state government right now and how vital it is that public employees like us participate heavily in the political process, because of the nature of what's always at stake on who is fighting against us (big business, the ideological right-wing, etc).

Friday was the main delegate session of the convention. First, we voted upon union officers. The office of the presidency was uncontested, as the candidate that the TAA supported strongly and elected to office in 2007, Bryan Kennedy, did not have a challenger. The new office of Executive Vice President was to be filled in a hotly-contested race. As we noted last week, the TAA voted to endorse Marietta Love from Local 212, the faculty and staff at Milwaukee Area Technical College. In an incredibly close election, Greg Georg, from the Wisconsin Professional Employees' Council defeated Marietta by just a few hundred votes (out of about 15,000). Both Marietta and Greg were excellent candidates and we look forward to working with Greg.

After officer elections, the federation took up amendments to our Constitution & Bylaws. Of note here, a resolution put forward by Local 212, the TAA, and the MGAA won with a strong margin; this resolution lifted onerous restrictions on the use of our AFT-Wisconsin Solidarity Fund so as to enable better organizing and political action in service of our union's goals.

Also during the convention "floor" period, delegates from The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals, the UW System faculty and academic staff union organizing on campuses around the state, and the TAA put forward a special order of business in support of workers' rights. We took up allocating money from the convention's discretionary fund to contribute to two groups that work with low-wage and immigrant workers, The Workers' Rights Center and Voces de la Frontera. The motion won overwhelmingly, directing extra money from the convention fund to support the critical work of building a 21st century labor movement and supporting the cause of worker justice.

Finally, the convention delegates debated and voted upon resolutions. Resolutions that were passed included: supporting comprehensive immigration reform, advocating for state tax and budget fairness, calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan, supporting single payer healthcare reform, calling for passage of labor law reform, and calling upon the State of Wisconsin and the UW System not to use public money to support union-busting on campuses.

The convention was a great success for both the TAA and AFT-Wisconsin. We handled the union's business well and delegates from the TAA played a critical role in moving a progressive agenda in the state federation, further establishing our local as a key part of AFT-Wisconsin and the labor movement as a whole.

If you have any questions about the AFT-Wisconsin convention or our roles in AFT or the broader labor movement, be in touch with Co-President Peter Rickman.

posted by Webmaster

Organizine In Your Department (Or Across Campus)

Our union is working through the end of the fall semester to organize across campus in order to engage grad student workers around the work of the union. Among some of the issues around which we need to engage our bargaining unit membership are the passage of a new contract, bargaining for another contract going on now, developing new union leaders, taking on other challenges faced by grad student workers, and organizing all grads.

To build a strong organizing campaign and to build a stronger union for us all, we need our members to step up to get involved. The good news is that it's easy to do, it's important, and you can make a big impact in your department or anywhere on-campus. To get involved, sign up here.

Our campaign is reaching out to grad student workers in all departments, having real conversations about the union. The TAA Stewards' Council is leading up the campaign, with individual union steward activists heading out to organize workers, department by department. We need members from across the union to be a part of the campaign by volunteering to speak with fellow grads in their own department or in other departments.

If you can be a part of the organizing campaign, take a moment to fill out this quick form.

And you definitely can be a part of the campaign. Our Stewards' Council activists will work with volunteers in all parts of the organizing work, from training on how to have organizing conversations to education on the issues, to providing "turf" to cover, to showing you how to do it all. So when you fill out this form, someone will be in touch with you to get you plugged in.

A well-organized union is a strong union; a strong union makes the biggest impact for the workers it represents. So we need you to get involved with the TAA today in our fall organizing campaign!

If you have any questions about the fall organizing campaign, drop us an email.

posted by Webmaster

Restructuring the Graduate School

Two members of our union submitted this piece to be circulated among our membership as a primer on the proposed restructuring of the Graduate School. As this greatly affects grad student workers, our union will continue staying on top of these developments and take action as needed.

Provost Paul DeLuca has put forth a proposal to the University community to restructure the Graduate School in order to address shortcomings in grants management, compliance, animal care and biosafety issues that have the potential to financially injure the UW, as well as 'seize opportunities' to establish industry contracts and
advocate to champion UW research at the federal level.

The restructuring would entail the creation of a new position - the Vice Chancellor for Research - to head up the research mission of the UW. This proposed action would separate the research and graduate education missions currently administered under one office, the Dean of the Graduate School, which simultaneously holds the title of Vice
Chancellor for Research, into two separate administrative bodies. The structure of the new Research unit and its proposed head, the Vice Chancellor of Research, has been ambiguous thus far, and it is also unclear what, if any, shared governance mechanisms would exist to facilitate faculty, staff, and student participation in its
administration. This reorganization, if implemented, could drastically change the character of research and graduate education at UW-Madison at a time when we currently enjoy a *number three ranking* in the country for research funding.

Unfortunately, the Provost has not provided clear, unambiguous evidence of the need for such a drastic restructuring, nor has he considered less disruptive alternatives. Moreover, the Provost developed the restructuring plan without the involvement of shared governance bodies representing the faculty, staff, or students. If the
University community gives up on shared governance at this level in favor of a more top-down administrative model, what is to prevent the University from seeking to excise other Shared Governance institutions within the UW? Should we be concerned with attempts to remove input from others in favor of administrative efficiency - trading a more democratic-style of governance with a hierarchical one?

We encourage members to inform themselves by reading about this issue. For media coverage surrounding these events:

Badger Herald
Daily Cardinal #1
Daily Cardinal #2
Wisconsin State Journal

You can also attend the Faculty Senate meeting on Monday as they take up a resolution from the Sociology department around the restructuring proposal. The meeting is open and begins at 3:30 PM in 272 Bascom Hall. Here is the resolution being proposed.

If you have any questions about what is proposed or what process is unfolding or if you have thoughts or ideas on the proposed restructuring, please drop us an email.

posted by Webmaster

Calling All Union Activists - Especially New Ones!

October 26, 2009

There are a lot of reasons that the TAA is a unique union with an important role to play in the overall labor movement, the academic labor movement, and the grad labor movement. For example, we were the first grad student workers' union to form back in the 1960s and 1970s, sparking the growth of a nationwide movement. Today, we retain one of the core components of those early days that has become a hallmark of grad unionism, which also distinguishes us in some ways.

We, for the better, hold strongly to the idea of democratic unionism. We believe that unions do not just democratize externally, but are also vehicles of democracy. Members run this union and the union works because we do. For our union to be as strong as possible, we need our members to be involved to make it work.

So we are calling you to get involved in your union!

There are three important ways that you can and should get involved in your union today. We need more and more union members to become union activists through our Union Stewards Council, the group that literally takes stewardship over the most important part of the union in organizing fellow grad student workers, Bargaining Team, the committee that works on all things collective bargaining, and Contract Enforcement Committee, the group that ensures that our contract is being followed and assisting grad workers with issues in their workplaces.

One of the best parts of union activism is that anyone can do it -- and everyone should. You do not need background or experience in unions or activism. You just need to care about the health and well-being of your fellow grad student workers' and the union we have.

The thing for you to do is to click here to get plugged in. Someone will follow up with you to help you learn more and get involved in the work of whatever group interests you most. If you have any other questions, contact us via email.

posted by Webmaster

AFT-Wisconsin Convention This Week

As part of a larger labor movement and as a local of a larger union federation, the TAA believes that it is important to work with our brothers and sisters in the House of Labor. In addition to sending delegates to and being active within the South Central Federation of Labor (where the past president was a member of the TAA) and working with the Wisconsin AFL-CIO (whose president is a member of the TAA), both organizations within that larger labor movement, we are a local of AFT. AFT represents roughly 1.6 million professional workers nationwide, including academics, doctors, lawyers, dentists, nurses, teachers, and other public employees (and one of the national vice presidents and executive board members is a former TAA member). Right here in Wisconsin, AFT has a state federation of nearly 20,000 workers which includes our sister union, the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association and faculty unions TAUWP (The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals, the union for UW System faculty and academic staff) and UFAS (United Faculty and Academic staff, at UW-Madison) and a host of other locals.

We are an active part of AFT-Wisconsin, the state federation, including our work on organizing and political action committees in addition to having a member of the state fed's executive board. Past TAA Co-President Tim Frandy is a Vice President of AFT-Wisconsin and sits in that position. AFT-Wisconsin actually employs three former grad unionists, including one each from the TAA and the MGAA.

This week, AFT-Wisconsin is holding an annual convention. Every other year, there are elections for offices in the state federation and resolutions on federation policy, program, and practice. This year, there is a contested election for Executive Vice President of the federation. This past Wednesday at our General Membership Meeting, we voted to endorse Marietta Love, who is a member of one of our strong allies in the AFT, Local 212, the progressive union of faculty and staff at Milwaukee Area Technical College. The TAA will be sending delegates to the convention to vote on this election, among others, as well as on resolutions on things like how our dues money is spent on organizing and political action.

Unionism is predicated upon the idea that we are stronger together and that we make gains when workers band together to fight for and with one another. We believe that is true in one place like at UW-Madison, but we also believe that is true on a larger scale, like across the state of Wisconsin. That is why it is important that we participate vigorously in our state federation, AFT-Wisconsin. Upon return from the convention, we will have updates on important business that took place and anything else of interest to grad student workers and unionists alike.

posted by Webmaster

TAA Contract Being Signed On Wednesday!

After a long wait, the 2007-2009 TAA contract will be signed this Wednesday!

Last week, both houses of the state legislature overwhelmingly voted to ratify our contract. On Wednesday, the governor will sign the bill that is our contract into law. From there, the bill-becoming-an-act will be published and go into effect.

At the bill-signing, members of the TAA Bargaining Team and our Co-Presidents will join bargaining team members from the Office of State Employment Relations and UW-Madison as Governor Doyle makes it official with the stroke of his pen.

We believe that the effective date of the contract will be November 1, but we do know this for certain:

Our new contract will have pay increases that will be in effect for November. You will see pay increases in the checks you receive on December 1. In addition, workers in our bargaining unit who were employed in the spring semester of 2008-2009 and this past summer will receive retroactive pay increases -- while we can't officially call it "backpay," that's what it amounts to. People this affects will receive checks on either December 1, December 13, or December 23 (depending on your previous appointment).

If you have any questions about the contract or our collective bargaining work -- especially if you would like to join the Bargaining Team -- contact Vice President of Bargaining Kevin Gibbons.

posted by Webmaster

Contract Victory!

October 22, 2009

We bring you one piece of excellent news:

The 2007-2009 TAA Contract has been approved by the state government!

Earlier this week, both the state Senate and Assembly overwhelmingly voted to approve legislation ratifying our contract. Next Wednesday morning, the governor will sign into law our contract and subsequently, it will go into effect.

A hearty congratulations is due to all of the TAA activists who worked so hard on bargaining this contract, organizing support around it, and working to get the state government to approve it. Our contract victory is a fine example of how our union works through collective bargaining, organizing and political action to advance the cause of grad student workers.

Instead of running through the gains made in this contract (e.g. wage increases, stronger workplace protections) or discussing the implications of implementation (e.g. "backpay"), we will have further information posted here on our website very soon and we will send it out to everyone.

For now, let's bask in the victory - and start organizing for success in the 2009-2011 contract, negotiations for which are already underway.

With questions about the contract - or to get involved on either the Bargaining Team or the Contract Enforcement Committee - send an email to taa@taa-madison.org.

posted by Webmaster

General Membership Meeting This Wednesday!

October 17, 2009

Don't forget, we have an important General Membership Meeting this Wednesday, October 21st at 5:30 PM in the Memorial Union (TITU). We'll have some light food and beverage, fellow grads, and hot union business. Attending and participating in a GMM is one part of union democracy. At our GMMs, we handle some of the big decisions of the union. So we invite you to join us at the GMM this Wednesday evening. Any question, be in touch with our Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

Here is the tentative agenda for Wednesday's meeting:

1. Adopt Agenda (5 minutes)
2. Committee Updates (10 minutes)
3. Bargaining Update (40 minutes)
4. Constitution & Bylaws Non-Discrimination Provision (10 minutes)
5. AFT-Wisconsin Convention Endorsements (20 minutes)
6. Election Balloting (5 minutes)

Here's a quick summary of what you can expect, by agenda item number:

2. Committee Updates
Chairs of committees will provide updates, as the item name suggests, on the work of those committees. This is a good opportunity to hear about much of the day-to-day work of what's going on in the union. It's also an opportunity to find out how you can get involved in the work of any of our committees.

3. Bargaining Update
Members of the Bargaining Team and our bargaining staffer will go over an update on our 2007-2009 contract being ratified as well as, very importantly, what is going on with the bargaining of our 2009-2011 contract. This will include some level-setting information and education about our collective bargaining process as well as some serious discussion of our strategy in bargaining this contract. There are some big issues that we'll need to handle as a general membership that have implications for us as grad student workers and for us collectively as a union. This item will have education, discussion, and some voting.

4. Constitution & Bylaws Non-Discrimination Provision
In our union Constitution's provision on non-discrimination, there are some potential changes to be made. During this item, we will hear the background, discuss action to take, and then vote on a proposal to alter our non-discrimination provision.

5. AFT-Wisconsin Convention Endorsements
As part of a larger state federation of professional worker unions in AFT-Wisconsin, we have a role to play in what our state fed does. At the 2009 convention, the state fed will make big decisions on some leadership and policy. There are implications for organizing, political action, and the future of our state fed, which impacts us as workers and as a union. This topic will have some education, discussion, and voting (on endorsing resolutions and candidates for state fed office).

6. Election Balloting
We need to formally elect some people to committees. This won't be an item for much in the way of discussion, but attendees at the GMM will vote by ballot on some committee membership candidates (note: only some committees have elected members, most are by volunteering).

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Union Workshop on Wednesday!

October 13, 2009

We are holding another workshop this Wednesday to help members understand some of the important basics about our union. Our workshops so far have been a great opportunity to members of the union, both new and continuing, to learn about and understand some of the fundamentals of unions, the TAA as a union, who we are and what we do, and how everyone fits into that schema.

The workshop will be this Wednesday, October 14th, at 5 PM at the TAA office.

We'll have some food and drink for all - not to mention a great program and fellow grads from across the university. We hope you can join us at the workshop. If you're planning to do so, please let us know with an RSVP to either TAA staffer Rob Henn or Co-President Peter Rickman.

posted by Webmaster

General Membership Meeting Next Wednesday

A quick reminder: our next General Membership Meeting will be on Wednesday, October 21st. The meeting will be at 5:30 PM in the Memorial Union (check "Today in the Union" for a room number).

General Membership Meetings, or GMMs, are where we make decisions as a democratic organization on union matters. They're also venues for updates and information on critical union business, like collective bargaining and our contract.

This upcoming meeting, for which we are finalizing an agenda, will include:

- An update on our 2007-2009 contract ratification and information on our work toward the 2009-2011 contract.
- Updates from our committees on the work they are doing to advance the union and the cause of grad student workers.
- Action on amending our Constitution & Bylaws to update our non-discrimination provisions.
- Action on issues with regard to the AFT-Wisconsin (the state federation of unions to which we belong) convention.

Attending a GMM is a great way to plug in to the union and to exercise your important rights and responsibilities as union members. We'll have some light food and beverage for folks, in addition to the scintillating union business. With any questions, please feel free to contact our Co-Presidents, Katie Lindstrom and Peter Rickman.

posted by Webmaster

Get Your T-Shirt...Last Chance!

Want to get your hands on a 2009-2010 TAA t-shirt? Now is your last chance. We're working to ensure that everyone who wants one gets one.

So if you want to get yourself one of those fine artifacts of fashion that are our t-shirts for this year, now's your (last chance). We'll close out requests at the end of this week, on Friday the 16th. It's really easy to get one though:

Just fill out this quick online form and someone will follow up with you.

posted by Webmaster

Halloween Party!

October 12, 2009

The TAA is excited to host the 4th annual Halloween Party at Eagle Heights! And you're invited.

This event grows out of the TAA Diversity Committee. In an attempt to build relationships with constituents typically underrepresented in the Union -- specifically, international students and parents -- the Diversity Committee initiated this partnership with Eagle Heights. The first year we planned for about 30 guests and hundreds came! This was both overwhelming and extremely encouraging. In subsequent years, we've averaged an attendance of about 400 people each year over the course of the event.

What can you expect to find at the Halloween Party?

All the festive fun you'd expect: a costume parade, scary stories, face painting, balloon twisting, candy, ice cream, snacks, crafts, and more. This is a fun, relaxed event where you can bring your family and enjoy community time with other graduate students and Union members. We hope you'll join us this year for the event on Sunday, November 1 from 3-5 p.m. at the Eagle Heights Community Center.

Questions? Contact our Diversity Committee chair Tessa Lowinske Desmond.

posted by Webmaster

Fall General Membership Meetings

October 5, 2009

In our last membership email and on the website, we inadvertantly created some minor confusion about dates for our fall General Membership Meetings (GMMs in union parlance).

But to clarify, the fall GMMs will be on October 21st (a Wednesday) and December 1st (a Tuesday). Both will take place at the Memorial Union, with the room listed on "Today in the Union." They will both begin at 5:30 PM.

For a bit more on GMMs, definitely check out the original posting. And if you have any questions, feel free to be in touch with Co-Presidents Katie Lindstrom and Peter Rickman.

posted by Webmaster

Basics & Beyond Union Workshop: October 14th

October 4, 2009

Following our successful union workshops earlier in the semester, we are going to be holding a few more of these sessions in the coming weeks. Topics will vary and so will the formats, but the bottom line will be consistent: our union workshops are about our members learning more about unions and the TAA, who we are and what we do, how folks can be involved, and the like. The workshops are mostly seminar-style, with presentations and interactive participation from attendees.

We have a workshop scheduled for Wednesday, October 14th at 5 PM. The workshop will be at the TAA Office. You can expect some free food and beverage and meeting grads from across the university -- in addition to the awesome program on union basics and beyond.

WHAT: Basics & Beyond Union Workshop
WHEN: Wednesday, October 14th, 5:00 PM
WHERE: TAA Office, 254 W. Gilman St. (above American Apparel)

What do we mean by "Basics & Beyond"? Well, it's like a primer workshop for union members, new and continuing, to learn about the fundamentals of our union. This includes a bit on what unions are and what they do, some things on the TAA as a union and how we do what we do, and some discussion of issues facing us as student-workers, unionists, and as a union.

The workshops are a great opportunity to plug in to your union from the ground level. So whether you're brand new to the TAA or if you've been around for a while -- even if you've been active -- there's a lot of good stuff in the workshop. We definitely encourage, nay invite, you to attend.

With any questions, please contact our Co-Presidents, Katie Lindstrom and Peter Rickman.

posted by Webmaster

 

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