Teaching Assistants' Association, UW-Madison

Site has moved

2010-08-23T15:28:00.002-05:00

The Teaching Assistants' Association website has been moved to http://taa-madison.org.

AGEL Parties

2010-05-17T16:56:00.003-05:00

The grad labor movement has always kept the "social" in labor as a social movement. With the TAA hosting all of the AFT-affiliated locals in the grad labor movement here this week for a conference, we're going to have a couple of parties for folks to attend that fit with AGEL traditions: a Welcome Party and a big ol' House Party. Here's the info...

Thursday -- Welcome to AGEL
Time: 8 PM
Location: Essen Haus

Saturday -- Traditional AGEL House Party
Time: 7 PM
Location: Home of Matt Moehr, 420 N. Paterson

TAA-Hosted AGEL Schedule

2010-05-17T16:54:00.012-05:00

Here's where you'll find a copy of the schedule for the 2010 spring conference of the Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals (AGEL), which the TAA is hosting this Thursday through Saturday.

If you're planning on attending sessions or workshops, please let us know at taa@taa-madison.org.

Thursday [Organizing Day -- Meet at TAA Office]
12:30 PM - Organizing Education & Training Workshop (TAA Office)
2:00 PM - Organizing Grad Student Workers (in the field)
4:00 PM - Organizing Debrief (TAA Office)
4:30 PM - AGEL Registration Opens (TAA Office)
8:00 PM - Welcome to AGEL Party (Essen Haus)
If you're going to join us for the Organizing Day (and you should!), RSVP on the Facebook event listing or via email.

Friday -- All sessions at Pyle Center (702 Langdon Street)
9:00 AM - Breakfast [ends at 9:30] (TAA Office)
9:45 AM - Opening Plenary (121 Pyle)
10:45 AM - Concurrent Sessions #1:
Data Management for Strong Unions (309 Pyle)
Dealing with FERPA (205 Pyle)
12:00 PM - Lunch Plenary [David Newby & David Hecker Keynote Panel] (Alumni Lounge, Pyle)
1:30 PM - Concurrent Sessions #2:
Grad Union Struggles & Victories 2009-2010 (309 Pyle)
Organizing MAs (205 Pyle)
3:00 PM - Break
3:15 PM - Concurrent Sessions #3:
Building Strong Local Political Programs (309 Pyle)
Confronting Department Closings (205 Pyle)
4:45 PM - Break
5:00 PM - AGEL Plenary: Preparing for AFT Convention 2010 (121 Pyle)

Saturday -- All sessions at Memorial Union
9:00 AM - Breakfast [ends at 9:30 AM] (TAA Office)
9:45 AM - Concurrent Sessions #4:
Long-Term Campaigns (Roundtable Room, 3rd Floor)
Leadership Development (Old Madison West, 3rd Floor)
11:15 AM - Concurrent Sessions #5:
Organizing RAs (Round Table Room, 3rd Floor)
Campus-Community-Union Relations (Old Madison West, 3rd Floor)
12:45 PM - Lunch
1:45 PM - AGEL Plenary: AFT Higher Education & AGEL (Old Madison East/West, 3rd Floor)
3:00 PM - Break
3:15 PM - AGEL Plenary: Building the Movement (Old Madison East/West, 3rd Floor)
4:30 PM - Break
4:45 PM - AGEL Business Meeting (Old Madison East/West, 3rd Floor)
7:00 PM - Dinner & Saturday Night Party

Organizing Day (Part of TAA-Hosted AGEL)

2010-05-17T16:54:00.007-05:00

In conjunction with the TAA hosting the 2010 spring conference of the Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals (AGEL), we are putting together an organizing day of action on Thursday. As the grad unionists from around the country come pouring into Madison, we will hold an organizing action to get TAA members and other grad unionists out together speaking with fellow grad student workers on our campus.

RSVP here if you're going to join us.

Here are the vital details: Meet up at the TAA Office at 12:30 PM on Thursday for lunch and an Education & Training workshop -- but make sure to be there on time; then we'll head out in teams to speak with fellow grads between 1:30 and 2 PM. We'll canvass workers from 2 to 4 PM and then debrief at the TAA Office after that; as importantly, we'll get over to the Welcome To AGEL party after that.

If you're going to join us for Thursday's AGEL kickoff organizing day of action, RSVP here. With any questions, contact organizing day of action coordinator Peter Rickman.

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2010-04-29T18:04:00.001-05:00

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Hosting the Spring 2010 AGEL Conference

2010-04-22T00:08:00.001-05:00

On May 21-23, the TAA will be hosting on campus the 2010 conference of the Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals (AGEL). AGEL is the grouping of all the AFT-affiliated grad student worker union locals, like the TAA, from all around the country.

At the conference, we will have workshops, plenary discussions and presentations, and education sessions to help grad unionists grow as leaders in the grad student worker labor movement. Some topics include "Struggles & Victories of Grad Unions in 2009-2010" and "Campus-Community-Union Relationships." AGEL is always a great time, with dozens of grad unionists from all over. We definitely hope you'll join us for what is shaping up to be a great conference. With any questions about the conference, drop us an email.

To register for the 2010 AGEL conference, click here.

Final General Membership Meeting of the Year: May 3rd

2010-04-21T23:39:00.004-05:00

We will hold our final General Membership Meeting of the academic year on Monday, May 3rd, starting at 5:30 PM (location TITU). You can RSVP for the GMM here.

At the GMM, we will address a few required items of unions business:

- Adopting the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year
- Handling officer stipends for the completed academic year
- Officially opening ballot for officer positions for next academic year

We will also address two other important topics:

- Hosting the AGEL conference
- Bargaining Update

The agenda for this GMM is yet to be finalized, but you can expect that it will look something like this. At the GMM, we will have (vegan-friendly) food and beverages.

Here's a quick explanation of the items of union business:

Nominations for officer elections will be closing on April 30th and at this meeting, our Elections Committee will begin distributing paper ballots. Voting takes place over the two weeks following the meeting.

We will also handle stipends for our current year's officers.

The major item will be adoption of our 2010-2011 budget. Our Finance Committee has prepared a budget that will be brought to the GMM by the Executive Board and the Finance Committee as a motion on the floor. Of particular importance in adopting a budget is making an allocation for an organizing drive during next academic year.

If you have any questions about the GMM, please drop an email to our Co-Presidents Katie Lindstrom and Peter Rickman.

Vote Now: No New Seg Fees!

2010-04-12T00:11:00.004-05:00

Fellow Grad Student Workers:

Today is the day and now is the time to vote No New Seg Fees!

Segregated fees are already over $1,000 per year. The seg fee increase referendum would hike them another 10%.

Click here to go to the ASM website, on which you can cast your vote against the seg fee increase referendum. Voting commences at 8 AM on Monday, April 12 and closes at 5 PM on Wednesday, April 14.

The TAA membership democratically decided to endorse a “no” vote on this referendum. When we endorsed a “no” vote, we also decided to build a campaign to oppose the referendum. Our No New Seg Fees! campaign has mobilized TAA members, graduate students, and undergraduate students in common cause around a shared concern of runaway seg fee increases. Now, we need you to join the campaign by voting “no” on the seg fee increase for a new Natatorium.

Voting down the seg fee increase referendum will save us money and send a message that we cannot afford any more new seg fees. This is your opportunity to make your voice heard on segregated fees. Today is the day and now is the time to vote No New Seg Fees!

Click here to cast your vote against the seg fee increase referendum.

Then, send along an email to your classmates, co-workers, and those in your department so that they take action along with you to vote “no.”

Also in ASM elections: Two TAA members are running for ASM Grad Student Council in the student government elections as well. We encourage you to vote for Michael Childers and Joseph Kuo.

No New Seg Fees Campaign Update -- Spring Break Edition

2010-03-31T00:22:00.005-05:00

Even over Spring Break, our No New Seg Fees! campaign continues to work toward Election Days (April 12-14). With just over a week until voting begins after we return from Break, now is the time to get involved on the campaign!

Take a look at our campaign website, at NoNewSegFees.org -- including more on who is a part of our campaign with both undergraduates and graduate students taking part. You can also find out more on the referendum, read some pieces from the campus press, and read an op-ed from one of our activists that ran in the Badger Herald along with one that should be forthcoming.

While you're at it, you should become a fan of No New Seg Fees! on Facebook. We are using the fan page to help organize on the campaign. Better yet, while you're becoming a fan yourself, send an email to all of your UW friends and classmates asking them to become a fan too.

Here's the most important part: We need you to get involved on the campaign. We will win the referendum vote -- and beat the seg fee hike -- if our supporters are involved with the grassroots organizing we need to build the campaign. So sign up to get involved with the No New Seg Fees! campaign to help out with postering, fliering, and tabling.

With any questions about the campaign, drop us an email.

No New Seg Fees Campaign Activity

2010-03-21T23:48:00.003-05:00

This week as well as over Spring Break, we have a lot going on with our No New Seg Fees! campaign. Now is the time for you to plug in to help us keep building this campaign to be successful come April 12-14. When we win, we'll not only stop an increase in our seg fees, but also send the message that our University community needs to take action of the tremendous adverse impact seg fees are having on grad student workers.

Here are some ways that you can get involved on the campaign in the next week or so -- but don't forget, you can just sign up here to get involved and we'll follow up with you.

Sign the Petition!
The first thing you should do is sign the No New Seg Fees! petition. This petition is letting us know who is committed to vote "No" on the seg fee increase referendum April 12-14.

After you sign the petition, send an email around to your friends, fellow students, and co-workers to ask them to sign the petition as well.

Button-Making Party
On Wednesday of this week, we'll be holding another button-making party at the TAA office. At the party, you can make your very own No New Seg Fees button to wear on campus. You can also make a few buttons -- or snag some that are already made -- to share with your friends as well. We'll have some snacks and beverages too -- so make sure to RSVP here if you plan on joining us. It'll start at 5:30 at the TAA office.

Building Postering & Fliering
We are hitting up every single academic building to put up posters and distribute fliers. We need to sign up to cover a building or two. So if you can help out with postering and fliering, please send us an email to let us know. Include in your email (a) if you have a preference on building(s), and (b) if you're OK with postering/fliering a different building as needed by the campaign.

Building Canvassing
While our campaign includes both graduate and undergraduate students, the base for the No New Seg Fees! campaign will be grad student workers. We're already seeing the $1000 per year in seg fees eat up between 10% and 15% of our take-home pay. So we have a lot at stake in this campaign. We need to connect with all grad student workers to educate them about the issue and get them signed on as a "No" vote for April 12-14.

We're going out to canvass grad student workers, and we need you to sign up to canvass folks in one building. Here's what you do: send us an email to sign up to canvass grad student workers in a building and let us know which building you prefer. We'll follow up with you to get you all the materials you need and some training so that you can go out and (a) have a great time doing it, while (b) being successful.

Canvassing fellow grad student workers is the biggest impact you can make -- and it's a lot of fun to do too. So sign up today so that we can win on the No New Seg Fees! campaign.

Spring Break Poster Party
If you're in town over spring break, on Wednesday, March 31st, you can join with us for a postering party. We'll gather at the TAA office at 11 AM to eat some bagels and drink some coffee before we head out. We're going to hit up all the buildings that are not yet covered with posters to get up all the No New Seg Fees! posters possible. If you can join us, shoot us an email.

With any questions about how you can get involved on the No New Seg Fees! campaign or with any questions about the campaign, please drop us an email.

Contract Up on Our Website, To Be Distributed

2010-03-18T22:44:00.003-05:00

After some delay, we now have in our hands the "official" contract that covers TAA-represented grad student workers. We have posted it on our website for everyone. Soon enough (eventually), the UW administration will distribute printed versions of the contract to the various departments throughout the university. But in the meantime, feel free to refer to the contract posted on our website and to send around the link to people in your department.

With any questions about the contract, feel free to contact our Vice President of Bargaining, Kevin Gibbons or our staff representatives, Rob Henn and Claiborne Hill.

Get Involved with the No New Seg Fees! Campaign

2010-03-14T22:59:00.003-05:00

Our No New Seg Fees! campaign is being built from the grassroots. We as students have everything at stake here -- and not just a 10% hike in our seg fees that are already over $1000 per year. This campaign is also about protecting access to higher education and combating the idea that market pricing can be applied to the academy. When it comes down to it, we need to stand up as students and as members of the UW community to say, quite simply, "No New Seg Fees!"

That's why we need you to get involved with our grassroots campaign.

Students from all corners of the University are getting involved. There are grad student workers from social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and engineering all taking roles on the campaign. In addition to grad students, undergrads are joining the campaign and we stand taller in solidarity with them.

All of us have a role to play on the campaign -- and there are lots of ways for you to get involved.

Stand up with your fellow students to say "No New Seg Fees!" and join our campaign. Take a moment here to let us know how you can be involved, and a fellow No New Seg Fees! activist will follow up with you.

This is our university, this is our campaign. Let's stand up and say together, "No New Seg Fees!" by running a winning grassroots campaign.

With any questions, drop us an email.

No New Seg Fees! Button-Making Happy Hour Tuesday

2010-03-14T22:53:00.005-05:00

On Tuesday at 5:00 PM, the No New Seg Fees! campaign will be hosting a button-making happy hour party at the TAA office.

At the party, we'll create some high-quality homemade buttons to spread the message and build momentum on our No New Seg Fees! campaign. We will provide the materials and you can create your own button -- or you can just snag one of the main campaign buttons we're crafting. We'll also have some snacks and beverages for all the supporters who are joining us for the party.

So come on out Tuesday, March 16th at 5:00 PM for a No New Seg Fees! button-making party and help us continue building our campaign to stop the seg fee increase referendum.

With any questions, drop us an email at taa@taa-madison.org.

No New Seg Fees! Online Petition

2010-03-14T22:46:00.003-05:00

As part of our No New Seg Fees! campaign, we are circulating a petition among UW students. The idea behind the petition is to identify students who will pledge to vote "NO" on the seg fee increase referendum on April 12-14.

We are circulating the petition through a variety of channels. When we are out organizing department-by-department, we will be speaking with grad student workers about the campaign and asking folks to sign. Likewise, as we are tabling and speaking with UW students at-large, we will be asking people to sign. As importantly, to reach as many people as possible, we are circulating an online version of the petition too.

If you support the No New Seg Fees campaign, sign the petition today!

Then, copy the link and send it around to all of your UW friends, classmates, and students. The more people that we reach, the better our likelihood to win on the referendum and stop the hike in seg fees.

No New Seg Fees!

2010-03-13T00:37:00.005-06:00

The TAA is building a campaign to get UW students to vote "No" on the seg fee increase referendum on April 12-14. If passed, segregated fees will rise another 10% to pay for $50 million gym at a time when our university struggles to invest in the education functions that make UW great.

We are building the No New Seg Fees! campaign with graduate and undergraduate students alike. When we are successful, we will not only stop another unnecessary and unaffordable hike in seg fees, we will send the message to University leaders that action must be taken on seg fees for all of us. This campaign is part of a longer-term fight by the TAA to take on seg fees and the impact they have on us as grad student workers.

There are lots of ways for you to get involved on the campaign -- and it is critical that all of us get involved in some way. The first thing that you should do is it become a fan of "No New Seg Fees!" on Facebook. In less than a week, we've added over 100 new fans a day. Become a fan yourself and then invite your fellow grad student workers and fellow UW students to become a fan as well.

Our grassroots "No New Seg Fees!" campaign is contingent upon rank-and-file grad student workers activating around the issue. So, the next thing that you can do is to join us on Tuesday at 5:30 PM at the TAA office for a button-making party. We will have materials for everyone to make their very own "No New Seg Fees!" button to wear in support of the campaign. Folks can also make extra buttons to hand out to friends on campus. We'll have snacks for all -- and as importantly, lots of fellow "No New Seg Fees!" supporters there. Again, 5:30 PM Tuesday, March 16th at the TAA office.

This campaign is about students standing up for students. So we need you to join the campaign to help spread our message of "No New Seg Fees!" We need folks to put up posters, distribute fliers, and speak with grad student workers, graduate students at-large, and undergrads. To get involved on the campaign, click here to let us know how you can be involved -- a fellow "No New Seg Fees!" activist will follow up with you.

We have five weeks to organize and win, standing up for ourselves to say "No New Seg Fees!"

Seg Fee Referendum Campaign Meeting Wednesday

2010-03-05T00:05:00.004-06:00

At our February 23rd General Membership Meeting, we voted to endorse a "NO" vote on the segregated fee increase referendum. To win on this referendum, we are building a campaign. Last week, at our Stewards' Council Meeting, we started planning and taking action on our campaign.

This week, we are holding another campaign planning and action meeting of our Stewards' Council on Wednesday night at the TAA office. The meeting will begin at 5:30 PM. We want you there to help us take next steps in building a strong campaign to win on the referendum. The more people we have involved, the bigger impact our campaign will have, and the better we can fight back against seg fee increases. So join us on Wednesday night as we build the campaign.

If you can be there, RSVP to our Stewards' Council Co-Chairs, Ari Eisenberg and Katie Weigel.

To sign up to get involved, even if you can't make the meeting, just let us know you want to join the campaign.

Wednesday Stewards' Council Meeting On "Vote No" Campaign

2010-02-28T23:52:00.002-06:00

In last week's General Membership Meeting, we voted to endorse a "NO" vote on the upcoming referendum to increase Segregated Fees. When we decided to endorse a "NO" vote, we also decided that we would make this our priority organizing campaign.

So, we need you to get involved on the campaign!

There are two ways that you can get involved on our campaign to beat the seg fee increase. One thing you can do is to sign up to join the campaign by filling out a quick online form here. A fellow TAA activist will follow up with you to get you plugged in.

The other way to get involved is to join our Stewards' Council meeting this Wednesday evening to make decisions on how we will build our campaign. Here are the relevant details:

WHAT: Stewards' Council Meeting to Plan the "Vote No" Campaign
WHEN: Wednesday, March 3rd
WHERE: TAA Office, 254 W. Gilman St
Note: We will have food and beverage for all attending the meeting, so we need to plan on the right number of people attending -- please RSVP to our Stewards' Council co-chairs Ari Eisenberg and Katie Weigel.

Campaign to Fight Back Against Segregated Fee Increases

2010-02-27T17:00:00.003-06:00

When we decided at our last General Membership Meeting to endorse a "NO" vote on the upcoming Segregated Fee increase referendum, the assembled members also voted to run a campaign around this. We will work to organize grad students and undergrads alike to vote "NO" on increasing segregated fees.

We need you to get involved with the campaign organizing!

This fits with our longer-term project of taking on the issue of Segregated Fees; it is also an exciting, urgent, and important campaign for our union. With just under 6 weeks until voting on the seg fee increase referendum takes place, we need to build a campaign quickly. It's six weeks to fight back on Seg Fee increases -- they are already over $1000 per year and the referendum would raise them over $100 more.

That's why it's so important that you get involved with the campaign

Our work as a union, on this campaign and otherwise, is based upon rank-and-file grad student workers getting involved in the TAA. We need you to join the campaign so that we can win here on stopping Seg Fee increases and build momentum to take on Seg Fees in the longer-term.

Join the campaign today to fight back against Seg Fees!

TAA Endorses "No" Vote on Segregated Fee Increase

2010-02-27T16:56:00.003-06:00

At last week's General Membership Meeting, the assembled membership took up the issue of the impending referendum to raise Segregated Fees to build a new Natatorium on campus.

The University has proposed increasing Segregated Fees, already over $500 per semester and $1000 per year, by over $100 per year in order to pay for a capital building project that would construct a new Natatorium on campus. This increase in Segregated Fees would begin in 2013. A referendum vote on this proposal to raise Segregated Fees will take place on April 12-14. [For some campus newspaper coverage and comments, take a look here.] For many of the people voting on this potential increase in Segregated Fees -- with the exception of grad students -- the proposed raise in costs will never affect their wallets. The referendum has been constructed to be voted upon now, to be paid for later.

After educational workshops early in the General Membership Meeting and discussion on the floor, the assembled TAA membership voted on what position the TAA would take on the referendum. The General Membership voted to endorse a "NO" vote on the referendum to increase Segregated Fees.

In the coming days, we will be putting together a campaign around the "NO" vote on the Seg Fee increase referendum as part of our longer-term work to take on the issue Segregated Fees. Stay tuned for more information.

General Membership Meeting Tuesday!

2010-02-22T14:56:00.002-06:00

Our major General Membership Meeting will be taking place on Tuesday (February 23rd) at 5:30 PM at the Pres House.

This General Membership Meeting is highly important for a number of decisions we will be making as a union. Our union is a democratic organization that makes decisions collectively on the big issues in front of us. Two of those issues for grad student workers right now are our contract bargaining and what to do about segregated fees.

Here is the tentative agenda for the GMM on Tuesday (which will start right at 5:30 PM):

1. Small-Group Education Stations Here, TAA activists will conduct rotating 5 minute mini-workshops on the issues in front of us to provide background. Member democracy depends upon informed citizenship in the union, so this will prime our discussions and debates in agenda items #2 and #3.

2. Bargaining Strategy & Segregated Fees Discussion and Debate Here, we will discuss and debate potential avenues for how we will approach wages and segregated fees in bargaining and beyond, including a potential comprehensive campaign around them both. This item includes balloting on bargaining and segregated fee issues.

3. Natatorium Segregated Fee Referendum Discussion and Debate Here, we will discuss and debate the impending referendum on increasing segregated fees for a new Natatorium on campus. This item includes voting on how the TAA will approach the referendum.

You can RSVP here on the Facebook event listing. While you're at it, you should become a fan of the TAA on Facebook too.

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

General Membership Meeting February 23rd!

2010-02-12T23:03:00.004-06:00

At our upcoming General Membership Meeting (GMM) on February 23rd, the TAA will be making major decisions that impact all grad student workers. We will be taking up for discussion and decision two big issues. One will be our strategy for bargaining our new contract. The other will be our strategy for addressing the impact of Segregated Fees. We will also discuss how we will implement these strategies through the work of our union.

Having a strong turnout at this meeting is crucial for our union and for our priorities of grad student workers. We are a democratic union, so the more people who participate in decisions like these, the better the decisions we make will be and the more those decisions will speak to and speak for all grad student workers. All grads are welcome at this GMM.

The General Membership Meeting will be on Thursday, February 23rd at 5:30 PM at the Pres House.

To RSVP for the GMM on February 23rd, please take a moment to fill out this quick online form.

On the form, you can also indicate that you would be able to help spread the word about the GMM to fellow grads. We want this meeting to have lots of grads there to exercise the union democracy that makes the TAA strong. So if you can do something to help spread the word, you can help build the meeting and our union. So fill out the form to let us know how you can help recruit people!

With any questions, please be in touch with TAA Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

Union Activism Through the TAA Spring Organizing Campaign

2010-02-12T23:00:00.002-06:00

We have kicked off our spring organizing campaign, and we need you to get involved!

Our spring organizing is focused upon three main themes: bargaining our new contract, addressing Segregated Fees for all grads, and building a larger, stronger union.

One thing around which we are organizing right now too is to recruit grads to attend our February 23rd General Membership Meeting. At this meeting, we will be making big decisions on the collective bargaining and Seg Fees topics around which our main thrust of organizing is centered.

To get involved with our spring organizing campaign, take a moment to fill out this quick online form.

A fellow TAA activist will follow up with you to get you plugged in with the campaign.

On the campaign, we are getting out organize in departments and buildings all across campus. This means that we are having individual face-to-face conversations with as many grad student workers as possible about the priorities of our union and how we as grad student workers are working through the TAA. Having these kinds of conversations is the most effective - and fun - way to communicate between the TAA and the grad student workers who make up our union. We are building our campaign and our union, as legendary organizer Cesar Chavez would say, one conversation with one person at a time.

Broadly speaking, we can think of organizing as changing of structural power dynamics by connecting and activating networks of people, resources, and ideas. By having these conversations with grad student workers on our organizing campaign, we are connecting all of us with one another around our priorities to activate all of us through the TAA as our union.

To run a successful campaign, we need you to be involved -- So sign up to join the campaign today!

With any questions, please be in touch with our Co-Presidents, Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

Union Activism for Those Who Don't Like Talking To Strangers

2010-02-12T22:31:00.003-06:00

We like to say that our union, like the University, works because we do. As a democratic, member-driven union, the TAA functions because of the involvement and activism of our membership.

At the meta-level (a term only a grad student could use!), the TAA works through organizing, collective bargaining, and political action to advance the priorities of grad student workers. Perhaps most importantly among this is organizing*, which we do a lot of on the implementation level through having one-on-one conversations with fellow grad student workers about the role and work of our union.

While organizing like this, through individual-level conversations, is incredibly important for the success of our union, it is not the only program of import. To do good organizing, there are a lot of 'behind-the-scenes' projects, and these are critical to the success of the union too.

Some people do not like to engage in the face-to-face conversations with 'strangers' implicit in organizing. While we would argue that anyone can do it and that everyone should, we recognize that some people want to contribute to their union without doing this kind of work. And that's cool too.

Right now, as part of our ongoing organizing efforts around contract negotiations, Segregated Fees, and building a stronger union, the TAA has a number of projects on which members can get involved without going out to speak with strangers.

We want you to get involved with our union! If being involved in projects that don't require speaking with strangers sounds like something in which you might be interested, just fill out this quick online form.

A fellow union activist will be in touch with you to get you informed about the project(s) you might want to be involved with and to get you plugged in.

For example, we are working on updating and re-building our current membership database. We need activists to help verify and input data as well as to manage what's already there. As another example, some folks have expressed an interest in getting new TAA bulletin boards up in every department (guaranteed by our contract). And there are always a variety of administrative and organizing-support tasks and projects on which to work.

The most important thing is that you get involved somehow. For those who want to dive in with organizing fellow grad student workers or to get involved with a union committee (e.g. Bargaining, Contract Enforcement, Stewards' Council), awesome! For those who want to be involved in the union through projects without organizing fellow grad student workers through direct canvassing, that's cool too. Again, we just want you to get involved with your union.

With any questions, please be in touch with our Co-Presidents, Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

* A good working definition of "organizing" is the changing of structural power dynamics by connecting and activating networks of people, resources, and ideas.

TAA Co-Hosting GSC Happy Hour This Friday

2010-02-12T22:18:00.005-06:00

This coming Friday, February 19th, the TAA is co-hosting a Happy Hour with the UW Graduate Student Collaborative (GSC). We'll be at Paisan's restaurant, overlooking Lake Monona. The GSC periodically puts on Happy Hours like this to provide grads an opportunity to meet up with and have a good time with one another. They approached us about putting on a Happy Hour together, and we jumped at the chance. Our union is a collective of grad student workers, so it is important to be connected with fellow grads.

Here are the relevant details:

WHAT: GSC + TAA Happy Hour
WHEN: Friday, February 19th; 5:00 PM to ???
WHERE: Paisan's restaurant, 131 W. Wilson St.

For the Happy Hour, food and drinks (appetizer fare) are cheap. Come on by to hang out and have a great time with fellow grads. With any questions, contact TAA Co-President Katie Lindstrom.

Volunteer Night (and Day) This Week

2010-02-06T22:46:00.002-06:00

As noted last week, we are reviving an old TAA tradition by bringing back Volunteer Night.

These events are a combination social gathering of grad student workers and union activism. The premise is simple: get TAA members together to have a little fun and hang out while working on some union projects that we can complete in our office.

This week, we are hosting two events:

On Thursday, February 11th, we will hold a Volunteer Night. Starting at 5:30 PM and running for an hour and a half or so, we will work on putting together a mailing to go to non-member grad student workers who are in our bargaining unit. We'll have some food and beverage, do a little collating, stapling, and folding, and get some important union work done while we hang out. If you're down for Thursday Volunteer Night, drop an RSVP email to Co-President Peter Rickman; he'll be hosting Thursday's Volunteer Night this week.

On Friday, February 12th, we will host a Volunteer Day. This is an experiment of sorts, our first Volunteer Day (as opposed to just at night). Starting at 9 AM and running all day, we will work on doing updates to our database to manage our information better -- and to better organize our union. People can sign up for a 2-hour shift (or whatever works for you) throughout the day. So if you're down for Friday Volunteer Day, drop an RSVP email with a time that works for you to Co-President Katie Lindstrom; she'll be hosting Friday's Volunteer Day along with Membership Secretary Joe Abisaid.

Both Volunteer Night and Volunteer Day this week will be at the TAA Office, 254 W. Gilman St. The office is at the corner of State and Gilman, up above American Apparel, with the entrance on Gilman St.

See you this week for a good time and union activism as we bring back an old tradition of the TAA.

TAA On The Facebook

2010-02-06T22:28:00.002-06:00

The TAA is on the Facebook. If you're on the Facebook, become a fan.

We'll use our Facebook fan page to send out quick news, information, and updates, to post pictures, and the like.

You should (a) become a fan yourself and then (b) suggest that your fellow grads do the same.

UMass Postdocs Unionize

2010-02-04T22:49:00.002-06:00

Another victory for the academic labor movement occurred this week in Massachusetts. At the three campuses of UMass, including the flagship research institution at Amherst, postdoctoral researchers won union recognition.

Teaching, research, and graduate assistants at UMass unionized years ago. Postdocs add a few hundred more academic workers to union ranks. In addition to UMass, postdocs are unionized in the University of California System, including at Berkeley and UCLA, as well as Rutgers. Teaching assistants in the UC System are also unionized, with research assistants likely organizing soon. Likewise, teaching assistants, research assistants at Rutgers are unionized.

The postdocs at UMass organized with the UAW as PRO/UAW, the Postdoctoral Researchers Organization. The UAW, originally begun as a union of autoworkers which now includes tens of thousands of professional workers including academics, represents teaching and research assistants in the University of California System and at the University of Washington. The postdocs, teaching, and research assistants at Rutgers are organized with AFT.

This victory for academics represents the latest win for workers who make universities work. Nationwide, nearly 50,000 teaching assistants, research assistants, and postdocs have formed unions to address the challenges academic workers face. In addition, adjuncts, lecturers, and tenured and tenure-track faculty have unionized at dozens of campuses, representing tens of thousands of more academic workers.

AFT, the national affiliate union of the TAA, represents the bulk of these academic workers. AFT has "jurisdiction," or the agreed-upon right to organize among national unions, in academic workers in most states, including Wisconsin. The UAW has won unionization campaigns in some public sector universities among grad assistants and postdocs. While private university graduate student workers lost the right to unionize in a 2004 decision by the Bush National Labor Relations Board, a growing number of public university grads, postdocs, and faculty have the right to unionize. The AFT mostly has jurisdiction with public universities while the UAW mostly has jurisdiction in private universities.

Major GMM February 23rd

2010-01-31T20:34:00.008-06:00

We have a major General Membership Meeting coming up on February 23rd, so it's time to put it on your calendar and plan on being there.

While we have a GMM on February 4th to handle some basic business carried over from our December GMM, the GMM on February 23rd is going to be big. Big in number of people there, and big in what we address.

The GMM on February 23rd will be about the direction our union is taking with contract negotiations and our approach to winning changes on how Segregated Fees impact grad student workers. We will make decisions at this meeting on both of these topics -- they are inextricably linked so it will be like one big discussion.

We are starting the 2009-2011 contract negotiations and our Bargaining Team has been hard at work, translating the input, feedback, ideas, and preferences of our membership into proposals and a bargaining platform. They will put forward the product of that work at this meeting for review and debate, along with that of our overall bargaining strategy. Also, we have consistently heard that the top issue for grads is the adverse impact of Segregated Fees. We will be running a comprehensive campaign in conjunction with our contract bargaining to take action on Seg Fees. At this meeting our ad hoc Seg Fees workgroup will put forward alternatives and recommendations on how to proceed with our campaign. Your voices and votes on where our union goes with these two topics will be critical to the future of our union and what we can accomplish together as grad student workers.

Union democracy in a local like ours has two components. We debate and make decisions collectively on the major policies of the union. We carry out those decisions collectively through our work in the union, be it through our committees, our Stewards' Council, or our elected leadership. We run our union in the full sense -- so we need you to be there as a participating member to make our union work.

With any questions about the General Membership Meeting on February 23rd, be in touch with our Co-Presidents, Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

TAA Volunteer Night!

2010-01-31T20:34:00.007-06:00

Reviving an old tradition, the TAA Volunteer Night is back!

We will be holding a volunteer night on February 11th at 5:30 PM at the TAA office. The volunteer night will go for a couple hours at most, with food and beverage for all.

At volunteer nights, members of the union get together to accomplish two things:

First, we have a great time with lots of grad student workers hanging out.

Second, we complete projects of the union that require lots of people working in a concentrated fashion.

At the upcoming volunteer nights, complete with food and beverage for all, we will (a) do some envelope-stuffing for a mailing to non-member grad student workers in our bargaining unit of TAs and PAs and (b) work on building our database of all grad student workers in our bargaining unit.

These are easy, low-intensity tasks that are really important for the work of union. And when we do them together as a group, it makes for light work for all -- allowing us to have a great time, hanging out together.

If you can make it there, please RSVP to our Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom so that we can plan the right amount of food and beverage.

Stewards' Council Kickoff!

2010-01-31T20:33:00.003-06:00

We will be holding our Stewards' Council spring semester kickoff meeting on February 8th at 6:30 PM at the TAA office. You're invited to attend to get involved in the crucial work of our Stewards' Council this semester as we organize around out contract negotiations, Segregated Fees, and building our union.

Not a "steward"? No problem. "Steward" in the TAA is more like a term of art, not science. "Stewards" build and ensure the continued strength of our union across campus. In the past, "steward" has meant a singular person by department. But now, we are approaching this more ecumenically, with "stewards" being the activist-leaders for the union.

The kickoff is going to be a great event -- not quite a meeting, not quite a party. We're going to plug into the work of the union for the spring semester on our organizing projects. We're going to make decisions on particular pieces in the framework of our organizing plan. We're going to get to know one another better and have a good time doing it. And yes, we're going to have food and beverage for all.

The Kickoff itself will start at 6:30 PM. But at 6 PM, we'll do a run-through of what went down at our TAA Leadership Retreat from two weeks ago. We'll serve food at 6 PM as we cover the material from the retreat.

We want everyone who's been involved in the union, or is interested in getting involved, to be there. Make sure to let us know that you'll be there. RSVP to our Stewards' Council Co-Chairs Ari Eisenberg and Katie Weigel or be in touch with them if you have any questions.

General Membership Meeting: February 4th

2010-01-27T22:43:00.003-06:00

Our first General Membership Meeting of the spring semester will take place...

Thursday, February 4th
5:30 PM
2231 Humanities

The agenda for this meeting will begin by finishing up the open business from our December General Membership Meeting, including handling Constitutional changes on non-discrimination and voting on fall semester officer stipends.

This meeting will also include an announcement about the spring conference of the Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals and a report from our ad hoc Segregated Fee workgroup, created at the December GMM.

Grad School: Bad Decision?

2010-01-11T16:04:00.005-06:00

One of the hotter pieces floating around and linked to in the higher ed and academic labor blogospheres of late has been Thomas Benton's piece in the Chronicle, "Graduate School In the Humanities: Just Don't Go.

We pass on the link for you to check out at your leisure. Note that it refers back to an historical piece Benton wrote as well, which you can find here.

While the narrative centers upon grad school in the humanities, the points he makes are relevant and can be extrapolated to grads in social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. Though it is tough to find short pieces that weave together all the disparate elements of the changing (and changed) nature of academia and the forces driving it (though longer pieces are in no short supply), Benton's piece from the Chronicle encapsulates many of the sentiments we hear from fellow grads at times.

Of course, most of us do not think that grad school was a bad decision. We're committed to the idea and ideals of academia -- many of us are just frustrated with what we find and the all-too-often sense of powerlessness we feel to do anything about these frustrations.

The TAA has a long and proud tradition, stronger at times than others, of positioning itself and acting as a vehicle to address some of the systemic problems in academia. Unions among academic workers like grads are systemic responses to these problems, capable of being countervailing institutions not only on instrumental, 'transactional' concerns like wages and benefits for "casual" academic workers but also the 'transformational' concerns like a broader system-change, be it the casualization of academic work, the commodification of higher learning, and the market pressures on teaching and research. Unions provide agency for us as academic workers to no longer be powerless subjects of the forces swirling around us -- our union is our vehicle for collective action.

Now is the time for larger conversations to be happening among academic workers about the realities we face in a crisis economy, diminishment of the academy, and the nature of who we are and what we do. Pieces like that linked to above are part of the conversation, and ideally, are a spark for further concerted action to build the kind of space we want for the university and the academy-at-large.

General Membership Meeting This Thursday!

2009-11-30T00:40:00.003-06:00

Our final General Membership Meeting of the semester is coming up this Thursday, December 3rd. It will be at 5:30 PM at the Pres House off of Library Mall.

If you have any questions, just shoot us an email.

Here's what the tentative agenda looks like right now:

1. Bargaining Strategy Session
2. Political Education Committee Projects & Lay of the Land
3. AFT-Wisconsin Update
4. UIUC GEO Strike Storytime
5. Constitution Revisions
6. Treasurer's Report for Fall Semester
7. Officer Stipends

Please keep in mind that the agenda could get revised, with new topics being added, or items being re-shuffled. But this is what the meeting will look like at its core.

Here's a brief description of what you can expect from each item:

1. Bargaining Strategy Session
With our 2007-2009 contract now in place, our Bargaining Team has worked hard to prepare for the 2009-2011 negotiations. After getting lots of membership input, conducting a bargaining survey of members, and preparing planks and the platform, we are getting down to business. By Thursday's GMM, we will have had two "sidebar" meetings with the UW Administration, including the Chancellor.

We have some big decisions to make as a union right now about how we approach this bargaining round. The state has offered zero percent wage increases. We have a lot of working conditions and "non-economic" issues on the table. There is an opportunity to perhaps see movement on the segregated fee issue.

As a union, we make decisions democratically on how to move forward with our contract negotiations. So this will be a very important discussion of key priorities, what we are willing to do, how we can make things happen, and the general direction of bargaining in which our membership would like to move.

VP of Bargaining Kevin Gibbons and TAA bargaining staffer Rob Henn will lead this discussion of members.

2. Political Education Committee Projects & Lay of the Land
The Political Education Committee has been working to put together a full slate of projects for the spring semester and beyond. Not the least of which is our creation and development of a new political platform. Political Education Committee chair Peter Rickman and PEC activist Jason Tatum will walk members through the process for how we will create a democratic political platform and what we are going to do with it.

3. AFT-Wisconsin Update
At our last GMM, we voted on matters going to the AFT-Wisconsin convention. We will briefly update members on what occurred at the convention with the federation of unions of which we are a part. What happens in the federation at-large impacts us on a number of levels.

One of those issues will be the organizing drive on which AFT-Wisconsin is working to unionize faculty and academic staff at UW System schools. TAA Co-President and AFT-Wisconsin delegate Peter Rickman will provide a brief update and answer any questions members have.

4. UIUC GEO Strike Storytime
A week or so ago, our brothers and sisters of the GEO at the University of Illinois went out on strike over tuition remission. We sent a staffer and multiple activists down to Urbana-Champaign to support the strike. They will report back on the full story, what happened, and their experiences.

5. Constitution Revisions
We need to perform a small revision to our governing Constitution with regard to our non-discrimination provision. At our last GMM, membership voted to create an ad hoc committee to draft up language to address these issues; at this meeting, they will present their work and membership will debate and vote on making needed changes.

6. Treasurer's Report for Fall Semester
We are going to have our Treasurer do a mid-year, fall semester report on the finances of the TAA. As many of you know, we voted in the spring of 2009 on a budget that allocated funds for increased organizing and leadership development time from our staffers. Our Treasurer, Michael Childers, will report on where our finances are at (hint: they're in good shape).

7. Officer Stipends
While our Co-Presidents and Treasurer are not paid by the union, we traditionally provide a stipend to them for each semester of work. At the final GMM of each semester, we consider stipends for these officers.

TAA 2007-2009 Contract Summary

2009-11-24T01:19:00.000-06:00

Our Vice President of Bargaining Kevin Gibbons and bargaining staffer Rob Henn put together a fact-sheet for the new 2009-2011 contract. Take a look below and let us know if you have any questions or if you'd like to receive a .pdf copy.

On Wednesday, October 28, Governor Jim Doyle signed our new contract into law. Huzzah! Here's a guide to the new TAA contract; a guide to exactly how you, working through your union, have made the lives of you and your fellow employees at the UW-Madison better. Key parts are in bold.

New Wage Rates

There are now two tiers of TA experience: Standard and Senior. The Standard category was created by raising the (former) Regular pay rate (for first-year TAs) up to the level of the (former) Experienced category. As a result, in this contract first-year TAs have earned a 9.25% wage increase! The employees in other categories did very well, too: there will be an over 5% increase for all other TAs, PAs, and Grader/Readers.

The payroll for November was based on the new rates; thus the paycheck on December 1 will be paid based on the new rates. Furthermore, an additional paycheck will be distributed on December 23: this check will offer backpay for the Fall 2009 semester. Specifically, it will cover the difference between the pay received by each PA and TA from July 1 to October 31 and the pay each would have received had the contract been approved before July 1. This amount will differ from person to person because it is based on the terms of his or her appointment.

Lump Sum Payments for those on the April 2009 Payroll

The Short: Non-hourly TAs and PAs on the April 2009 payroll will receive a check or deposit of $718.62.

The Long: This is not "backpay" (i.e. pay for time worked in the past), but an attempt to recognize that the contract ideally would have been ratified in the Spring semester, and to pay those non-hourly TAs and PAs who were working then accordingly. The lion's share of this payment ($623.62) represents an equal distribution of all the money not spent on TAs and PAs by the State of Wisconsin during the 2007-2009 period, minus the slightly higher health care premium payments owed by TAs and PAs during the same period.

Note: If you were on the April 2009 payroll but are no longer a student/employee at UW-Madison, you must keep your bank account and/or contact information up-to-date to receive the lump sum payment. You can do that here.

The following amounts will be distributed on December 1st, in addition to a paycheck at the new, higher pay rate:

* $95 lump sum to all TAs/PAs on the April 2009 payroll except those paid solely as Grader/Readers.

* $623.62 lump sum to TAs & PAs on the April 2009 payroll except hourly PAs and Graders/Readers.

Note: For those who are entitled to both lump sums, they will be combined into one check or deposit of $718.62.

Other Highlights of the New Contract

* Guaranteed job postings on the web for open positions

* Guaranteed access to a computer with internet and printing capability, plus necessary software

* Greater variety of diversity training options

* Higher standards for good supervisor behavior

* Guarantee of three clean and well-equipped lactation rooms on campus

* Higher mileage reimbursement rate for required car and motorcycle use

* Expanded definition of TAs' "experience" to include K-12 teaching as well as other college teaching

* Guidelines for the TAA's access to department orientations

* Only a reasonable and modest increase in health care costs (from $13.50 to $15.50 for single plans, from $34 to $39 for family plans)

* Increased funding for child care

* Expanded use of sick leave to include half-days

* Nearly comprehensive policy for catastrophic leave of absence (a leave of absence necessitated by illness or need to care for family members). This policy generally allows for:

o Continued health insurance for the balance of the semester (up to 5 months)

o Continued tuition remission despite the need to withdraw early in the semester

o Payment of stipend up to the last date of attendance at work

o Access to the Dean of Students' emergency fund

Student Labor Solidarity Achieving Results, Undergrad Version

2009-11-19T23:32:00.002-06:00

The contemporary labor movement is diverse. We include factory and construction workers, as well as service sector, low-wage, and immigrant workers. We include professionals like doctors, nurses, lawyers, and dentists (many of whom are in unions affiliated with our own AFT). We include academic workers like professors, researchers, support staff, post-docs, and grad student workers (most of whom are affiliated with AFT as well). Today, we are even more cognizant of the students, especially undergraduates, who are part of a new generation of labor activists.

For about 15 years, student-labor activists have created a movement to stand up for worker justice, leading the way in the fight against sweatshops, supporting blue-collar and technical workers on campuses, and educating a generation who has grown up largely without strong union identification. One of the pioneers of the student-labor movement got its start at UW-Madison, much like our own TAA (the nation's first grad student worker union in 1969). SLAC, or the Student Labor Action Coalition, was the first chapter of USAS, United Students Against Sweatshops, a nationwide student-labor solidarity coalition.

The student-labor and anti-sweatshop movement have achieved major victories over the years, especially in the way of ending relationships between the universities these students attend and apparel licensees that sell campus clothing with university logos. This has greatly affected the sweatshop industry globally.

SLAC has won major victories at UW-Madison that range from ending contracts with egregious sweatshop licensee violators to getting the UW to join a nationwide university consortium against sweatshops to simply having a shared governance committee on-campus that oversees UW licenses for apparel.

This week, SLAC and its broader movement won a huge victory. As the New York Times reported licensee Russell Athletic reversed course and re-opened a factory it had shut down after workers there unionized to stand up for their rights and interests. This happened because universities like the UW either cut their contracts with Russell or threatened to do so if the company did not clean up its act. These universities only acted because of the organizing and action of groups like SLAC and other USAS chapters. Because SLAC got the Russell contract with UW cut previously, this allows Russell to re-apply for a contract with our university. They can only do so by continuing its newfound commitment to recognizing the necessities of worker justice in their factories worldwide.

The success of SLAC and the student-labor movement should hearten other labor activists, union members, and all of academic labor. Our struggles and our collective action can and does have an impact. We are always happy to call SLAC an ally of ours on the UW campus and we congratulate them on their latest major victory.

TAA Constitution Revision: Non-Discrimination Clause

2009-11-18T00:27:00.003-06:00

One piece of the TAA Constitution is up for review at the next General Membership Meeting on December 3rd. Making decisions on our Constitution, the union's core governing document, is a really important job for all union members. So you should definitely be at general membership meeting to participate in some key union governance and some good old fashioned participatory democracy.

The non-discrimination clause needs to be reviewed as we are now an official registered student organization on campus, in addition to being, well, a chartered union. In becoming a registered student org (which provides us with some rights on campus), the UW required that we add to our Constitution's non-discrimination clause the category of veterans. In true TAA fashion, we took this as an opportunity to expand greatly our non-discrimination clause with more than that, to ensure that this piece of our Constitution accurately reflects our commitment to ecumenical inclusion and democratic solidarity.

Our Constitution is our primary governing document, so we need to take care when amending it. Constitutional changes take place through multiple votes. At the last general membership meeting, we created an ad hoc committee to work up new language for the non-discrimination clause. The ad hoc committee met and drafted language, moving it along to our Executive Board and a review from our Diversity Committee. The Executive Board will now bring the drafted language to the next general membership meeting for review. From there, membership action will determine whether or not we adopt language, and what language would be adopted.

For the Roberts' Rules junkies out there, the proposed Constitutional change comes as a direct motion from the Executive Board.

The current language we have for the non-discrimination clause in our Constitution is:

Our current constitutional language:

III. General Principals and Guarantees
A. Rights to Membership
No person otherwise eligible for membership in this Association shall be denied membership, on the basis of equality, because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual preference, handicap, or political belief.

The drafted language is:

III. General Principals and Guarantees
A. Rights to Membership
In the spirit of equality and solidarity, no person otherwise eligible for membership in this Association shall be denied membership because of age, ancestry, citizenship, color, creed, disability status, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, gender identification, learning barriers, marital status, mental health, national origin, native language, parental status, physical characteristics, political belief, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, socio-economic status and background, spiritual beliefs, veteran status or any other factors irrelevant to the guiding principles of unionism.

With any questions, be in touch with Co-President Katie Lindstrom. Again, our union will make a decision on our Constitution's non-discrimination clause at the next General Membership Meeting, on December 3rd at 5:30 PM.

Grad Student Workers Unite!

2009-11-18T00:26:00.009-06:00

I. UIUC GEO On Strike

Earlier this week, the grad student workers at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and their union the Graduate Employees' Organization went out on strike. After months of stagnating negotiations where the administration refused to budge on crucial issues, the grad unionists at UIUC took to the streets to move negotiations further along. The GEO at UIUC is a union representing nearly 2,700 grad student workers.

The critical issue in the GEO strike was the protection of of tuition waivers for teaching, research, and graduate assistants. This critical benefit in the GEO contract, akin to the TAA's tuition remission, came under fire as the University of Illinois Board of Trustees looked to cut costs for the university on the backs of grad workers. Because of the union, the core benefit of grad student workers was protected in the successful strike.

When negotiations on the contract began in April, the GEO submitted a full proposal. The administration only responded in August with a proposal that threatened tuition waivers. After months of pursuing matters at the bargaining table, the union began the process of voting among union members to authorize a strike. When they did, 92% of the union voted in favor of doing so. After progress was not made at the bargaining table as the administration stuck to their position without budging, the union authorized the strike and went out on the picket line. After a two-day strike, negotiations on the contract resulted in a tentative agreement protecting tuition waivers for grads at UIUC. Subsequently, the union unanimously voted to suspend their strike and vote on accepting the contract agreement. The GEO claimed the strike and ensuing contract as a major victory for grad student workers at UIUC. We add that this was a major victory for grads everywhere, with student workers standing up for their rights and winning through organization and collective action.

The American Association of University Professors, whose president Cary Nelson is a faculty person at UIUC, strongly supported the GEO strike. The national president of the AFT, Randi Weingarten stood up in support of the striking grads as well. In addition, many other groups, including other unions in the area and the graduate/undergraduate student alliance, and individuals, including many faculty at UIUC, joined in supporting the strike.

In solidarity with the grads at UIUC, with the GEO, and with the struggles of grad student workers everywhere, the TAA sent down a contingent to support the strike. TAA Staffer Claiborne Hill (and her very cute kids) and member-activists Tim Frandy and Alex Hanna joined with dozens of other grad union activists from around the Midwest (including our brothers and sisters at the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants' Association) to assist in organizing, march on the picket lines, and generally stand in solidarity. This blog post has an interesting take and some footage of the picket lines, including Professor Nelson marching with the GEO strikers.

Check out some footage of picket lines shot by Claiborne here and here.

II. Part of a Broader Movement

As we have noted previously, the grad student workers at UW-Madison and the TAA are part of a broader labor movement. We are part of a burgeoning academic labor movement that includes grads, faculty, staff, and post-docs, literally from one coast to the other, from the Upper Midwest to Southern States, and even into Canada. We are part of a four decade-long graduate student worker labor movement as well. In fact, the TAA was the nation's first grad union, officially beginning in 1969 as grads at UW-Madison organized to take on democratizing the university.

The struggles of one grad union, or really, of any workers, anywhere is a struggle for us too. What happens to grads at UW-Madison does not happen in isolation. As a union, we believe we are stronger together, be it at our university or across the university community of the entire nation. The successful strike at UIUC demonstrates one way that collective action and organization improves the lives of graduate student workers and all academic workers.

III. Public Employees and Public Institutions Under Assault

In recent years, the forty year assault on public institutions and public employees has grown more virulent. Bad policy and worse politics have created a situation where the role of public institutions has been delegitimized while the people who make them work are at times denigrated. The mania to cut taxes and reduce government outlays for critical things like higher education have left university budgets starving, rendering them more reliant upon private money and at the same time taking out perceived fiscal struggles on academic workers.

Public employee unions and in particular academic worker unions have stepped up to provide a challenge to this broken model. The systemic challenges we face require a systemic-level solution, something that unions as collective vehicles provide.

So where tuition remission, healthcare benefits, or living wage stipends come under attack because of the assault on universities and other public institutions, our union is our way to fight back. This is what the GEO did in their strike, and this is what the TAA does every day to protect and advance the interests of grad student workers at UW-Madison.

For a story on other academic worker and student struggles, check out this piece from Democracy Now. Former grad union leader and Cal State faculty-person Marc Bosquet maintains a great blog called "How the University Works" on the changing nature of the academy and the struggles waged to combat it, including the work of academic unions. You can check that out here.

IV. Unions & Striking

One tool that unions possess to assert the rights and protect the interests of workers is the strike. This is almost always a last-ditch deployment when all else has failed, and usually the result of management refusing to budge in collective bargaining. Strikes are one form of collective action.

In Wisconsin, public employees, including grad student workers, do not have a legal right to strike (which is different than in Illinois). Ultimately, while this removes one tool from our disposal, we still have the ability to take collective action to protect our interests and to assert our rights. A union is a vehicle for collective action, no matter what the particular form might be.

TAA Political Platform

2009-11-18T00:26:00.006-06:00

From a previous entry here on our website:

The democratic political process impacts us tremendously. So we must impact it.

Political action is one of the most important ways that our union advances our interests, our agenda, and our well-being. Our political program is the way we do it.

The intersections of the union and politics are many and multi-faceted (and why we don't just mean "elections" and "lobbying" when we say "politics"). That's why the work of our Political Education Committee (PEC, or "peck") is important.

PEC is working on a few critical projects this year. One of those projects is revising our old political platform. The platform is a statement of our principles and values in the broad realm of "politics." It's also a document that can and should guide how we decide to organize and mobilize in the political arena. In short, the political platform is really important for a strong Political Education Committee and a strong union.

This year, we are going to work to develop and build our political platform through a big, intra-union democratic project. The idea is to have as many members contribute ideas for the platform on the issues and its construction. We'll plan on doing this in a number of steps, all of which leading toward crafting a final platform by the end of the spring semester.

So if you're interested in being a part of creating our statement of political values, principles, and ideas, let our PEC leaders know, emailing PEC chair Peter Rickman and political platform lead Jason Tatum.

December General Membership Meeting

2009-11-18T00:25:00.002-06:00

The next General Membership Meeting of the union, the last for the 2009 fall semester, will take place on December 3rd at 5:30 PM at the Pres House.

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. 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.

Among other items of union business, we will be covering an update and discussion on 2009-2011 contract negotiations, Constitutional changes, and the development of our political platform. Stay tuned for more info; we'll see you there; and if you have any questions in the meantime, drop us an email.

Union Workshop Tuesday!

2009-11-08T00:24:00.004-06:00

We are holding another "Basics & Beyond" union workshop this coming Tuesday. On November 10th, at 5 PM at the TAA office. If you have not yet been able to make it to a union workshop this year, whether you are new this semester or have been around for years, you should attend!

These union workshops have proven to be great for people to learn more about unions, the TAA, who we are and what we do, and how rank-and-file members fit into our democratic union. They are also a great way to get plugged in to what the union is doing to advance the cause of grad student workers.

So join us Tuesday...

WHAT: "Basics & Beyond" Union Workshop
WHEN: Tuesday, November 10th, 5:00 PM
WHERE: TAA Office; 254 W. Gilman St., above American Apparel
WHY: To learn more about unions, the TAA, who we are and what we do, how you fit in; to meet some fellow grads from across campus; to eat some FREE FOOD

With any questions, shoot us an email.

Building Our Political Program

2009-11-07T23:32:00.004-06:00

On Thursday, November 19th at 7:30 PM, our Political Education Committee will be meeting to work on political action projects for the 2009-2010 academic year and the 2010 elections. Consider yourself invited! With questions or to RSVP, please contact Political Education Committee chair Peter Rickman.

The democratic political process impacts us tremendously. So we must impact it.

First: As public employees, the decisions that get made about our lives as grad student workers (both as students and as workers) are made by elected officials and people appointed by elected officials. The state political scene affects us most directly in this way. From wages and benefits to the state of the university and even the nature of academia, the political process in Wisconsin touches us very directly and importantly as public employees.

Second: As citizens, the decisions that get made -- and what decisions get made -- about our lives are made by elected officials and other political actors. The political scene at the local, state, and national levels affects us directly and indirectly. Issues like healthcare and climate change, higher education funding and labor markets, transportation and civil rights are all decided upon in the political arena -- and they all affect us now and in our futures.

Third: As union members part of a larger labor movement, the political arena is where we advance our vision of a progressive and democratic society. The core values and principles that animate unionism, like solidarity, justice, and democracy, are made real in the political process. Politics is the contesting for power around authoritative allocation of priorities and action on values and principles. We must act in this arena to advance our vision of social solidarity, justice, and democracy.

Our union is our collective vehicle to take action on all things that affect us, be it collective bargaining or political activity. So through our union we build our political power to impact the going-ons of politics.

Our union has a Political Education Committee that serves as our program planning and driving body. The "PEC" (or "peck" in union parlance) makes decisions on who we endorse as candidates and how we endorse them, what our legislative agenda will be and how to pursue it, how we allocate resources from our political action committee, and what our political strategy will be. PEC also builds our political program among union members; as a union, our strength lies in people-power, the strength of numbers, the strength of grassroots organizing and activism.

Our PEC has a number of important and dare we say exciting projects on tap for the 2009-2010 academic year, both for our political program at large and with respect to the upcoming 2010 elections. For those who do not know, in 2010 Wisconsin will vote on who will be governor, who will be attorney general, and who will be in the state legislature.

The projects we have coming up will include creating a political platform and agenda, creating a new candidate endorsement questionnaire, educating members about the political process and particular issues, determining if and how to be involved in spring 2010 municipal elections, and beginning to mobilize around the 2010 fall elections. Each project will have a lead person from the PEC driving it. But for these projects to be successful, for us to build the strongest political program possible, we need members to be involved in developing and advancing the projects.

On Thursday, November 19th at 7:30 PM, the PEC will be meeting to talk about these projects. Consider yourself invited to join with the PEC as we begin in earnest our work on these projects. You can attend the meeting on the 19th, or if you like, join in on a project at anytime. With questions prior to the meeting or anytime, contact the chair of our Political Education Committee, Peter Rickman.

Political action is one of the most important ways that our union advances our interests, our agenda, and our well-being. Our political program is the way we do it. So we hope that you join with the PEC in building a strong political program for the TAA!

TAA Leaders Meet With Chancellor On Monday About Contract, Other Union Stuff

2009-11-07T23:28:00.004-06:00

One Contract Down, One More To Go
With the ratification of our 2007-2009 contract, bargaining for the 2009-2011 contract is already upon us. This new contract to be bargained will not only set wages, benefits, standards for workplace treatment and a host of issues, it will also determine the base from which we build for the near- and long-term. Contracts build upon one another as gains are made in increments. The better one contract is, the better the next one will be. So each contract we negotiate has an appreciable impact on your entire graduate career at the university.

We Bargain With the State and the University
As a public employee union of workers at the University of Wisconsin, we bargain our contracts with both the State of Wisconsin and the University. From the state, the Office of State Employee Relations sits at the table; the University of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin System send people to the table as well. We bargain with everyone all at once. Sometimes the UW aligns with us. Sometimes OSER does. Sometimes neither do. It is all part of our contract bargaining reality.

Union Leaders Working Hard
Union leaders, especially our Bargaining Team, have been working hard to prepare for this round of collective bargaining. We started in the spring last year, before our 2007-2009 contract was even ratified, to solicit input on bargaining planks. Then, we conducted an online vote on priorities and preferences. Following that, we had an interactive session at a General Membership meeting to hash out bargaining planks and their priority. Since then, the Bargaining Team has been putting them together in a bargaining platform and conducting research to back up our proposals. In addition, our Bargaining Team has held informal meetings with OSER, UW and the UW System to lay some groundwork for negotiations.

This Monday, some representatives from our Bargaining Team, our Co-Presidents, and our union's staff will meet with the Chancellor of the University. The conversation will be about shared priorities in the contract, where we agree on issues and to what degree, and how we can actualize our priorities in a contract. It is not usual for us to have such a high-level meeting with leaders from the union and the university sitting down for this kind of a conversation. But it is a very productive development and something we will work to take advantage of.

Sometimes We Align, Sometimes We Don't
In collective bargaining with the State and the University, sometimes the interests and goals of the union and our membership align with theirs, and sometimes they do not. It is all part of the complexity of our negotiating process. For example, the University should have a vested interest in higher graduate student worker wages and take-home pay so as to make the UW as competitive as possible in attracting grads and retaining faculty. But, the University has to pay for this somehow, and potentially increasing our wages means making a determination about priorities. For another example, the State should have a vested interest in a happy and productive workforce that continues to make our public institutions work well. But, the State has to determine what they will agree to in order to make that possible.

When Interests Align, Sometimes We Still Need to Convince Them
As noted above, even when interests align, sometimes we need to convince the State and the University. For example, tuition remission and health insurance coverage. Can you imagine attending grad school without these? Well, the union had to work incredibly hard over years to make these things happen, winning them even after many objections. The UW could not compete with other schools for top quality grads without these provisions in our contract, but we had to win them even against opposition. We cannot ever take for granted that just because something, like increasing grad student worker wages or remitting segregated fees, is a good idea for both us and them, that they will take action on our proposals.

As much as anything, our meeting with the Chancellor is about finding where our interests align and where we agree on that. It is also about beginning to convince them how our interests are their interests too, because that is not always readily apparent to even the wise minds on the other side of the bargaining table from us.

Good Contracts Do Not Happen (Just) At the Bargaining Table
Winning a good contract and convincing the other side to align with our interests does not happen solely at the bargaining table. We need to build power around our ideas, be they power of great argument (e.g. good research and language) or the power of organized people, to win. That is why our union is working to organize people in our union, and why we need you to get involved. You can be involved by joining the Bargaining Team or the Contract Enforcement Committee. You can be involved by becoming a union steward to organize fellow grad student workers. You can be involved by doing more than one too! But we need you to be involved to win a good contract through good organizing to build power around our ideas and interests.

To get involved, the best thing for you to do is to fill out this quick online form. Then, we can follow up with you to get you plugged in. If you have any questions, feel free to drop us an email.

AFT-Wisconsin Convention Round-Up

2009-10-31T22:38:00.005-05:00

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.

Organizine In Your Department (Or Across Campus)

2009-10-31T21:47:00.005-05:00

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.

Restructuring the Graduate School

2009-10-31T20:56:00.006-05:00

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.

Calling All Union Activists - Especially New Ones!

2009-10-26T00:32:00.004-05:00

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.

AFT-Wisconsin Convention This Week

2009-10-26T00:15:00.003-05:00

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.

TAA Contract Being Signed On Wednesday!

2009-10-26T00:07:00.002-05:00

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.

Contract Victory!

2009-10-22T00:40:00.001-05:00

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.

General Membership Meeting This Wednesday!

2009-10-17T21:35:00.003-05:00

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).

Union Workshop on Wednesday!

2009-10-13T00:20:00.004-05:00

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.

General Membership Meeting Next Wednesday

2009-10-13T00:13:00.002-05:00

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.

Get Your T-Shirt...Last Chance!

2009-10-13T00:09:00.002-05:00

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.

Halloween Party!

2009-10-12T23:50:00.004-05:00

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.

Fall General Membership Meetings

2009-10-05T00:22:00.005-05:00

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.

Basics & Beyond Union Workshop: October 14th

2009-10-04T23:13:00.004-05:00

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.

Contract Progress!

2009-09-29T00:45:00.003-05:00

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.

Fall AGEL Conference

2009-09-29T00:32:00.003-05:00

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.

Fall General Membership Meetings

2009-09-29T00:26:00.005-05:00

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.

Get Your Union T-Shirt Here

2009-09-29T00:16:00.003-05:00

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.

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

2009-09-27T23:46:00.003-05:00

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.

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

2009-09-17T23:11:00.002-05:00

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!

Moving Our Contract Forward

2009-09-14T23:13:00.002-05:00

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.

Contract Campaign Education & Strategy Session Monday

2009-09-14T23:11:00.005-05:00

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!

Union Activism In Your Building

2009-09-14T23:11:00.003-05:00

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

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

2009-09-07T22:59:00.009-05:00

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.

Union Workshops This Week

2009-09-07T22:59:00.006-05:00

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

Contract Still Closed

2009-09-07T22:59:00.004-05:00

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.

Union Activism In Your Building

2009-08-30T17:35:00.003-05:00

This year, we are working on build the organizing power of our union: building capacity for action, educating members, training new leaders. Our organizing power comes from our members being involved in the union. Anyone can do it and everyone should.

If you can help with an easy project in your office building this week, let Co-President Peter Rickman know via email.

In building a union like ours, there are always different kinds of ways for people to be involved, including some things that are really easy while still being very important. Right now, we are working on getting out a letter to all returning grad student workers to ask them to join (or re-join) the union as members by filling out a new membership card and to let us know how they want to get involved in the union.

If you can help distribute these letters in your office building, please let Co-President Peter Rickman know via email.

We're working to deliver the letters (and membership cards) in departmental mailboxes through simply dropping the literature in the boxes. We have a number of buildings already done. But we could use some help in a bunch more buildings. By taking a few minutes to deliver these letters and cards to all the grad student workers in your office building in something like a literature drop, you can help build our organizing power and help build a stronger union.

So if you can do that and you want to help our union work for grad student workers, please contact Co-President Peter Rickman know via email and he'll work with you to plug on in with this project.

It's an easy way to get involved in some basic organizing work of the union but something that is also important.

One Superquick Thing to Build the Union

2009-08-30T17:30:00.002-05:00

One superquick thing that you can do to help build the union is to join our TAA Facebook group.

Just click here to join and instantly your Facebook profile page will feel the overwhelming rush of solidarity and union power.

Union Workshops: This Week & Next

2009-08-30T17:24:00.001-05:00

Over the course of this coming week and the following week, we will be holding workshops for TAA members to learn more about our union. The content will include things like what unions are and what they do, a bit on the background of the TAA, and how the TAA operates. These workshops will be a great opportunity to gain greater understanding of your union and its place in the world - as well as your place in the union.

The workshops, at 6 PM on five upcoming weeknights, held at the TAA office, will be set up like a seminar. One of the elected leaders of the union or one of our staff will do quick presentations on a few key topics and then attendees will have the chance to ask questions and engage in discussion - these will be somewhat participatory learning opportunities (that said, they are as participatory as you want to be in attendance).

Here are those dates (remember: 6 PM at the TAA office):

Monday, August 31st
Tuesday, September 1st
Thursday, September 3rd
Wednesday, September 9th
Thursday, September 10th

We'll also have some food and beverage for folks to kick back with while the workshops go on. Not to mention dozens of fellow grad student workers will be attending these over the coming weeks - so it'll be a chance to meet some new people from across the university campus.

Of course, because our union works through the involvement of us as graduate student workers who are the rank-and-file members of the union, we will go over how folks can and should get involved in the work of the union. And because such a critical part of meaningful involvement in a union hinges upon understanding what a union is and does, these workshops will be great points of departure for everyone to gain context.

We hope to see you at the upcoming union workshops. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact TAA Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

Welcome Back Happy Hour This Friday

2009-08-30T17:17:00.002-05:00

You probably already know this. You've probably had it on your calendar for weeks. You've probably told all your friends. But just in case, let us remind you once again:

The annual union party, the TAA Welcome Back Happy Hour, is going on this Friday.

That's right, this Friday, from 4 PM to 7 PM (or so) at Tripp Commons in Memorial Union. Get it on your Facebook events.

We're going to have free food and beverage - including some delicious Wisconsin beer - great music from DJ Extra Credit (a.k.a. Brother From Another Planet on WSUM), lots of fellow grad student workers, and a very brief bit of union business about our wages.

So this is your reminder. You probably knew all this already.

Your Tuition Is Still Being Waived

2009-08-25T13:14:00.002-05:00

This isn't a "your union kicks ass for winning tuition remission as a benefit of the collective bargaining agreement" or a "let's go win seg fee remission" kind of post. This is a "you might be getting some news that could freak you out in the way of a tuition bill."

Don't worry, your tuition as a grad student is still being waived as part of the contract that covers you as a grad assistant.

Though, yes, your union does kick ass for winning tuition remission through the collective bargaining agreement (something we first won a while back and with which set the standard for all grad employment).

However, more pertinently, the Bursar's office has made a mistake and accidentally included a billing due date of seg fees (not remitted, unlike tuition) in September. Instead, seg fees need to be paid by October 2nd - this is significant because October 2nd is AFTER your first paycheck. They are working on getting that corrected and letting everyone know that the mistake is on their end - and that grad student workers have nothing to fear. But we wanted to let you know about this too, and let you know that your union has been working on resolving this.

You might have gotten an email on this, but we also wanted to let you know what's up because a) it's important and b) it directly impacts you as a grad student worker.

If you have any questions, you can send them to tuition@bussvc.wisc.edu and they will help you out.

Now all that said: Don't you think that this would be a lot easier for the Bursar's office, and more importantly, better for all grad student workers, if we had full tuition remission and seg fee remission both?

Well, if we want it, we have to win it - and to win it, we need to organize.

Official General Membership Meeting Announcement

2009-08-24T21:13:00.005-05:00

At this year's annual TAA Welcome Back Happy Hour, we will be holding a mini-General Membership Meeting. Within the Welcome Back Happy Hour, we will take a few minutes to handle one piece of union business.

As many of you know, all state employees (like us) have had to deal with "give-backs" of wage increases. For non-represented (read: those without a union) state employees, there is no option - they've had their 2% pay increases yanked unilaterally Because we have a union and a contract, our negotiated wage increase cannot occur automatically. We would need to open up our contract and settle a new one that gives up these wage increases. But that requires that our general membership vote to do so and authorize a new contract settlement without the scheduled 2% pay increases (scheduled because our new contract has yet to take effect).

The mini-General Membership Meeting will consider these wage "give-backs" as our sole agenda item. The TAA Executive Board will be recommending a 'no' vote on this. A 'no' vote would keep the contract the way it is and keep our duly-negotiated wage increase. After all, a deal's a deal, and we deserve the pay increase for a number of reasons.

If you have questions before the mini-General Membership Meeting at the Welcome Back Happy Hour, please be in touch with our Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom as well as our Vice President of Bargaining Kevin Gibbons.

This mini-General Membership Meeting will be brief. Very brief. One piece of business to handle. Only a small break from the rest of the festivities of the union party.

Here are the details for the TAA Annual Welcome Back Happy Hour:
Friday, September 4th - 4 PM to 7 PM
Tripp Commons, Memorial Union
mini-General Membership Meeting likely around 5 or 5:30 PM

Union Workshops Coming Up

2009-08-23T23:26:00.003-05:00

Make sure to get it on your calendar and save the date - we have union workshops coming up that you don't want to miss:

Monday, August 31
Tuesday, September 1
Thursday, September 3
Wednesday, September 9
Thursday, September 10

All of the union workshops will be at 6 PM at the TAA Office.

The union workshops will be an opportunity to learn more about your union, who we are and what we do. We will discuss what a union is and does and what that means for the TAA. We will cover how we build power for graduate student workers by organizing, including what organizing is and how we do it.

If you're brand new to the TAA or if you've been around for a while, you can learn a lot at and get a lot from these workshops. They will be participatory forums with presenters from among our elected leadership and staff, and plenty of fellow grad student workers to meet and with whom to talk about union-related stuff.

As important as anything, we'll have some free food and beverage for everyone - one of the things you'll learn about unions is that we always make sure to feed people and keep everyone strong for the work we do. So make sure to RSVP via email to us so that we can plan on the right number of attendees at each workshop. Just let us know which workshop you plan on attending.

We're really excited to build a knowledgeable and activist membership base for this coming year - and beyond. These union workshops will be a key first step in that. So we hope to see you out at them with us!

Orientation Week Under Way!

2009-08-23T23:16:00.002-05:00

This week officially kicks off the year for the TAA. Over the course of this week, we will get out and organize at nearly 60 departmental orientations for new graduate assistants, speaking with nearly 1,000 grad student workers.

Orientation week is when we do our most intense organizing drive of the year, signing of hundreds of new members, re-connecting with hundreds of continuing members, and generally building the basic infrastructure of membership that we need for a successful year.

In the 2009-2010 academic year, we have an ambitious agenda. We have a new contract up for negotiation that will require that we organize hard to win gains for all graduate assistants. We are going to engage in an unprecedented level of organizing and leadership development to build a stronger union. We are going to increase our membership numbers to be among the highest in the realm of graduate labor unions. We are going to build a union that works for all grad student workers.

There is no better way to get started with being involved in your union than to volunteer to help out during Orientation week. If you can help with departmental orientations, follow-up contacting of new members, dropping literature, or data management, let our Orientation Committee co-chairs Tim Frandy and Peter Rickman know when you are available. We are looking for folks to get involved literally any time during the week from 9 AM to 9 PM. This is an intense organizing drive, but anyone can get involved at a level comfortable to them - and we'll train you to take on something meaningful right away. So be in touch if you want to get involved in your union at a critical juncture for an exciting and important year for all of us.

One Click And a Few Keystrokes to Build a Better Union

2009-08-17T23:25:00.002-05:00

Take just a moment to fill out a quick online form to let us know where you are at with getting involved in our union.

Click here to complete this easy form about you and getting involved in the union.

TAA Events Coming Up

2009-08-17T22:45:00.004-05:00

The next few weeks are full of tons of hot TAA action and we want you to be a part of it. Here is what's on tap in the near future - and take a look below the list for a brief description of the events:

Orientation Organizing Campaign info session
Thursday, August 20th (6 PM @ the TAA office)
Please be in touch with Orientation Committee co-chair Peter Rickman if you are planning to attend so that he can plan on the right number of participants.

Orientation Organizing Campaign
Monday, August 24th - Friday, August 28th (all day, various locations)
Please be in touch with Orientation Committee co-chair Peter Rickman if you can be involved with the TAA campaign during this week.

Union Workshops
(6 PM @ the TAA office)
Monday, August 31st
Tuesday, September 1st
Thursday, September 3rd
Please be in touch with us with any questions about the Union Workshops

TAA Welcome Back Happy Hour
Friday, September 4th (4 PM @ Tripp Commons, Memorial Union)
Please be in touch with us with any questions about the TAA Welcome Back Happy Hour.

Union Workshops
(6 PM @ the TAA office)
Wednesday, September 9th
Thursday, September 10th
Please be in touch with us with any questions about the Union Workshops

Orientation Organizing Campaign info session:
This information session will be the entree into our Orientation Organizing Campaign. It will introduce the campaign to new activists and build the kind of information, context, and education activists should have to play a role on the campaign. Activists will walk out of the information session with a full sense of the campaign and with a set of concrete follow-up items.

Union Workshops:
These workshops, scheduled on almost all weeknights of the first two weeks of the semester, will provide a seminar or teach-in atmosphere to learn much more about our union and all members' roles in it - and provide avenues for members to get involved in the union. They will include brief presentations by TAA member-activists followed by discussion of materials presented. These will be a great opportunity to learn more about the TAA as our union, the role of the union, how members make our union work, and how members can and should be involved in the union. The workshops will also be a great opportunity to meet fellow graduate student workers and TAA members from throughout the university. People will walk out of the workshops with a better understanding of the union, a concrete way to be involved in the union, and next steps for that involvement.

TAA Welcome Back Happy Hour:
The annual Welcome Back Happy Hour is quite simply the best semester-beginning party around. Fellow graduate student workers will gather for a great time with free food and beverage (including some good Wisconsin beer), excellent company, fine music, and a little union business (one item: Do we want to keep our raises?). This social event will be an opportunity to connect with a lot of cool fellow graduate assistants and you don't want to miss it.

Contract Information & Update

2009-08-17T00:36:00.002-05:00

After a conversation with the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER), we feel like the 2007-2009 contract is progressing along. In this conversation, we heard that OSER is preparing our contract for consideration in the September session of the state legislature.

Many of you probably know that as state employees, our contracts must be ratified by the state legislature. OSER prepares a contract for legislative consideration; then the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JoCER, or "joker") reviews and votes to accept or reject the contract; after JoCER accepts the contract, it brings to the floor of both the state Assembly and state Senate legislation to adopt the contract; finally, after both houses of the legislature adopt the contract legislation, the governor signs it. Ultimately, the process from JoCER to gubernatorial signature should last a couple of weeks.

What this means is that we can look forward to our 2007-2009 contract going into effect sometime early in the fall semester. Our wages will increase and new contractual provisions about matters like catastrophic leave and union security will go into effect. If you have any questions about the new contract, feel free to contract our Contract Enforcement staffer, Claiborne Hill.

But to ensure that our contract continues along its now political path, we need to mobilize our membership to push the legislature and the governor to do the right thing and honor the contract be voted to accept after negotiations all the way back in December of 2008. If you can volunteer to be part of the political mobilization around this, please take a moment and fill out this brief online form - our political education team will be in touch with you about how you can mobilize.

This week, some leaders of our union, along with the Government Relations director of our statewide affiliate, AFT-Wisconsin, will be heading up to the Capitol to begin the grassroots lobbying on passage of the contract.

Finally, everyone should note that even with our 2007-2009 contract being ratified and going into effect, our 2009-2011 contract must now be negotiated. OSER has told us that they will be ready sometime in the fall to begin negotiations. Beginning last year, our Bargaining Team, led by Vice President of Bargaining Kevin Gibbons and Bargaining staffer Rob Henn, started the process of getting input and feedback on contract proposal items. The Bargaining Team continues to develop an initial proposal to present to OSER when it is ready to start negotiations. To win the gains we want, we will need to put together a contract campaign - that means we need to mobilize as a membership to make this happen. To get involved with this, contact Kevin to join the Bargaining Team or to indicate your desire to be a part of a contract campaign.

With any further questions about the contract, past, present, or future, please be in touch with Kevin, Rob, Claiborne, or our Co-Presidents Katie Lindstrom and Peter Rickman.

Health Care & Benefits Information

2009-08-17T00:34:00.001-05:00

Health insurance coverage is one of the most important victories that our union has won for us as graduate student workers. But it doesn't mean a thing to our health insurance coverage if we don't enroll.

To be covered by health insurance on September 1, make sure that you are enrolled. The University has a seminar that you can attend to have any questions answered. Check it out if you have questions or need to deal with your health insurance coverage.

Reading for Fun About Your Vocation

2009-08-17T00:31:00.001-05:00

Hopefully you got to spend some of your summer break from academic work with a few good books. Before the academic year begins in earnest and you have lots of reading to do for your work, take a minute to check out a cool blog for insight and commentary from one of the most trenchant observers and critics of the academy.

Marc Bosquet, an academic in California who has been a part of the academic labor movement for quite some time (as a grad and as faculty), and who has a book to his name on the topic of the changed and changing academy, keeps a great blog, "How the University Works." It's a great read on the world of which we are a part now as graduate student workers and of which many (if not most) of us will be a part in our future careers.

So for a little reading for pleasure before the reading for work kicks in, check out Marc's blog here.

TAA Events for the Next Two Weeks

2009-08-11T00:31:00.003-05:00

As we head into the homestretch of summer break before the academic year begins again, the TAA is ramping up its programming. Over the next two weeks, we have a number of program events and actions, mostly related to our Orientation Organizing Campaign. We hope all rank-and-file members of our union will consider getting involved in the union - and these are great places to start. Here's what is coming up in the next two weeks (all events at the TAA office, unless noted otherwise):

Tuesday, August 11th - 6 PM
Orientation Organizing Campaign information session
Wednesday, August 12th - 5 PM to 8 PM
Orientation Organizing Campaign activist recruitment
Thursday, August 13th - 5 PM to 8 PM
Orientation Organizing Campaign activist recruitment
Sunday, August 16th - 6 PM
Orientation Organizing Campaign information session
Monday, August 17th - 7 PM (at the Madison Labor Temple)
South Central Federation of Labor delegates meeting
Tuesday, August 18th - 5 PM to 8 PM
Orientation Organizing Campaign activist recruitment
Wednesday, August 19th - 5 PM to 8 PM
Orientation Organizing Campaign activist recruitment
Thursday, August 20th - 6 PM
Orientation Organizing Campaign information session

Here's a brief description of each of the kinds of events/actions:

Orientation Organizing Campaign information session
These teach-ins will help to build our Orientation Organizing Campaign. Attendees of the information sessions will learn about our campaign and why it's important, as well as the campaign plan. Folks will get a sense of what the campaign is all about, how it will work, and what rank-and-file members can do to make this campaign a big, union-building success. You'll get plugged into your union, and get a little free food and beverage on the side. If you're planning on attending one of these, make sure to RSVP to Orientation Committee co-chair Peter Rickman, so that we can plan on the right number of attendees, for the sake of materials and food/beverage.

Orientation Organizing Campaign activist recruitment
These actions will recruit fellow rank-and-file members of our union to get active on our Orientation Organizing Campaign. Attendees will help recruit fellow grad student workers of our union to be involved with the campaign. Folks will get a quick run-down of the campaign, if they don't know about it all yet, and then get trained on effective activist recruitment; then, we'll all make phone calls to fellow TAA members to recruit them to join the campaign. And of course, there will be food and beverage for all. Actions run from 5 PM to 8 PM, but we're looking for folks to come for about two hours at a time. Make sure to RSVP to Orientation Committee co-chair Peter Rickman so that we can plan for the right number of attendees.

South Central Federation of Labor delegates meeting
Our union is part of a local labor council, made up of dozens and dozens of other unions in our area. The labor council, the South Central Federation of Labor (SCFL, or "scuffle"), holds a monthly meeting of delegates to cover council business, hear from speakers, and strategize on continuing to build a vibrant labor movement in the Madison area. Attendees will get a taste of the grassroots labor activism that makes Madison a Union Town. If you're planning on attending, let us know - and if you want to carpool, we can make that work too.

Have You Oriented A Grad Assistant Today?

2009-08-11T00:24:00.005-05:00

We all remember the first days on campus as a new grad student. Getting acclimated to Madison, figuring out the whole grad assistant role, meeting new people, and becoming part of an intellectual community: those days were heady times that shape our experiences in grad school today. In just a couple of weeks, thousands of new grad student workers will be hitting the campus for the first time.

The TAA is running a campaign to connect with these new people from the get-go to get them engaged and involved in our union. But we can't do it alone - we need you to be a part of this. There is no better welcome to campus for new graduate assistants than to hear from and meet fellow grad student workers and to be brought into an organization that will affect their lives over the next four years (Four? More like eight).

Can you be a part of our campaign?

Orientation is the best time for our union to engage literally thousands of new grad student workers on our campus and to bring them into our union. Many will arrive not knowing that they will be part of a large organization that fights for them every day - or even what a union is and does. But through our Orientation Organizing Campaign, the TAA will connect with these new folks and bring them into the union, building within them union identity, understanding of who we are and what we do, and how they fit in. More instrumentally, our campaign will also build up our membership ranks (critical in a contract bargaining year) and recruit new activists and leaders of our union.

Our Orientation Committee has put together a dynamite campaign plan for this. For the campaign to work and for our union to be successful in general, we'll need lots of grad student worker activists from our ranks to implement it.

That's where you come in. Joining the campaign means you will be part of something big and part of your union's work on behalf of all graduate assistants. Joining the campaign could mean delivering a presentation to your department's new grad assistant orientation; or it can mean delivering that rap to departments you never knew existed. Joining the campaign could mean helping the union re-contact all the new grad assistants we meet at departmental orientations, to plug them into the union and its work. Joining the campaign could mean canvassing the current grad assistants in your department - or others - to re-engage them on the work of the TAA for this year.

There are a lot of ways for you to be involved on the Orientation Organizing Campaign. All you need to do is say "yes" to being a part of it. Take a moment and fill out this quick online form, and we'll get you plugged in to the campaign. We'll get you all the background information, train you up, and work with you to be an effective, important player on this campaign. Also, check out the TAA calendar for an upcoming info session on the campaign.

Building our union starts with orientation, and it starts with our Orientation Organizing Campaign. Bringing into the union new grad assistants is a critical part of union-building for the TAA. And we need you to be a part of it.

Getting Involved In Your Union

2009-08-11T00:12:00.002-05:00

We have in our local a dynamic of the union being "of, by, and for" graduate assistants. No one tells us what to do - we decide it ourselves. From collective bargaining of a contract to political action to general business of our organization, this union is run for graduate assistants. But for that "of, by, and for" dynamic to be real - and for our direction-setting and decision-making to play out "for" graduate student workers - we as members must also be the "of" and "by" parts.

That means being involved in your union. Whether it's getting involved in organizing fellow grad student workers, like through our Orientation Organizing Campaign, or taking on a role as a department leader, or really anything else, being engaged in the union and being involved in it is critical. The university works because we do; our union works too because we do.

So your union needs you. Your union needs you to be involved. Never been involved with your union or in any kind of organization? No problem. Our current cadre of activists and leaders as well as our very talented (and experienced) staff will show you the ropes, educate and teach you, and mentor you so that your can be involved in a meaningful way that works for you. Are you a hardcore activist that needs an organizational home to advance the work you do? Well, union activism is for you too. You can plug in and take on a leadership role with the infrastructure we have built and are building today.

The most important thing is for you to get involved. It's easy to do it. Just take a moment to fill out this convenient online form, and one of our current activists or staff-persons will be in touch with you. From there, we'll work with you to get you plugged in to the union. So if you have a couple of hours a week or are looking for a significant time diversion from your dissertation - or anything in between - there's a way for you to be involved. And you definitely should be.

Our union is of, by, and for grad student workers. Let's all play our part in making our union work.

Annual Welcome Back Happy Hour

2009-08-11T00:09:00.002-05:00

There is simply no better way to come back to campus for an academic year than with a party on the Terrace.

We're going to kick off the year in style with a big party full of grad assistants, with plenty of free food and beer, rockin' music, and a small bit of union business. You can start your academic year and your weekend off with a great time among lots of fellow grad student workers. The annual Welcome Back Happy Hour (more like a few hours) is always a good party; and unlike most parties, there's more than a little union solidarity wafting through the air.

Summary: Party. Free food and beer. Fellow grad student workers. Little bit of union business (Do we want to keep our raises?)

Friday, September 4th @ 4 PM, Tripp Commons of the Memorial Union.

So mark you calendar now and plan to be at the TAA Welcome Back Happy Hour.

LaborFest 2009

2009-08-11T00:06:00.002-05:00

Every September, the local labor movement celebrates the holiday for working people, Labor Day, with a big party. Consider yourselves invited to attend as working people and members of the baddest graduate employee union in all the land.

The South Central Federation of Labor (SCFL, or "scuffle"), the local labor council for unions in this part of the state, is putting on LaborFest '09 on Labor Day, September 7th, from noon to 5:30 PM. It will be at the Labor Temple grounds, 1602 Park Street.

In addition to some delicious food and beverage, LaborFest '09 will have music from Paul Cebar & the Milwaukeeans and the The Westside Andy/Mel Ford Band. The bands come highly recommended. There will also be, among other things, a clown (not of the scary variety), activities for kids, and a host of tables from cool labor- and progressive-oriented community organizations. A few thousand local union members and working people usually attend throughout the day - and you might catch a glimpse of some local politicians of note.

Part of having a real labor movement is about building community among workers and union members. So while LaborFest is a great party, it's also a community-building event where you can taste the solidarity in the air - and on the delicious food made by union activists.

Any questions, contact TAA Co-President and SCFL delegate Peter Rickman.

Orientation Organizing Campaign: Your Department & Elsewhere

2009-08-03T21:10:00.001-05:00

As noted previously (once or twice, or three times), Orientation is a critical time for our union to engage new graduate assistants, build membership, and recruit new activists and leaders.

We need you to get involved to make our Orientation Organizing Campaign successful. A good campaign here means a stronger union, and a stronger union means better results for all of us rank-and-file members of the union.

Can you get involved on the campaign?

There are a few ways to get involved, and you can do it either by contacting our Orientation Committee Co-Chairs Tim Frandy and Peter Rickman, or by attending an Orientation Organizing Campaign information session to learn more and to plug in.

We need rank-and-file members like you to:

- Speak at departmental orientations about the union - maybe even your department
- Contact new union members with follow-up information and to recruit them into involvement in the union
- Track and input data and new union member information

For all of these roles on the campaign, we have experienced activists and staff who will train you, so that you are comfortable with the tasks for the role and able to be successful carrying them out.

We need rank-and-file members like you to be active in these roles on the Orientation campaign the week of August 24th through 28th, at various times throughout the day.

So let us know how you want to be involved or come to one of our Orientation Organizing Campaign information sessions. These events will be at 6 PM at the TAA office on August 5th, 11th, 16th, and 20th. We'll have food and beverage at these info sessions, so please RSVP ahead of time using this form or by emailing Orientation Committee co-chair Peter Rickman. Information sessions will go over the campaign, what the plan is for the campaign, what particular roles are to be filled - and how - and how you can play a role on a successful Orientation Organizing Campaign.

This is a great opportunity for you to be involved in your union, from speaking at your department's Orientation (and/or elsewhere) to connecting with new union members interested in who we are and what we do to however you can be involved. We'll look forward to having you be a part of the campaign.

Welcome Back Happy Hour

2009-08-03T20:49:00.003-05:00

To start the semester and the academic year off right, the TAA will be putting on its annual "Welcome Back Happy Hour" event on Friday, September 4th. So save the date now and plan to be there with new and old union members and fellow graduate assistants.

Where else but the annual TAA Welcome Back Happy Hour can you party with all kinds of fellow graduate assistants, some barrels of fine Wisconsin-brewed beer, and a whole mess of food? On September 4th, starting at 4 PM, probably nowhere but the TAA's 2009-2010 Welcome Back Happy Hour.

Join with new and returning graduate assistants to kick the semester and the academic year off in style, with a party of grad assistants and our union.

In addition to free, and free-flowing food and beverage, there will be a (good) DJ spinning some music (we have assurances that everyone will be able to dance to the music, no matter their personal tastes).

And, we'll have a mini-General Membership Meeting to handle one piece of union business around our contract (Do you want to keep a pay raise?) and some (brief) union-related speakers to get us ready for the year.

The attire, of course, is informal - just make sure you've got a hot outfit on to augment with your brand new 2009-2010 TAA t-shirt that will be available at the door.

You don't need a ticket for this bonanza, just a union membership in the TAA. See you then.

Make sure to check out the link to the Facebook event listing for the Welcome Back Happy Hour and RSVP here. And then go ahead and join the TAA Facebook group here too.

TAA In the (Union Labor) News

2009-08-03T20:40:00.001-05:00

As many of you know, recent action by Wisconsin's state legislature extended to research assistants collective bargaining rights. As you all definitely know, teaching and project assistants have enjoyed this basic labor right for decades. Further, faculty and academic staff in the UW System now will also have the right to organize a union and bargain collectively.

The current edition of Union Labor News, the newspaper of our local labor council, the South Central Federation of Labor, has a story on these recent developments. The piece includes quotations from one of our Co-Presidents.

Take a look at the story on collective bargaining rights for all academic workers and let us know any thoughts or questions that you have.

The prospect of a "wall-to-wall" union of all graduate assistants is exciting for all of us indeed. A union of all graduate assistants means higher standards in the way we are treated, pay and benefits, and as important as anything, the quality of the University. Just as unionism is a statement that we are stronger together and that we achieve more for everyone collectively, unionism for all graduate assistants means better academic and workplace lives for each and every one of us, teaching, project, and research assistants alike.

We will have more on this topic as it develops.

Reminder: Update Your Union Membership Info

2009-08-03T20:27:00.001-05:00

Once again, we are asking all rank-and-file members of the union to update their membership information. Knowing the crucial details about our membership makes it possible for our union to be as best-organized as possible. A better organized union means a stronger union, and a stronger unions means better results for rank-and-file members.

So please do take a moment to update your union membership information here.

Orientation Organizing Campaign Kickoff Events!

2009-07-27T22:50:00.003-05:00

Our summer and fall Orientation Organizing Campaign is getting ready to kick off. This campaign is going to be really important to build our union to be strong and successful. Our union should be of, by, and for rank-and-file members, and this campaign is going to have a big impact on building that kind of union.

Orientation is when we engage with hundreds to thousands of new graduate assistants. When they arrive on campus, we need to engage with each and everyone one of them through the Orientation process to sign them up as members, educate them about our union, and involve them in participation in our union's work.

This campaign will start in August and run through the first few weeks of school. Our Orientation Committee has put together a great campaign plan - and we need you to be a part of it. You can sign up now to get involved in the ways that work for you now.

To kick off our campaign, we are going to hold four Orientation Organizing Campaign kickoff events. The kickoffs will have free food and beverage for all members - and most importantly, we'll run through the campaign plan and strategy, help people plug into the campaign as activists, and build the excitement, energy and momentum we need to run a great campaign.

The four dates for the Orientation Organizing Campaign Kickoff events will be August 5th, August 11th, August 16th, and August 20th. They'll start at 6 PM, and we're holding them at the TAA office. Sign up now to attend one (or more) of the campaign kickoffs here. We want to plan well for each kickoff, so definitely take a minute to let us know which one you can attend.

And make sure to sign up now for how you can be involved in our Orientation Organizing Campaign. There are lots of ways to be involved, making it easy for brand-new activists and hardcore unionists alike to make a big impact on this important campaign. So sign up to be involved and let us know which of the campaign kickoff events you can attend. If you have any questions about the campaign or our kickoff events, be in touch with our Orientation Committee co-chairs Peter Rickman and Tim Frandy.

Get Involved in Your Union: Join the Orientation Organizing Campaign

2009-07-27T22:42:00.003-05:00

Our union is built upon rank-and-file members organizing among ourselves, the union being our vehicle for collective action. One of our best opportunities to engage new graduate assistants to get involved in our union, from becoming members to becoming activists, is through each fall's Orientation. With hundreds, even thousands of new graduate assistants coming to campus for the first time, we need to connect with them all to bring them into our union right away.

This summer and into fall, we are running a big, important Orientation Organizing Campaign. For us to run a successful campaign, we need all members of our union to be active in the campaign. Our Orientation Committee has put together a dynamic campaign plan that you can plug into easily to have a big impact. But we need you to get involved. Take a moment and complete this quick online form to get involved - then, a fellow grad worker activist from the Orientation Committee will be in touch with you. If you have any questions on the campaign, feel free to just contact our Orientation Committee co-chairs, Peter Rickman and Tim Frandy.

Being involved is easy, and it's really important. This campaign will not only set the tone for how we run a dynamic, strong organizing union, but also build the cadre of member-activists that make our union work. Can you take a moment to sign up to be involved on our Orientation Organizing Campaign?

We have ambitious goals as a union for this year, for the future, and for this campaign. But for our union to really work for us as graduate assistants, we need to be involved. This campaign is how we will build that among new graduate assistants as well as ourselves as current union members. Get involved now to build a strong, successful union.

Let's go out and build the best campaign to build the best union possible for ourselves.

Update Your Union Information!

2009-07-27T22:38:00.002-05:00

A good union is of, by, and for its rank-and-file members. We work for ourselves as rank-and-file members; we take ownership for a strong, successful union, made up of rank-and-file members.

A good union is one in which rank-and-file members are connected, engaged, involved, and active - creating the "of, by, for" dynamic. To connect with one another, to engage in the work of the union, to get involved, and to get active, we need to have good information for everyone.

You can take a small, easy step to help build this kind of strong, successful union by updating your membership information, using this quick online form.

Filling out this form, you'll make sure that your union can be in touch with you. Filling out this form, you'll find out how you can be involved with your union and ensure that we can get you involved the right way for you. So take a moment and fill out this form so that you can be connected and engaged and so that you can get involved and active.

Take this simple step to update your union membership information so that we can build the best union possible for all of us graduate student workers. Your membership is your voice in your union, your union is your vehicle to advance graduate student worker interests, and your activism is your way to make this union work for all of us.

Orientation Organizing Campaign

2009-07-21T23:29:00.002-05:00

Organizing is the heart of unionism, connecting workers and building power to advance our shared interests. We need to organize to build and strengthen our union, and we're kicking off a major organizing drive in conjunction with upcoming department orientations and the beginning of the academic year.

Can you be involved? If you're interested, contact our Orientation Committee co-chairs Peter Rickman and Tim Frandy - or just fill out a quick online survey.

Orientation is typically when we add the most members to our union from the graduate assistants in our bargaining unit. Orientation is also typically when we recruit many of the activists that make our union work. Orientation is also when we form first impressions of our union - and that it even exists for unknowing new grad assistants - including building a union identity among the worker we represent. And the beginning of the academic year is an opportunity to engage current TAs and PAs around our union, building new membership, recruiting new activists, and building our union culture.

Our Orientation Organizing Campaign is going to be a tremendous opportunity with an exciting, well-run campaign to build our union. The Orientation Committee has put together a dynamic, well-constructed plan for organizing during the next two months, leading into and right after orientation and the beginning of the academic year. We need you to be involved to successfully organize and to build our union. There are lots of ways to be involved in a few different capacities.

Will you get involved? If so, or to find out more, contact our Orientation Committee co-chairs Peter Rickman and Tim Frandy - or just fill out a quick online survey.

We need folks to set up times to speak to department orientations. We need people to speak at these orientations. We need folks to help track data and information. We need people to follow up with the members we contact during orientations to plug them into the union. We need folks to help build the infrastructure of the campaign. In short, there are lots of ways to get involved, and we need you to be a part of this organizing campaign.

To find out more or to get involved right now, contact our Orientation Committee co-chairs Peter Rickman and Tim Frandy - or just fill out a quick online survey.

We'll be holding four campaign kickoff events on August 5th, 11th, 16th and 20th, so get them on your calendar and plan on showing up at one. They will be at the TAA office at 6 PM, with free food and beverage, in addition to a great program: we'll go over the campaign strategy, we'll train people on particular roles in the campaign, we'll hear from TAA activists and other labor leaders, and we'll get fired up for an important and exciting campaign of the TAA. See you then, and see you on the campaign trail!

Update Your Union Information!

2009-07-21T23:27:00.001-05:00

With the coming of a new academic year, the TAA needs to update its roster of information about all of us as rank-and-file members. We would like to have all of our members fill out an electronic of our "blue card," our normal membership card. Part of running a good organization is having proper information to put to use, including contact information for all members as well as information on how everyone wants to be involved in our union.

So please take a few moments to quickly fill out the online version of the blue card here.

Our union is a product of what we put into it. Just as the university works because we do, our union works because we do. A democratic union means we shape the direction of the union as active rank-and-file members and it means that we implement that direction as active rank-and-file members. We are strong when all are involved. For the strongest union possible to advance our interests as graduate student workers, we need you to be involved.

So make sure to fill out the online blue card by responding with a "yes" or "no" answer on some really important ways for you to be involved.

In this coming year, we will have a number of really important and exciting ways for everyone to be involved in our union. We are committed to involving all rank-and-file members as much as possible in making our union work, including putting together well-run campaigns that advance our union's cause as well as providing training and education for all rank-and-file members to be involved in a meaningful way. So again, please take a moment to fill out the online blue card.

T-Shirt Design Contest Continues

2009-07-21T23:25:00.001-05:00

As announced in our last e-newsletter, we are running a design contest for our 2009-2010 annual t-shirt. Take a look here for further details.

We need you to submit your ideas and designs. And we need you to have your submissions in by the end of this week. If you have any questions, please contact Orientation Committee co-chair Tim Frandy.

Contract Update and Paycut Request Information

2009-07-21T23:22:00.002-05:00

As we reported in our last e-newsletter, a request has been made from the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER) to have TAA members give up our duly-negotiated wage increases. Our Executive Board considered this request for a paycut to be imposed upon all TAs and PAs and debated it at length at our meeting tonight. We will recommend at the next General Membership Meeting that our union reject this request to cut graduate assistant wages.

While this request can be summarily dismissed or rejected by our elected Executive Board, we believe that it is best that a matter of our contract such as this should be considered and acted upon by all rank-and-file members through a General Membership Meeting. Again, at the next GMM, the Executive Board will submit a motion to reject OSER's request of us to give back our contractually guaranteed wage increase. At this meeting, we as the membership can vote to approve the motion and reject OSER's request or we can vote to accept it. If we reject it, nothing will change except the increases in our paychecks. If we accept it, then the matter must be voted upon by our entire membership via balloting.

This General Membership Meeting will be scheduled as soon as possible when graduate assistants return to campus in large numbers in late-summer/early-fall.

The Executive Board will recommend rejection of this request because we do not believe that TAs and PAs should give up wage increases for a number of reasons, to be enumerated and explained in our General Membership Meeting. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Co-Presidents Katie Lindstrom and Peter Rickman.

Stewards: Rank-and-File Leaders Needed

2009-07-15T14:34:00.002-05:00

Active leadership right at the proverbial shopfloor of our workplace is a core aspect of having a strong union. Stewards organize workers, connect rank-and-file members with one another, advocate for and with workers at the department level, and serve as key leaders in the decision-making of our union. For our union to work as an organization of, by, and for graduate workers, we need a high quantity and quality of stewards. It has been said that the steward is the contract and the union made real for workers - and we need you to get involved in your union as a rank-and-file leader by being your department's steward.

We are beginning a campaign to recruit, train, and develop new stewards - and we want you to consider becoming one. For stewards past, present, and future, we will be training and educating rank-and-file activists who want to make our union work, building your capacity to be an effective union leader in your department. We will be building a cadre of empowered, skilled worker-activists who know what stewards do and how to do it, connected with other rank-and-file leaders through our Stewards Council.

Will you step up to make your union work and consider becoming a steward? Let us know if you want in. We want to hear from you if this sounds like something in which you might be interested. We will be putting together a Stewards Interest Session very soon, to bring together past, present, and potential future stewards, informing folks about stewarding and finding ways for interested activist members to be involved in this way. From there, we will be holding education and training sessions, in addition to ongoing and regular collaboration with fellow stewards, other union leaders, and our excellent staff.

But we need to hear from you - if you are interested in finding out more about becoming a steward or to sign up right away, contact our Co-Presidents Katie Lindstrom and Peter Rickman and we will follow up with you.

2009-2010 TAA T-Shirt Design Contest

2009-07-15T14:27:00.001-05:00

With a little graphic design talent or some applied creativity, you could be the designer of the 2009-2010 TAA t-shirt. Or, lacking the artistic talent to render your design onto paper but with the vision of a true artiste, you're welcome to submit a rough sketch that the TAA can have translated from dream to t-shirt reality. We are looking for your submissions for t-shirt designs that will grace the backs of many a graduate worker.

This year, in particular, we especially encourage designs that communicate the TAA's commitment to organize fellow graduate workers. Words and ideas that might be a part of this include "graduate workers united," "organizing," "unionism," "stronger together," and the like - maybe you have your own way to articulate that graduate workers organized in a union are a mighty force for economic and social justice in the academy.

As you craft a design, please be aware that we cannot use things that include material like UW logos (e.g. Bucky Badger, the stylized "W," etc) because of copyright. Because of our desire to be economical with printing, we are asking designers to keep their submissions to black and white. Right now, we are thinking of printing on t-shirts that are either black, white, or red - but let the inspiration guide your design.

Submit your design ideas to Tim Frandy of the Orientation Committee by Friday, July 24th. Our Orientation Committee will select a winning design concept - and the artist producing it will receive a prize of a $50 gift card to the Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative, not to mention the satisfaction and pride of seeing thousands of fellow graduate workers sporting his or her design around campus.

Previous designs as well as a black-and-white version of the TAA logo can be found here:

With any questions, please contact Tim.

Contract Update: OSER Request to Give Back Wage Increase

2009-07-15T14:24:00.002-05:00

As many of you know, the economic and state fiscal crisis has produced reaction in Wisconsin government including a request for public employees to give back the 2% wage increases slated for the current and coming fiscal years. Non-union workers have had this wage decrease unilaterally imposed upon them; because of the nature of union representation, this cannot be done to unionized workers and instead must proceed through negotiation. Union representation means negotiating between management and workers as equals. After an initial announcement from the Governor that state employee unions would be asked to give back the wage increases negotiated in their contracts, unions including the TAA have formally been solicited by the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER) to do so.

While our contract is still not ratified by the state legislature - though we expect that to be completed soon - this request must be considered by our union. Ultimately, because we are a democratic body, a decision of this weight and associated with our collective bargaining agreement (the contract) must be decided upon by our rank-and-file membership. In the coming week or so, we will need you to participate in this decision.

Here is how things will work: Our Executive Board has received from OSER the request and we will consider it, gathering information beyond what we have already done on the topic. After deliberation, the Executive Board will put together a recommendation to forward to all rank-and-file members for consideration, with options of either rejecting the request to give back our duly-negotiated wage increase or accepting with conditions. Because this request means a re-opening of our contract, other provisions are subject to negotiation. If the request is to be accepted, other improvements will have to be bargained in trade. However, giving back wages now is a de facto paycut now as well as an erosion of our base pay rate for all future contracts. From here, our rank-and-file membership will decide upon a course of action, either through an email vote or in an Emergency General Membership Meeting to take place either over the summer or immediately upon the return of the academic year.

This is a critical topic for our union and for all of us in so many ways. Your participation in this decision, a right of membership in a democratic body and a democratic union, is vital. So stay tuned for further information and a call to action. With any questions at this point, please contact Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.