Members of the Teaching Assistant Association flooded the halls of Bascom Wednesday in a \grade-in"", where TAs congregated while grading papers, to raise awareness and support for wage increases and continuation of health care benefits for UW-Madison teaching assistants.
Members of the TAA are working with the state as well as UW-Madison officials to try to come to an agreement on a new contract. TAs are currently working under the 2001-03 contract, which has been given an extension for the past eight months until a new contract can be agreed upon.
Currently, UW-Madison has nearly 2,000 TAs who are responsible for teaching, grading and holding office hours, while taking graduate-level classes of their own.
TAs take home less than $1,000 a month on average, nearly $2,000 a year less than other Big Ten universities.
Boian Popunkiov, a UW-Madison TA, voiced his concern that TAs are still working on 2001-03 contract wages, and said even though they have a contract, ""it is not going to last forever,"" he said.
Under talks for the new contract, there are proposals to discontinue free health care.
In the past, 80 to 85 percent of TAA members have taken the option of free healthcare but are now being asked to pay for health care without a pay increase.
""Free healthcare is a good recruitment tool to bring in TAs and losing it would be a huge upset,"" UW-Madison TA Emily Kremer said.
Feelings of TAA members were expressed through slogans on their shirts, stating, ""If it ain't free, we can't afford it.""
Members of the Student Labor Action Coalition were also in attendance collecting signatures for petitions advocating free health care.
""We are here to show that the community as well as undergraduates support our TAs,"" said Samantha Ashley, UW-Madison senior and SLAC member.
Although UW-Madison officials are present at the bargaining table, they are not the decision-makers.
""We are very sympathetic to a lot of things we're hearing from the TAs in terms of their desire to receive a fair wage,"" said Darrell Bazzell, UW-Madison vice chancellor for administration. ""We advise the administration in terms of what our thoughts are and how the bargain ought to go, but at the end of the day it is Governor Doyle's administration that makes the decision in terms of what they are going to offer.""
""We feel we should be treated with dignity and respect,"" Kremer said.
