The Teaching Assistants' Association voted Monday to hold a campus-wide walkout strike today and Wednesday after rejecting final contract proposals from the State Bargaining Committee.
Over 500 TAs and project assistants packed the Lowell Center to voice their opinions about the State Bargaining Committee's refusal of two contract proposals from the TAA. The two separate offers would have either raised TA and PA wages or retained their current zero-premium health-care plans. Instead, the state returned with a counter proposal, which was similar to previous offers, according to Danielle LeClair, chief negotiator of the TAA Bargaining Committee.
\There wasn't any movement in the counterproposal offered by the state. They shifted percentages and numbers around, but in the end more TAs would be losing out,"" LeClair said.
TAA members signed up for shifts to picket in front of several buildings around campus starting at 7:30 a.m. today. The buildings include Bascom Hall, Humanities, Vilas Hall, Van Vleck, Van Hise, Education, Educational Sciences, Noland, Social Science and Helen C. White. They will not picket Memorial and College libraries.
""We're asking students not to cross picket lines wherever they see them,"" Strike Committee Chair Ellen Heckman said.
Additionally, the Student Labor Action Coalition will sponsor a rally in support of the TAA today at noon on Bascom Hill and the TAA will hold another post-strike celebration at 4:30 in front of Bascom Hall. The TAA has also planned a post-strike march to the Capitol Wednesday.
UW-Madison Provost Peter Spear said students should attend class and continue their week as usual.
Despite the strike, the TAA will attempt to bring the State Bargaining Committee back to the negotiating table this week, according to Heckman. However, the TAA Strike Committee is prepared to continue with a grade strike at the end of the semester that would include withholding final grades from students and administrators.
""A grade strike is on the horizon,"" Heckman said.
In response to the TAA action, 22 academic departments have passed formal resolutions in support of the TAA and many professors have cancelled or rescheduled classes.
""I rescheduled classes because I wanted to give students an alternative to crossing a picket line,"" UW-Madison political science Professor Steve Stern said. ""I'm telling students I'm not going to penalize them for having a conscience.\
