UW Labor Issues

The Capital Times has a brief article on the current labor situation with the UW TAA, which just voted to authorize a two-day strike on April 27-28, followed by a grade withholding strike at the end of the semester. (Students who need grades would still be able to get them through a special TAA transcript.) On thing I want to emphasize here is that this is not purely a "TA's don't want to pay for health care" issue. It's more like a "TA's don't want to start paying for health care at the same time they get a 0.0% raise" issue. Another thing: I don't have exact details in front of me, but I believe the union and state were only $300,000 apart before yesterday's new offer. From accounts of the open bargaining sessions, the university admits the problem is not economic, but rather stems from political/philosophical decisions made at high levels of the state government about their policy toward state employees. UW is already below its peer institutions in terms of TA/PA compensation, so failure to even keep up with inflation will not be good for the school's future recruitment prospects, and hence its reputation and the value of the degrees it confers.

My 2 cents.