An Open Letter to the Members of the TAA
from Chancellor John D. Wiley
April 29, 2004
We are now in the immediate aftermath of the two-day work stoppage called by the TAA, and bargaining is scheduled to resume early next week. It is time to reflect on a few inalterable facts.
The university has not stood in opposition to the TAA. We have argued consistently in favor of fair compensation. We understand very well the intrinsic and lasting value of each teaching assistant on this campus. We understood it before the job action and we understand it today, in equal measure.
Our appreciation of your service explains why, at a time when the university's resources are stretched to their maximum, we chose to reallocate precious reserves - that had been set aside to help withstand additional expected budget cuts - to help tender a fair offer. We made this allocation, and it is now time for the membership to accept that as a fact. It also is time for the membership to recognize that continued efforts to lobby against an insurance co-pay fly in the face of a political and philosophical line in the sand drawn by both the governor and the state Legislature. Given trends in health care, and the constancy of too little state money available to meet projected needs, the elected leaders of this state have resolved that all public employees will do their part to meet the challenge. Helping to pay the cost of health insurance is an immutable component of this strategy. As members of a union, you long ago became an accepted category of state employees. One of the consequences of holding that status is to pay the very modest co-pay premium that is included in the present offer. That premium has already been reduced to a percentage that is half of the cost assessed any other state employee.
Apart from the issue of an insurance co-pay, the present offer is fair, and brings TA compensation to just above the median of the same peer group of institutions that we use to determine faculty salaries. This peer group has been used for more than 20 years for this very purpose, and is based on an assessment of the public research institutions that are most like UW-Madison. These are our most direct competitors, and the most accurate source of a peer comparison of fair compensation. It would not be fair to change the peer group to include institutions that happen to have higher TA compensation simply because doing so would validate your argument. The faculty doesn't have that luxury, and nor should you.
Most teaching assistant contracts are not full time, because TAs are students, too. But the average base salary of $12,144 for a half-time contract, plus $2,429 in compulsory fringe benefits and $15,270 in non-resident tuition remission made available to most TAs, the compensation package for a half-time, nine-month appointment totals $29,800. While TAs do work very hard - and no one disputes this - the current compensation formula is a fair trade for an opportunity to teach, work closely with faculty and obtain a high-quality, postgraduate education.
I urge you to accept the offer that the State of Wisconsin Office of State Employee Relations has put on the table, with a significant contribution from the university, and let us all return to the primary reason we choose to work and study at this university. I also urge you to remember that you are state employees at a public university, and the Legislature has the final say on whether the contract you negotiate will be accepted. Any continuation of unlawful job actions designed to gain an exemption from the practice of an insurance co-pay only makes that possibility more remote.
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