TAA tantrum hurts students
9:40 PM 4/26/04

Today's choice: Walk out or join the real world. Today's plainly illegal walkout by UW-Madison teaching and project assistants offers a clear lesson - mostly, in how a top-notch education doesn't necessarily confer maturity. <

Graduate student assistants play valuable education and research roles at UW-Madison while pursuing their own advanced studies. But today's illegal strike is little more than a tantrum by petulant professorial wannabes who refuse to join the real world. <

The union that represents 3,000 graduate assistants, the Teaching Assistants Association, has chosen to disrupt the education of about 15,000 students today and Wednesday for no good reason. <

Worse, the assistants threaten to withhold grades for the thousands of undergraduates they teach as a bargaining chip in the negotiations. Holding grades hostage would be an unconscionable violation of trust and responsibility invested in teaching assistants, and university administrators would be well within rights to discipline those who would try to harm the academic futures of other students. <

The union would have you believe its downtrodden members are being forced into poverty by intransigent state negotiators. In fact, UW-Madison's assistants are graduate students who get free tuition and average wages of about $12,144 for nine months of part-time work. They have been offered 4.6 percent raises for next year, a lot more than most workers, public or private, will see on their pay slips. And the raise would put UW-Madison assistants above the midpoint of their peers at other campuses. <

But the assistants are aghast that the state's two-year contract offer asks them to pay a small health insurance premium - $9 a month for the lowest-cost plan - that is half the rate that their professors and other state workers already pay. State officials correctly maintain that all state worker should pay something for health insurance, both on principle and to save tax money. <

Even the most stalwart unionist would have to admit this is hardly the type of abusive management ploy that might precipitate a walkout. No doubt, many TAs will recognize the folly of their union and ignore the call to illegally strike. Those who decide to meet their responsibilities today should be lauded for courage and wisdom. <

As for the rest, the best response to a tantrum is to be patient but firm. Faculty and instructors should hold classes, students should attend, and those who indulge in this immature rule-breaking should suffer consequences. Strikers should be subjected to the same discipline as any state worker who would illegally walk out: They should be fined or fired. <

This week's childish spasm tarnishes the hard work of the vast majority of graduate assistants who conscientiously lead discussion sections, painstakingly conduct research and generously give time to advise and grade students - all while pursuing advanced degrees themselves. <

Those truly dedicated to teaching and research will ignore the strike call and show up today - not only out of obligation but in appreciation of their hard-won status at a world-class campus. <

Learn more: See for yourself that the strike and grade threats are illegal: www.taa-madison.org/contract.html <

Do something: If you are verbally intimidated or physically obstructed from entering a campus building, tell a UW police officer or call the non-emergency number, 262-2957. <