Presidential Ponderings Letter from the President of the Union Presidential Ponderings

TAU President David Zwart

It is getting to crunch time in negotiating our first contract. This is an exciting time to think about what unified action can accomplish. The purpose behind unionization is to have a voice in our working conditions and compensation. The contract we are negotiating will improve our working lives in numerous ways. We can have a louder voice in our working conditions. We can stand up for ourselves when we are being taken advantage of. We can improve our economic situation by pressing for better tuition remission, higher wages, and better health care coverage.

Our treatment by the university has not kept up with the treatment of graduate assistants at other institutions. Choosing a university for graduate work is more than just the economics of it, our position is not as good as other graduate assistants at other universities. This simply shows that the university needs the stick of the union to keep up with their peer institutions. We have opportunity to use this first contract to compel the university to treat us in accordance with the value we bring to this university. We are vital to teaching undergraduate students in courses and labs. We generate a tremendous amount of tuition revenue for this university that is not reflected in our compensation.

It is now up to you to get involved to show the university that we want a contract and we want it now. We need to show the university that we are not going to take it anymore and we deserve to be treated better. Get involved in your union!!