Seattle Press on Line - School Ends With Grad Students On Strike

Union Notebook

School Ends With Grad Students On Strike

By Tom Herriman

Jennifer Hook and Denise Johnson on the picket line.

Jun 13, 2001 -- The strike by University of Washington graduate students ends when the quarter ends on June 15, and union members are uncertain of their next move. "We don't know what's going to happen in the fall," said organizing committee member Melissa Meade. "But there are boxes and boxes of term papers from this quarter that we're not going to grade."

The teaching assistants, graders and readers, members of Graduate Student Employee Action Coalition/United Auto Workers (GSEAC/UAW) voted 1,061-to-100 to strike on June 1, since they were unable to agree on a contract with the university.

Teaching assistants earn $1,100 a month, and handle 50 percent of the work of undergraduate instruction, including teaching classes, holding individual student conferences, grading papers and giving and grading exams.

"I teach 20 hours a week, and spend 40 hours a week on my own graduate work," said sociology Teaching Assistant (TA) Denise Johnson. Jennifer Hook, another sociology department TA, said she teaches over 100 undergrads, and 20 hours a week does not give her enough time to do a good job. Both women say they should have some control over their working conditions. "UW takes advantage of us, and they don't have to hire as many full-time faculty," Johnson said.

Johnson said she has to borrow money to stay in school because her TA stipend is not enough to live on. "My rent alone is $800," she said.

When asked if they were receiving valuable training through their assistantships, that would help them get jobs later on, Hook said, "There's very little training. We're just sort of thrown into it. There's not a whole lot of support, and often you're overwhelmed with more students than you can handle."

"I teach my own class," she continued. "I design the course, choose the materials and I have complete autonomy to teach the class the way I want."

"We'll do what is necessary to win a contract, " Johnson insisted. "Eventually they're going to have to give in."

University negotiator Howard Pripas said the single biggest issue separating the two sides is making GSEAC/UAW the exclusive bargaining agent. The union wants it, but the university says they can't agree to it without legislative approval. No new negotiations are scheduled, but a federal mediator is keeping in touch with both sides, Pripas said.

Another key issue for the union is having a contract that's fully enforceable by a neutral third party, or arbitrator. Without arbitration, an employer can interpret a contract any way they want, and if the union disagrees their only alternative is to strike. Pripas says UW has agreed that 85 percent of the union's demands would be subject to third-party arbitration. That's not enough for the grad students, who are asking for a "fully enforceable" contract.

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