TAA-Represented Workers Exempt From Furloughs

In a big victory for graduate assistants, workers represented by the TAA will be exempted from state employee furloughs. Earlier this year in response to a state fiscal crisis, the Governor of Wisconsin announced that all state employees would be subject to unpaid furloughs of eight days per year, or sixteen days per biennium. However, these furloughs will not affect teaching, project, and program assistants, all workers represented by the TAA, under the implementation plan worked out with the University of Wisconsin and the Office of State Employment Relations.

Furloughs would have been unpaid days off without a reduction in workload or unpaid days off where graduate workers would not be adding to the teaching, research, and outreach missions of the UW. Instead, graduate workers at UW-Madison and those at UW-Milwaukee, represented by our sister union, the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association, will continue conducting vital work for our universities.