Our summer and fall Orientation Organizing Campaign is getting ready to kick off. This campaign is going to be really important to build our union to be strong and successful. Our union should be of, by, and for rank-and-file members, and this campaign is going to have a big impact on building that kind of…
Our union is built upon rank-and-file members organizing among ourselves, the union being our vehicle for collective action. One of our best opportunities to engage new graduate assistants to get involved in our union, from becoming members to becoming activists, is through each fall’s Orientation. With hundreds, even thousands of new graduate assistants coming to…
A good union is of, by, and for its rank-and-file members. We work for ourselves as rank-and-file members; we take ownership for a strong, successful union, made up of rank-and-file members. A good union is one in which rank-and-file members are connected, engaged, involved, and active – creating the “of, by, for” dynamic. To connect…
Organizing is the heart of unionism, connecting workers and building power to advance our shared interests. We need to organize to build and strengthen our union, and we’re kicking off a major organizing drive in conjunction with upcoming department orientations and the beginning of the academic year. Can you be involved? If you’re interested, contact…
With the coming of a new academic year, the TAA needs to update its roster of information about all of us as rank-and-file members. We would like to have all of our members fill out an electronic of our “blue card,” our normal membership card. Part of running a good organization is having proper information…
As announced in our last e-newsletter, we are running a design contest for our 2009-2010 annual t-shirt. Take a look here for further details. We need you to submit your ideas and designs. And we need you to have your submissions in by the end of this week. If you have any questions, please contact…
As we reported in our last e-newsletter, a request has been made from the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER) to have TAA members give up our duly-negotiated wage increases. Our Executive Board considered this request for a paycut to be imposed upon all TAs and PAs and debated it at length at our meeting…
Active leadership right at the proverbial shopfloor of our workplace is a core aspect of having a strong union. Stewards organize workers, connect rank-and-file members with one another, advocate for and with workers at the department level, and serve as key leaders in the decision-making of our union. For our union to work as an…
With a little graphic design talent or some applied creativity, you could be the designer of the 2009-2010 TAA t-shirt. Or, lacking the artistic talent to render your design onto paper but with the vision of a true artiste, you’re welcome to submit a rough sketch that the TAA can have translated from dream to…
As many of you know, the economic and state fiscal crisis has produced reaction in Wisconsin government including a request for public employees to give back the 2% wage increases slated for the current and coming fiscal years. Non-union workers have had this wage decrease unilaterally imposed upon them; because of the nature of union…
