Join the TAA

If you are a graduate student at UW-Madison, you can become a TAA member! Membership in the TAA provides you with a voice in your union and builds collective power to improve our working conditions.

If you are an international student, your visa status will not be affected by joining the union.

Joining the TAA online requires two steps:

  1. TAA Membership Form: Provide the TAA with your membership information via our Airtable form (this helps us connect you with committees, organizers in your department, etc.).
  2. AFT Join Form: Submit your billing and payment information to AFT (our parent union).

Details about the TAA’s monthly dues can be found on the Membership + Dues page.

Not ready to join yet?

Membership Questions?

Check out the “Membership + Dues” or “Manage Your Membership” pages, or reach out to taamembershipsec@taa-madison.org.


By joining our union, you are choosing collective action, increasing the strength of all UW-Madison graduate workers. You can vote on union policy related to your wages, benefits, and working conditions. You’re also showing support for all of the past TAA members who have bargained for the benefits you enjoy and a way of committing yourself to making things better for TAs, PAs, and RAs in the future.

Only a strong union can advocate effectively for graduate student interests and workplace rights both on campus and in the Statehouse, and protect graduate employees from excessive workloads, harassment, discrimination, and retribution. Joining the TAA also increases the union’s negotiating strength. Each additional member reinforces the message to the administration and the state that the TAA is a force to be taken seriously.

Together, we fight the attacks on public employees and higher education that are occurring in Wisconsin and nationwide. In the Uprising of 2011, our union stood strong with thousands of other Wisconsin workers, students, and citizens in the largest protests in this state has seen since the Vietnam War era. Join us to effectively fight back against the stripping of workers’ rights and draconian cuts to higher education.

As a member, you play an integral role in the machinery of union democracy. You have a voice in setting the priorities of the union and a direct line in how you can better your wages, benefits, and working conditions. You can eligible to vote in all union elections and issue ballots (contract offers, union policy changes, etc.) and get the information you need to take part in these important decisions.