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A Report from a Writing Program Director in the Trenches: TAs and Unionization

A Report from a Writing Program Director in the Trenches: TAs and Unionization Commen tar y A Report from a Writing Program Director in the Trenches: TAs and Unionization Gail Stygall Slaves of public education, Rise and wake a sleeping nation! Break the chains of your privation! For the union makes us strong! —“Poli Sci Department Strike Song,” sung to the chorus of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Seattle, June 2001 Discharges of discontent crackling through the atmosphere, the teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of Washington moved toward a strike during the spring quarter of 2001. As the end of the spring quarter approached, the faculty knew that negotiations between the university’s administration and the Graduate Student Employee Action Coalition (GSEAC/UAW) were failing. Though the university’s president had reversed the long-term policy of not considering graduate students employees and had agreed, under very specific circumstances, to recognize a graduate student employee union (much to the dismay of some), resolution and agreement were far away. The state of Wash- ington had a quirk: the only public employees denied the right to unionize were the faculty and instructional staff of the six four-year institutions. With- out “enabling” legislation, the administration claimed, there could be no union. We on the faculty had been http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Pedagogy Duke University Press

A Report from a Writing Program Director in the Trenches: TAs and Unionization

Stygall, Gail
Pedagogy , Volume 3 (1) – Jan 1, 2003
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Copyright
© 2003 Duke University Press
ISSN
1531-4200
eISSN
1533-6255
DOI
10.1215/15314200-3-1-7
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Commen tar y A Report from a Writing Program Director in the Trenches: TAs and Unionization Gail Stygall Slaves of public education, Rise and wake a sleeping nation! Break the chains of your privation! For the union makes us strong! —“Poli Sci Department Strike Song,” sung to the chorus of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Seattle, June 2001 Discharges of discontent crackling through the atmosphere, the teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of Washington moved toward a strike during the spring quarter of 2001. As the end of the spring quarter approached, the faculty knew that negotiations between the university’s administration and the Graduate Student Employee Action Coalition (GSEAC/UAW) were failing. Though the university’s president had reversed the long-term policy of not considering graduate students employees and had agreed, under very specific circumstances, to recognize a graduate student employee union (much to the dismay of some), resolution and agreement were far away. The state of Wash- ington had a quirk: the only public employees denied the right to unionize were the faculty and instructional staff of the six four-year institutions. With- out “enabling” legislation, the administration claimed, there could be no union. We on the faculty had been

Journal

Pedagogy – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2003

References