GSEAC and UW agreement extended

       Earlier this month, the "meet and confer" relationship between the Graduate Student Employment Action Coalition/United Auto Workers (GSEAC/UAW) union and the UW was extended in a joint decision made by the two parties.

Extending the agreement until May 28, both parties hope to continue working to resolve issues regarding wages and benefits raised by GSEAC members over the past two years.

"We're basically still working on an agreement about immediate economic and non-economic issues: workload protections, health safety issues, wages, health benefits and daycare," said Kristen Intemann, spokesperson for GSEAC/UAW. "However, [GSEAC is] hoping that the University will choose to recognize GSEAC/UAW as the exclusive bargaining agent without legislation. We want exclusivity. That's been our goal from the beginning."

Without bargaining exclusivity, GSEAC members fear the University would offer incentives for TAs not to join the union.

"Exclusivity ensures [GSEAC] that there won't be union-busting on the part of the University by giving sweetheart deals to TAs for not being union members," Intemann said.

Although GSEAC/UAW hopes the University will change its stance and grant union exclusivity, Norm Arkans, associate vice president for University relations, is skeptical.

"[The University] does not believe that we can recognize GSEAC as the exclusive bargaining agent without legislation," Arkans said. "But they do continue to meet and confer on conditions of employment. There's no contract yet, but there is an agreement."

Despite their agreement extension, GSEAC and the administration move no closer to a collective bargaining relationship due to the impending failure of legislation in Olympia. As part of the agreement from the strike-averting, "meet and confer" decision from December 2000, both GSEAC/UAW and the UW agreed to lobby on behalf of legislation giving the union collective bargaining rights.

"The Senate bill [SB5826] did not meet the cut-off date of last Wednesday," said Dick Thompson, UW lobbyist, of the March 14 deadline to move the bill into the House of Representatives. "This doesn't mean that the legislation is dead. There's always a possibility that the Legislature can move around its cut-off rules."

However, according to Thompson, resurrecting the bill would only occur if both Republicans and Democrats work together to bring the bill back to debate. In the case of collective bargaining legislation, a bipartisan effort is unlikely to happen.

"It does appear to me that there will be no unique revival [of the legislation]," Thompson said. "The Senate Republican caucus and Republican leadership is very much opposed to the bill. It rests on the Senate floor, and I think that's where it will stay."

Although the "meet and confer" agreement pleased both parties involved in December, the split Legislature posed a serious threat to the passage of collective bargaining legislation from the beginning.

Josh Arriola, a sophomore and coordinator of an undergraduate group against TA unionization, sees the "meet and confer" relationship as an administrative tactic by UW President Richard McCormick to avoid a strike by GSEAC/UAW.

"[McCormick] knew there was no chance the legislation was going to pass," Arriola said. "The administration has handled this situation amazingly well. McCormick's maneuvered himself into saving the University from two quarters with a union."

Furthermore, Arriola believes the need for legislation is also a way for McCormick to please the parties involved.

"Basically, McCormick took the issue of collective bargaining and took it out of his hands. He sent the legislation to Olympia and even though it didn't have a prayer of passing, now he can say, 'I wanted it, but look, the legislators don't want it,'" Arriola said. "He's gained capital. Now all the administration has to do is [mess] around with 'meet and confer' agreements without collective bargaining."