The Barometer Online

For over four years, graduate teaching and research assistants and our union, the Coalition of Graduate Employees, have been hampered by OSU attorneys and Human Resources who maintain that the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act prevents OSU from providing graduate assistants and our union with basic employment information. Such information is necessary for CGE to determine who we represent and to effectively contact our members.

We believe that OSU should move on the information issue, and we emphasize that the names and employment information of our fellow graduate teaching and research assistants are a major component impeding our union's function. They are necessary for us to advocate on our own behalf and represent our members as required by law. Consequently, they are the substance of our bargaining.

State employees are subject to a two-year wage freeze. Moreover, OSU's bargaining team alleges that a legislative recommendation to limit remission of fees/tuition prevents OSU from reducing graduate teaching and research assistants' fees, which have increased to more than $1200 each year in the last four years. Thus, while the costs of graduate education rise each year, our already low wages remained constant, and our take-home pay has decreased dramatically. This resulted in our income decreasing; OSU offers no remedy.

Since the negotiation of wages and benefits is limited, we focused on strengthening graduate assistants' rights and improving our working conditions. The lead negotiator for OSU, David Shaw, may feel confident that contract negotiations will turn out fine, but CGE does not share his confidence. OSU's position has been to: 1) limit the rights of graduate assistants, 2) maintain its present stranglehold on CGE's ability to do business and 3) provide minimum economic relief. Although CGE has compromised on every OSU proposal, OSU has shown little to no change in position as negotiations proceeded since February. Thus, OSU graduate assistants are faced with either accepting OSU's policy of domination and control or failing to reach agreement. Failure to agree allows OSU to unilaterally impose its last offer. In such event, graduate assistants can call for a strike.

However, the majority of graduate assistants are not employed during the summer. OSU graduate assistants' only hope is that the State Employment Relations Board will rule favorably in the Unfair Labor Practice complaint filed July 14, 2004. Such a ruling would likely force OSU to start complying with the law (the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act) despite its misgivings about FERPA.

In the long run, only a long-lost spirit of cooperation and fairness from OSU's bargaining team can lead to a stable, productive relationship between the graduate assistants and OSU.

The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of The Coalition of Graduate Employees Bargaining Team and Planning Committee, and do not necessarily represent those of The Summer Barometer staff. The CGE can be reached at cge@peak.org.

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