The union came out against the university’s position in a noticeable way last week, when about 40 people protested at the MSU Board of Trustees meeting Friday. A group, including the organization’s president, addressed the trustees during the meeting.

The protesters shouted, “No green, not right,” “MSU, past due,” and “You pick the day, now pay our wage,” and other chants during the early morning demonstration.

“We just want to get paid for the work we do,” said graduate student Dan Clark, GEU president, in an interview with The State News.

The problem stems from overlapping appointments between spring and summer, and summer and fall. The GEU alleges that teaching assistants, or TA’s, who worked both overlapping periods are owed about seven days of pay, or approximately $518 each. The union claims TA’s were working two jobs at once.

“The GEU has been working on this issue with the university, presumably in good faith, for nearly two years,”Clark said during the meeting. “At least two times, we thought this issue was settled and the summer teaching assistants would be compensated properly, only to have the agreement pulled by the university for ever-changing reasons.”

Clark said he had a meeting on the matter scheduled with university officials for this past Tuesday.

The contract that creates these periods of overlap began in 2011 and extends through May 2015 — meaning the same issue will come up at least two more times.

Clark asked the trustees to intervene in the arbitration process and pay the money owed.

Following Clark’s speech, three other GEU representatives read the names of those affected and how much they are allegedly owed.

According to the university, the contract has been followed, and it doesn’t owe the TA’s anything.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said the dispute already has gone through the contract grievance process in favor of the university — the next step is arbitration.

“The names make no difference to me because we have followed the contract,” Simon said after the meeting. “We believe that we’ve followed the contract and we’re very sensitive to the needs of graduate students.”

According to the GEU testimony, the largest amount owed to a TA was more than $600.

Almost 400 TA’s were affected for a total bill of more than $100,000, said graduate student Dan Beck, vice president of contract negotiations and enforcement for GEU, in his speech to the trustees.

“For the university, it’s not a lot, but for TA’s who don’t get paid very much, it is a lot,” Beck said. “We are going through the arbitration process, but that can take a long time and for TA’s who don’t make a lot, we’d rather have our wages now rather than a year from now.”