MSU’s Graduate Employees Union might seek arbitration with the university after a grievance filed last week was rejected by Provost Lou Anna Simon.
Union officials have until Oct. 12 to inform the university of its next action.
“We were obviously disappointed,” said Duncan Woodhead, co-chairman of the union’s Grievance Committee. “We were hoping the administration would not make us fight it and go to arbitration.”
The conflict stems from MSU officials’ interpretation of a clause in the union’s contract that regulates teaching assistant salaries. In her official response to the union, Simon says TAs “can be” promoted to the top level of pay once they have a master’s degree and four semesters experience, at the discretion of the college or department.
But the union maintains members, who are paid on a three-tier scale, must be given the promotion once they reach the level of experience.
“What they’re saying is, ‘Promotion is at the discretion of the employer,’” Woodhead said. “That is not acceptable.”
The interpretation can mean as much as a $700-per-year difference in salary. Union officials say about 200 of MSU’s 1,400 TAs have at least four semesters experience.
The College of Arts and Letters, the College of Natural Science and the College of Social Science were reported by the union as requiring a minimum eight to 12 semesters of experience.
“The university looks at this as a minimum, not a maximum,” said Robert Banks, MSU’s assistant provost and assistant vice president for academic human resources. “The words speak for themselves.”
Banks said the union should have tried to work out the difference of interpretation before filing an official grievance. He said university officials would like the union to drop its grievance, which would allow the two sides to have an open dialogue - without time constraints - to work out the problem.
“The intent is to have a forum for sharing mutual ideas,” Banks said. “It doesn’t start with you saying you like one thing and we like another.”
But Woodhead said if the union dropped its grievance, it would not be able to file another on the same issue.
Striking is not an option either - it’s prohibited in the union’s contract. But Woodhead said the union could use other measures to protest the grievance, such as holding rallies.
Meanwhile, union committees will meet this week to discuss what to do next. If the union seeks arbitration, a third party would be brought in to determine how to interpret the contract.
“We feel it’s very unfortunate they’re taking this course of action,” Union President Scott Henkel said. “It’s too bad the university is holding the pay that level-three grad students are allowed to have.”
