SUNY Grad Students Fight for Fair Contract

State University of New York teaching assistants and graduate assistants represented by CWA Local 1104 rallied on SUNY's Albany uptown campus April 29 to demonstrate their displeasure with the state's recent contract proposal. The local is currently in bargaining with the Governor's Office of Employee Relations. Its pact for 4,000 graduate teaching assistants working throughout the SUNY system expired in July 2003.

"New York State's written proposal package is insulting to all the hard-working teaching assistants and graduate assistants," said Rahmi Bula, CWA Local 1104 business agent. "We are uniting to send a strong message that we will stand up and be counted as workers who deserve a decent contract. So far what we've seen from the state is an attempt to push us backwards."

Teaching assistants and graduate assistants use on-campus technology to perform their job duties, yet pay about 5 percent of their annual income as a fee to use the equipment, Bula said. Also, their health insurance can be cut if they use more than five days of sick leave. The student employees are seeking basic maternity and disability leave.

The student employees and their supporters have undertaken a letter-writing campaign to Governor George Pataki, informing him that the state's offer would leave them with a pay raise of only 0.25 percent after inflation and that it carries a 230 percent increase in health care co-pays. They asked him to present them with a contract "that honors and respects the integral role graduate students play in delivering quality public higher education."