Iowa State graduate student teaching assistants say they have a good relationship with the university and will not push for labor unions similar to those at other institutions.

Teaching assistants at the University of Iowa officially unionized over two years ago, said Deborah Herman, president of United Electrical Local 896-Campaign to Organize Graduate Students (COGS), the union that represents TAs at U of I.

Herman said graduate students had been talking about doing something to improve working conditions for several years before COGS voted to become affiliated with the United Electrical Union in April 1996.

“People here decided the situation was such that if we didn’t do anything, it wouldn’t improve,” Herman said.

UE Local 896-COGS is working on negotiating its second two-year contract since the group’s start, Herman said. She said the union’s first contract was “huge.”

“We were starting from zero,” she said. “Any first contract is huge; you need to get things down on paper.”

Issues that the union pushed for and was able to include in its contract included a significant pay increase, a comprehensive health-care program, the establishment of a grievance procedure and vacation guarantees.

Despite the advances made by the U of I union, graduate students at ISU say they do not see a need to unionize.

“We’ve historically had a good relationship with our [graduate] college,” said Rob Wiese, president of the Graduate Student Senate.

“We usually have a good relationship with the administration in general. I don’t see that the need has been out there,” he said.

Wiese said ISU TAs and graduate assistants already receive many of the requests, such as higher salaries and health care, for which COGS is lobbying.

“We don’t really have to negotiate for those things,” he said.

John Mayfield, associate dean of the graduate college, said he has heard little talk about proposed unions at ISU.

“It seems like the majority of ISU students just aren’t very interested,” Mayfield said.

“It’s an administrative headache because it ties your hands,” he said.

Mayfield said ISU’s science and technology focus may be one reason that unions have not sprung up.

“Typically it’s TAs in the humanities who lead the way,” Mayfield said. “Humanities are smaller here [than at Iowa], which may explain why there is less interest.”

Teaching assistants in the chemistry department say they are happy with their working conditions and do not see a union as a probable organization at ISU.

“I’m personally not interested in union membership,” said Brett Simpson, graduate student in chemistry. “I realize that there are other [departments] around campus that don’t have as good of benefits as we do as chemistry students.”

However, Simpson said he would like to see some changes made to the TA job.

“There are some things I’d like to see changed, but for the most part I don’t think that’s something a union could do,” he said.