Poster-wielding University employees crowded the corner of Wright and Green streets last Wednesday, coming together in an effort to call attention to their expired labor contracts.

The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 698 are currently in talks with the University to iron out details for new agreements.

The GEO began negotiating its labor contract with the University April 25. The old contract had expired Aug. 15. The graduate employees are asking for an enhanced health-care plan that includes affordable care for their spouses, dependants and children. GEO Co-president Andrew O Baoill said the organization plans to discuss the specifics of the health-care components of the contract at its Sept. 13 meeting with the University.

“We’re looking to implement the health-care plan to be more suitable and better meet the needs of graduate students,” he said. He described the current plan as “run-of-the-mill preventative care” that better serves the needs of undergraduates than graduate students.

According to O Baoill, the University’s health-care plan for graduate employees is not on par with peer schools identified in the University’s 2006 strategic plan. At the University of Michigan, University of California-Berkeley and UCLA, graduate employees do not pay for basic health insurance. The same coverage at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is $99 annually.

By contrast, the campus GEO members are protesting the $260 annual fee for basic health insurance, which has improved since the GEO gained a $100-per-semester subsidy in its last contract.

Although the AFSCME contract, which expired in the fall of 2005, is stalled on issues concerning fair pay, Chris Simeone, lead negotiator for the GEO, said collaborating with groups who have similar interests is an effective way to bring attention to important issues and achieve its goals.

“We’re interested in a lot of the same kinds of issues and have a lot of the same concerns as these other unions, especially fair pay and benefits,” Simeone said, noting that the University has implemented a pay freeze on teaching assistants until an agreement is reached. “It’s not a secret that the University likes to use stall tactics and slow things down when it comes to negotiations.”

University spokesperson Robin Kaler said she hopes both unions can come to resolutions soon but appreciates union laborers voicing their opinions.

“A university is a marketplace of ideas, and I think we would be a little disappointed if we had students and employees who didn’t express their feelings,” she said.

The AFSCME Local 698 is further along in contract negotiations. A meeting between the union, the University and a federal mediator on Thursday moved things forward, Union Vice President Margaret Lewis said. However, she added, issues that have been holding up negotiations remain unsolved.

“There has been some movement on both sides since we started this,” she said. “However, I still don’t believe we’re where we need to be.”

The AFSCME Local 698 is asking for a 3-percent raise to keep up with inflation.

Lewis said the University is offering a raise equal to that of academic professionals and other employees’ pay minus 1.5 percent.

“If we let something like this into our contract, we’ll never get a raise of more than 1 percent or 1.5 percent a year,” Lewis said. “We are adamant that we can’t let this into our contract.”

Kaler said she is confident that an agreement can be reached with both sides working together.

“We feel that we’re continuing to make steady progress,” she said. “We’re working very hard to get what we can, and we hope the unions will continue to work with us to do the best we can with the resources we have available.”

With another meeting scheduled for Oct. 3, Lewis hopes that negotiations come to a timely resolution to avoid the possibility of a strike. Right now, she said, the executive board of the negotiating committee is not ready to present an offer to union members.

“We’ve never been in this position,” she said. “We’re getting close to the end, and we need to get someplace on our next negotiation session.”

As members of both unions continue to work without new contracts, they are striving to gain support for their causes.

“When we look at what the administration is willing to give themselves versus what they are willing to give front-line workers, something is seriously wrong,” Lewis said.