It's been more than two years since the contract governing University of Wisconsin teaching assistants ran out. After months of stalled talks, the Teaching Assistants Association and the State of Wisconsin sat down yesterday to once again attempt to hammer out a contract.

We're glad to see both parties back at the table.

It's been far too long without a contract for the TAA, which represents about 3,000 teaching assistants and program/project assistants at UW. They have been working without a contract since 2003, only months after they approved the 2001-03 biennium contract.

The TAA has remained intransigent in its belief that no-premium health care is a core requirement of any ratified contract.

The state maintains that increased cost of health care and current budget shortfalls are forcing it to provide smaller pay increases and abolish the tradition of no-premium health care for TAs. It has steadfastly refused to budge on its demand for modest health-care premiums to be included in the contract.

With the state's refusal to budge, the TAA has tried a number of things to jumpstart the talks, including a disastrous walk-out in April 2004 and filing an unfair labor practice charge against the state in May 2005.

Although very little has changed since both parties walked away from talks last year, we are encouraged by the presence of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Committee, which has stepped in to facilitate an agreement after the TAA filed its unfair labor practice charge. Although not an official mediator, the WERC has a history of helping employer-employee relations.

This board has repeatedly come out in favor of the TAA dropping its demand for no-premium health care and accepting the deal that the state has offered. Had it done so, it might not be in this predicament. That said, we continue to believe both the State of Wisconsin's Office of State Employee Relations and the TAA have acted in bad faith throughout the negotiations.

However, at this point, it seems that both parties have a good opportunity to get past the emotional issues that have surrounded the past two years of bargaining and finally get a fair and equitable contract for University of Wisconsin TAs. We hope the WERC will have success and soon we'll be writing about a successful contract resolution rather than another year of bickering between the TAA and the state.