The UI graduate-student union is gearing up to fight any potential layoffs of more teaching and research assistants, noting that 150 TA positions have already been cut this year.

As the UI draws up plans on how to cut $24.7 million from its budget, the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students is not taking the possible loss of members’ jobs lightly.

The union is “putting pressure” on the university by planning rallies, writing statements to UI officials, and sending letters to local media and the state Board of Regents, said Bill Peterson, the organization’s president.

“You’re essentially getting rid of the people who do the basic function of the university, which is teach people,” Peterson said. “It’s a shortsighted way of dealing with the problem.”

Cutting TA positions will only cost the university more in the long run, Peterson said. The loss would damage the quality of education by increasing class sizes and put more work on the remaining TAs, he said.

“There won’t be enough TAs to handle the classes that we have, so they’ll have to increase class sizes, which will mean more grading … and students won’t get as much attention,” Peterson said.

“You’re essentially getting rid of teachers; you take that away, and the university doesn’t work anymore.”

While UI spokesman Tom Moore said he is unable to speculate to what extent graduate-student employees would be hit by the budget cuts, he said it would be “fair to say TAs would be affected,” noting Regent President David Miles’ statement that the “pain [of cuts] would be spread across all employee groups.”

UE-COGS Local 896, founded 13 years ago, represents roughly 2,500 graduate-student TAs and research assistants at the UI. Every two years, COGS bargains for contracts and worker rights.

Other than the official bargaining meetings, UI officials are not required to consult COGS, Peterson said. They otherwise communicate either when someone files a grievance or when incidents such as the budget crisis arise.

Union officials said they’re frustrated with the way UI officials are presenting solutions to the cuts.

“The message we keep hearing is that [UI officials] don’t have any control over this, that they’re just told by the Board of Regents they have a certain number of TA lines, and they don’t really have any other solution,” Peterson said. “We don’t accept that that’s true.”

Moore said UI officials will “continue to welcome any input that people wish to provide,” and they have received thousands of outside suggestions on a website created in February.

The organization has planned a rally for Oct. 26 on the steps of the Old Capitol, rhetoric TA Josh Pederson said, and they hope to not only decry losing TA positions but also suggest alternate solutions to the budget crisis.

“Basically, what we’re going to do is try to make people aware of what is going on and what could potentially happen to TAs,” Pederson said. “We want to make our voice heard.”

They plan to speak out against the possible tuition surcharge and make people aware of research they did on how much officials “at the very top echelon of the university make” in salaries and bonuses, Pederson said.

“If you’re going to cut something, maybe start looking at cutting people who make the most versus the people who make the least,” he said.

But increased budget transparency is one of the main changes Peterson said COGS members want to see before the union could begin to accept the possibility of laying off TAs.

“We’re not satisfied to just let our jobs be eliminated and the quality of the university be undermined just because we’re hearing that there isn’t enough money,” Peterson said. “We either need budget transparency in order to figure out another solution or they need to do it.”