Friday, February 4, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
Unions work for new GTA health care plan
By Mike Hoffman
Kansan staff writer
Field representatives from the Kansas Association of Public Employees have paired up with members of the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition to rally support as GTAC prepares to battle the University of Kansas for a new health care plan.
Members of both unions are roaming around graduate teaching assistants' offices in Wescoe Hall this week to drum up support.
"Our goal is to increase membership so we can gain strength for the upcoming negotiations," said Brian Farnell, field representative from KAPE. "It's been slow and steady work."
The contract between graduate teaching assistants and the University expires in one year.
One part of the health plan that GTAC will try to change is that currently, only graduate teaching assistants with a half-time appointment or more get health coverage. Teaching assistants with a half-time appointment spend at least 20 hours in the classroom or their offices.
Another important issue is the status of health care for emergency teaching assistants — graduate students who are studying in one department but are teaching classes in another, said Greg Douros, St. Louis graduate student and GTAC member. Because emergency teaching assistants sign only single-semester contracts, they are ineligible to receive health benefits, he said. To receive benefits GTAs must sign a two-semester contract.
Jeannette Johnson, assistant to the provost, said there were several reasons that the University's health plan didn't serve all GTAs.
Johnson said one-term contracts for emergency teaching assistants were necessary because of fluctuations in demand for GTAs. It would be unfair to promise all GTAs two semesters of work when they may be needed for only one, she said.
As for the requirement that GTAs work at least half-time to receive benefits, Johnson said that it was the decision of the Kansas State Health Care Commission and that the University had to follow its regulations.
Johnson said the University would attempt to work with the commission to make the situation better.
Greenspan gets fourth term as Federal Reserve chairman
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Hailed as the greatest central banker in the history of the world,
whelmingly won confirmation yesterday for a fourth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The Senate voted 89-4 to approve President Clinton's nomination of the Republican Greenspan, 73, for a four-year term that will run until June 2004.
His confirmation came one day after the Federal Reserve voted to boost a key interest rate for a sixth time since June
Greenspan: Called the greatest central banker in history
in an effort to slow down the U.S. economy and keep inflation in check.
Clinton's decision to nominate Greenspan again was widely expected. It was unlikely a
Democratic president could have gotten anyone else confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate so close to the end of the presidential term.
After the Senate vote, Clinton said in a statement that Greenspan's leadership had inspired confidence in America and around the world.
Greenspan's Senate supporters also cited the current 107-month economic expansion, which this week became the longest in U.S. history, as evidence Greenspan's tenure has been successful.
"I believe a strong case can be made that Alan Greenspan is the greatest central banker in the history of the world," said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-Texas, citing economic statistics from the low unemployment rate to the soaring stock market.
The small group of liberal Democratic senators who opposed Greenspan's nomination complained about the Fed rate increase, which they said was evidence Greenspan had been overly worried about inflation at the expense of average Americans.
Northern Ireland could lose power
The Associated Press
LONDON — Britain will strip power from Northern Ireland's fledgling Protestant Catholic administration within days unless the Irish Republican Army promises to disarm, the government announced yesterday.
derailing Northern Ireland's peace process.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said he would introduce legislation today transferring power back to London from Belfast. But the process would take several days and could be stopped if developments warranted, he emphasized.
Mandelson's statement was delivered to the House of Commons in London and watched closely by politicians in Belfast and Dublin. It was designed to buy a little more time for those struggling day and night to defuse the crisis that is on the verge of
As Parliament heard the announcement, Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern left Dublin for southern England to discuss the peace process with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"We cannot partially implement the Good Friday agreement," Mandelson said. "It is all or it is nothing."
The crisis threatens the new four-party coalition Cabinet that has given Northern Ireland a measure of local rule after years of direct rule by Britain.
The Ulster Unionists agreed in November to accept the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party as colleagues in the Cabinet established as part of 1998's Good Friday peace accord — but only on condition that IRA disarmament would follow.