Two years of effort to secure better wages could come to an end next week for Kansas University’s graduate teaching assistants.

Members of KU’s Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition are set to vote on a new contract Monday. Union leaders say they expect the contract to be approved overwhelmingly.

“If there are people who are unhappy, they’re not talking to me,” said Robert Vodicka, a graduate teaching assistant and the coalition’s lead negotiator. “The mood seems really up.”

The contract, tentatively reached in July, increases the amount KU spends on graduate teaching assistant salaries from $10 million to $13 million per year. The additional money will be given in the form of merit raises, which will be determined by officials in each department.

It also sets a minimum salary of $8,000 for graduate teaching assistants the first year of the contract, followed by $9,000 the second year and $10,000 the third.

The two sides also agreed on seeking an increase in the level of state health care coverage from the Kansas Health Care Commission.

About 200 of KU’s teaching assistants are union members, but the coalition’s contract applies to all 900 graduate teaching assistants at KU. Only coalition members will be allowed to vote, but all graduate teaching assistants will be able to sign up for membership at the polls and then vote. Union dues are about $15 per month.

Voting will occur from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the fourth-floor lobby of the Kansas Union.

Vodicka said union leaders offered an information session about the contract Thursday and have another planned today. He said others will call teaching assistants, encouraging them to vote.

“We’re making a pretty big effort,” he said. “We want as many people to participate as possible.”

The three-year contract would be the second for graduate teaching assistants at KU. The first was approved by a wide majority in October 1997.

If teaching assistants approve the contract Monday, it would be forwarded to the Kansas Board of Regents and the Kansas Department of Administration.