Attend Bargaining! Bargaining Update for Wed. August 29
Attend Bargaining
Tuesday, Sept 11th 9am Campus Center 903
All GEO members are invited to attend the next bargaining session this Tuesday, Sept. 11th at 9 am in the Campus Center 903. As we did at two sessions in May, let’s pack the room!
Bargaining Update
Wednesday August 29th
At the July 9th bargaining session, GEO’s bargaining team delivered the membership’s demand to the administration: a 3 year contract that included improvements in the critical areas of diversity funding, greater access to childcare, fee reductions, and the maintenance of our health coverage. So, on Wednesday, August 29th, the University responded, passing two package proposals across the table: one, a contract with a duration of 1 year, the other for a duration of 3 years. This ‘choice’ was, of course, only nominal, as both contracts were the same in that they fail to address our core issues in any substantive way. There was no improved childcare support, no increased diversity funding, no reduction of fees, and still their insistence on dismantling our health care by removing the longstanding caps on co-payments for prescription drugs, emergency room visits and more. Moreover, the raises offered in their most recent proposal are just 2.5% in the first year and 2% in the second and third year, not coming close to keeping up with inflation or the expected fee increases. This contrasts with the one year contract wage offer of 2.5% with an additional 1% pool to bring up the GEO minimum stipend..
Nevertheless, there is every reason to believe we can achieve a fair contract. For months, the university had refused to bargain over a 3 year contract, saying that any contract with a duration longer than 1 year would be ‘impossible.’ GEO, however, made it clear that a 3 year contract was our priority, that we consider duration to be an important issue. The pressure that we have put on the university over the summer, both outside and inside the bargaining room, has forced them to engage with us over this issue. And though we will have to fight to make progress on our other issues, we have demonstrated that we have the strength and solidarity to set the terms of the debate.
Not only must we keep the pressure on the university, we must use this semester to escalate our tactics and let the university how serious we are about our contract.
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