Dear Members,

A lot has been happening in the last few days, as you might know already from updates on Facebook. You have been brave, patient, and strong. Some of you are on vacation this week. The last couple of weeks have been a heartwarming an inspiring torrent of union activity and community organizing. This is no ordinary May. Support for your ceaseless efforts has been pouring in! Letters in solidarity with GEO have been sent to UMass admin by UMass alumni, as well as from the following organizations, to pressure them to do the right thing, stop ignoring our needs, and bargain fairly with our union:

  • Amherst Chapter of PSU, MTA, NEA (Professional Staff Union, Massachusetts Teachers Association, National Education Association) 
  • Columbia People’s Covid Response
  • Hampshire Franklin Labor Assembly
  • Harvard Graduate Students Union UAW 5118
  • History Department, UMass Amherst
  • International and Immigrant Student Workers Alliance
  • Labor Center, UMass Amherst 
  • Massachusetts Jobs with Justice
  • PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts)
  • PRO UAW2322 (Postdoctoral Researchers Organizing)
  • UAW Region 9A
  • Labor Center, UMass Amherst 
  • Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation
  • …and several moving individual letters from alums!

It’s time to amplify our demands. The eviction dates for Lincoln and North Village are coming soon, what is the university (as landlord) doing to prevent these evictions? June 1st is coming soon, what is the university doing to ensure that the rest of us can pay rent? 

There’s almost 2000 GEO members. Imagine the noise we’d make if we all started to speak at the same time. Here’s a 5-point Action Plan for you to help with the vast bargaining effort!

5-point Action Plan

  1. Read this template that we used to get those many many solidarity letters!
  2. Get creative: What groups can YOU get to sign in support using this template?
    • The faculty of your department?
    • Organizations you are part of in your academic field?
    • Labor or social justice groups that you talk to?
  3. Write to the following Admin people directly! Ask them to stop ignoring our collective actions, and just come to the bargaining table with an offer we can actually use!
  4. Write an end-of-semester email to your undergraduate students and use it to ask them if they’re willing to tell administrators what the work and support of their TAs and TOs has meant to them during the pandemic, and ask them to treat us fairly? 
    “I would like to encourage you to email Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy at chancellorswamy@umass.edu and Provost John McCarthy at jmccarthy@provost.umass.edu in support of your graduate TAs. As our contracts end next week, many of us are about to face extreme financial difficulty. We are worried about getting food and paying rent this summer, because the amount of money the university pays us each academic year does not leave room for savings and it’s virtually impossible to get a job anywhere else right now. We are currently in talks with the university to provide us with some aid during this difficult time and your support (as well as your parents) would mean the world to us.” 
  5. And finally: Remember the cool ones among the undergrad students who you taught, or were an RA-supervisor to, or wrote recommendations for? Write to them and ask if are they willing to ask their parents to support us by signing on to this petition? Yes, PARENTS! Because guess who pays taxes in MA and also tens of thousands in tuition/fees for their kid? Here’s a link to an easy petition that parents can sign on to. Heck, ask your own parents to sign as well if you want! They’re UMass parents too! Tell them that Swamy is highly sensitive to the opinions of fee payers…

Come back for more Impact Bargaining! The fight continues!
Beyond this, we ask that you continue to come to the bargaining table so we keep up the pressure and scrutiny! We are watching the Admin’s bargaining team! Join your Bargaining Committee! 

  • 3-5 pm Tuesday, May 19th 
  • 3-5 pm Tuesday May 26th 
  • Zoom link for all bargaining sessions here

Solidarity Forever!
GEO Leadership

Published by GEO