Coming Up This Week
General Membership Meeting: Zoom Link/ Facebook page
On June 25th, Thursday, 4pm-6pm, GEO is holding a general membership meeting. We are going to use this time to reflect, discuss and plan. Issues we are going to cover include planning and implementing anti-racist practice within the union space, fall re-opening planning discussion and UMPD police abolishment campaign.
Info Session for North Village with Legal Services
Time: Wednesday Jun 24, 2020 4pm Join Zoom Meeting; Meeting ID: 949 8717 4992
Given many residents are given the offers and some are expected to move out soon, GEO is working with Attorney Raquel Manzanares from Legal Services to host an info session with residents from North Village. Please spread the word to any residents you know who may benefit from attending.
Last Week Recap
June Steering Meeting (elected): Steering Committee talked about ways to engage more members, to make Union a transparent and democratic space for everyone. All members of Steering agree that more consolidated and summary-style communication is desirable, including the workings of various committees. Trying out a new newsletter format this week and working on other ways to respond to members’ need for more info – will start putting all committee meetings and events on the website calendar from now on. In the recaps, volunteers means rank and file members are in these committees and you can join too.
Work to Rule Committee meeting (volunteers): Exploring on-the-job collective actions to help us win health safeguards, racial justice, and job security in the next semester. Currently working on finding people in all academic depts, to work on making these actions effective in their dept. Please email nforni@umass.edu to get involved.
UMass Union United Drive-In Protest: Great turnout from all the unions! Members from all the different unions of the UMass system expressed concerns about coming back on campus in Fall – anger and frustration are in the air. Press coverage here.
Health and Safety Committee (volunteers): Reviewed the proposal to reopen in Fall, focusing on its impact on graduate students. The committee recommends online-only instruction, not in-person. The admin proposal fails to address the health risk posed by COVID-19, and also contains the implicit expectation of increased graduate student labor. See these slides for full report. You can give your opinion in the poll at the end of those slides.
In Solidarity,
Dora and Jyoti, GEO Co-Chairs
