Bargaining Update #1- 1/19/07
The Administration’s First Priority: Gag GEO & Impose a Media Blackout.
Our Response: We Want Ground Rules Not Gag Rules!
GEO’s bargaining committee sat down with representatives of the administration on Friday, January 19th in the hopes of reaching some basic ground rules for the contract negotiations GEO will be engaging in with the UMass administration this spring.
In this first meeting GEO’s main goal was to get the university to commit to meeting for negotiations a minimum of 8 hours per month, and to agree to longer meetings where GEO’s contract proposals could be discussed in-depth and at length.
At Friday’s meeting it quickly became clear what the Administration’s top priority was: to get GEO’s bargaining committee to agree to a total media blackout on all issues related to the contract negotiations: No press releases. No conversations with reporters. No news articles. The administration wants GEO’s bargaining committee to accept a completely unnecessary and unreasonable gag rule as a central ground rule of these contract negotiations.
Well folks, that just ain’t gonna happen! There’s no room for compromise when it comes to defending a strong, public voice for GEO and its members. Our contract negotiations are going to be 100% transparent and the UMass administration is going to have to deal with that. GEO has never compromised on openness and transparency in past negotiations and we’re not about to start.
All GEO members are encouraged to come and observe negotiations. If you’d like to be an observer just email us at geo@external.umass.edu and will let you know the time and the place.
GEO’s bargaining committee is: Jen Turner – History, Will Fischer – Astronomy, Anna Curtis-Sociology, Boone Shear- Anthropology, Eesha Williams – History, Mike Zhan- School of Management, Swati Birla-Sociology, Nate Johnson-Labor Center, Srinivas Lankala, GEO President, Jeremy Wolf, GEO Vice President, Leslie Edwards, Staff Representative
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