On the morning of Thursday, October 18, over 150 GEO members and supporters picketed the entrances to several “New Dirt” construction sites at UMass-Amherst. Work stoppages occured at the New Central heating Plant and at the Skinner construction sites. The pickets were broadly supported. Many construction workers chose to stand in solidarity with GEO members rather than cross the picket lines. GEO was joined by undergraduate students, members of other unions and community members in sending the university a clear message that graduate student employees deserve a fair contract. 

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From the Daily Hampshire Gazette:

“GRAD STUDENT EMPLOYEES TAKE LABOR PROTEST TO UMASS STREETS”

by Kristin Palpini

AMHERST – “No contract, no peace” was the message shouted across the University of Massachusetts campus Thursday morning as a couple hundred members of the Graduate Employee Organization took their gripes over ongoing labor negotiations to the streets.

Graduate student employees said they are frustrated by what they see as a lack of progress during the 10 months students have spent brokering a labor pact with the university.

Student employees, who include teaching and residential assistants, are trying to secure adequate and transparent diversity funding, roll back student fees, maintain health insurance rates and increase access to child care in a one-year contract.

“We’re serious about this, and this is something that they (university administration) just can’t fizzle out if they drag us along. They hope we’ll forget about this and move on to something else,” said Aaron W. Winslow, vice president of the Graduate Employee Organization.

On Thursday morning a mass of about 150 to 200 students stomped through the Whitmore Administration Building and delivered a signed list of their contract demands to the chancellor’s office. They then marched to a new construction site to demonstrate how buildings at UMass are being established through student fees, Winslow said. Mandatory graduate student fees have increased by over 50 percent to $8,969 over the last five years.

Edward F. Blaguszewski, director of news and information at UMass, called the protest “peaceful” with no arrests. Blaguszewski also said that the university has a policy of not commenting on contract negotiations.

Winslow said protesters were unable to speak with any UMass administrators, but felt the demonstration was a success nonetheless.

“It went well,” said Winslow who promised increased protests if GEO’s demands aren’t met. “We did this to let people know our demands and mostly to let the administration see that we’re there, that our members are out there in response to the way in which bargaining has been going.”

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On Thursday, October 04, 2007, GEO met with the University once again, submitting a package proposal that contained the core issues most critical to our union, such as MOU6/affirmative action, fee reductions, improved childcare, and the protection of our health benefits (go to www.geouaw.org to see GEO’s complete proposal to the University). However, we showed that we were serious about bargaining by making significant movement towards the University by proposing a contract of a duration of 15 months, so that it would expire at the end of September 2008. Despite our good faith bargaining, the University has shown, once again, that they are unwilling to seriously address our proposals, and continues to take a wholly unacceptable attitude towards our core issues. Some key points:

· About our proposal to eliminate student fees (Article 34 in the GEO contract), University Chief negotiator Susan Chinman stated that our proposal “will be and will continue to be rejected,” and that there was “no chance” that we would see a reduction of fees that have grown by 126% since 2001, and continue to rise. These fees represent at least 10% of the yearly stipend of an average UMass graduate student employee. So long as the University has full control over our fees (and, as of now, they do) they will continue to grow, potentially overtaking any wage increases that we win.
In reference to grad student fees, the University stated that they are dependent on the $1.2 million that the graduate service fees generate, and that if they didn’t get them from us, they’d have to get them from somewhere. This is an outright lie: it is clearly a matter of priority of management, not a simple lack of funding, that prevents them from easing the financial burden of graduate student employees. While grad employees struggle month-to-month to pay the rent, the UMass Board of Trustees approves over a million dollars for the renovation of a boathouse.. While GEO members must use government food stamps in order to eat, University administrators receive exorbitant pay raises. The University’s top priorities appear to include ensuring financial hardship for graduate students.

· The University again stated their resistance to bargaining over diversity funding/MOU6. On the one hand, they expressed a willingness to give a detailed report and demographic breakdown. But, the fact is that the information they are willing to supply is already publicly available, and without any contractually guaranteed oversight, the university cannot be held accountable. Graduate Dean Mullin has said that it is his ‘responsibility’ to manage diversity funding, but it is clear that the University is refusing to act responsibly by refusing to allow those who are affected by diversity funding to have any control over it whatsoever. It is well known that UMass’ diversity funding is broken, and it is inexcusable for the University to fail take any measures to fix it.

The bottom line is that, even after multiple moves toward University positions by GEO’s bargaining team, the University refuses to make any but the smallest movements towards our position. It’s clear that if we want a contract that benefits all of our members equally, we have to be prepared to act now. It is absolutely crucial that all GEO members to attend the first March and Rally of the semester, on Thursday, October 11th, at 11am at Whitmore.

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