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Checkout our Youtube Video…join us on April 19th Student Union at 10:45 AM

(we are working on embedding this into the site, bear with us, for the moment turn up the volume and watch)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFT7tUtkPww

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The eighth bargaining session between your union and UMass still did not see any word on when we will be offered a financial package. Most of the session was therefore taken up with other issues, especially a drawn-out discussion on departments’ appointment policies.

The session began on a positive note, with the University finally providing us with information we had requested about how many members go above their health-insurance co-pay limits. This will help us to formulate a comprehensive proposal on health insurance soon.
(Read the article)

Comments Off on Bargaining Update #8 4/9/2007

The bargaining session with the university on March 12 2007 saw disagreement on the crucial issues of paid leave for graduate employees and on transparency in appointment/reappointment policies in departments。

The session began with an agreement （in fact our first signed tentative agreement of this bargaining cycle）on the inclusion of ethnicity as a criterion in the article on non-discrimination。 The university suggested using ‘ethnic origin’ instead， and we agreed。

However, the university then rejected both our packaged proposals where we responded to the university‘s attack on the union’s staff position and also included several of our counter-proposals， including a proposal on paid bereavement and parental leave and on an arbitration procedure in case the university reneged on our current procedure of processing GEO dues forms.

(Read the article)

Comments Off on Bargaining Update #5 3/12/2007

The Board of Trustees, in a valiant effort to curtail costs to UMass students, unanimously passed a FEE INCREASE of 3.4%! (seen soon in your bill for those returning next year). GEO members and leaders went to the Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting on March 14th to demand a roll back in fees. The trustees responded that without this increase, buildings will not be fixed or new ones built, that the plan to hire new faculty will not happen, and that without this increase President of UMass, Jack Wilson, cannot ask for a 15% increase in his salary. For those keeping track, Jack Wilson makes $400,000 a year and John Lombardi makes $347,499. Obviously, they are both suffering in hard times and really need the boost to stay above the middle class level of income!

Our own Grievance Coordinator, Nate Johnson, was distributing the following piece of Lombardi money…

With a nice little message on the back…you may have seen this…

Nate, went even further and gave Lombardi himself a copy of our demand for a cheaper Chancellor…here’s a picture:

For pictures of the event visit here http://www.squeezedbyfees.blogspot.com/

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In order to Roll Back our fees, we are gonna need to put a lot of pressure on the one party in the Legislator. This Tuesday a group of GEO members and staff will be visiting different legislators and if you are deeply interested in going please let me know ASAP email me at politicaladvocate(at)geouaw.org. In the meantime take a look at this chart to see how we stack up against our peer institutions.

How does the Graduate Service fee impact your life, did you expect to pay any fees when you were accepted here? or were the fees a surprise, use the comments below to share your story.

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Session 4 March 2, 2007 1:30 PM to 4 PM

The fourth bargaining session between GEO and the University was a bit frustrating, as it became clear that the members of the University’s bargaining team had not done their homework before presenting their healthcare proposal, thereby slowing down the process due to a delay in getting necessary information. Despite this, some progress was made.

Article 35: As noted above, the University was unable to provide us with the information we needed to respond to their proposal on healthcare. Not only did this slow down the process – as it meant we were forced to wait until the next session to address this vital issue – it also indicated that the University made a proposal to eliminate all caps on co-pays without any idea of what impact this would have on those of us using the health insurance! Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that we’ll be able to take this up at the next session (on March 16) and that we’ll be able to reach a conclusion that maintains the great coverage we have.

(Read the article)

Comments Off on Bargaining Update #4 3/2/07

February 16 2007 2.30 PM to 5 PM

The third bargaining session between GEO and the University saw some progress in clarifying issues around the proposals we presented (for Articles 1, 3, 10 and 15) but was ultimately inconclusive on all of them. The University also indicated that it does not have any more proposals forthcoming in the near future.

Article 1: On the issue of including all graduate student employees working in GEO-eligible or comparable positions at UMass Amherst in our bargaining unit regardless of their source of income – specifically as a result of a program where UMass Amherst grad employees are being paid on UMass Dartmouth paychecks and are therefore not able to get GEO benefits – the University said it would seek clarification about the specific programs where this was an issue.

Article 3: On the issue of incorporating MOU 13 into the article (regarding the procedure for processing GEO dues deduction forms) the university asked for an assurance that the procedure would be arbitrable in case either party did not fulfill its responsibility. We agreed to make changes that would include such an assurance.

(Read the article)

Comments Off on Bargaining Update #3 2/16/2007

Comments Off on Love, Love me do and LOMBARDI

The university started the session with an ‘impasse’ over ground rules for negotiations. The two ground rules that were contentious dealt with whether GEO members other than the bargaining committee could be present in the room, and whether we had the right to speak to the press at any point during the negotiations. The GEO bargaining committee argued that since ground rules were not mandatory in the first place, they cannot be used as a condition to start negotiations. In the end, the university agreed to move ahead without the ground rules.

The GEO bargaining team presented our entire set of proposals, and also presented actual language on Articles 1, 3, 10 and 15 in order to start negotiations on these articles. The changes proposed are available here.

(Read the article)

Comments Off on Bargaining Update #2 1/26/2007