![\"Mass](\"http:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/massbargaining.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On May 11th GEO Members showed up from departments across UMass to pack the bargaining room and show the administration they stand behind a contract that takes GEO members forward instead of several steps backwards on mandatory fees, health care, and funding for diversity across campus. Many members plan to turn up for bargaining with the Umass administration next Friday at 1:30 May 18th in the Campus Center as well.<\/p>\n
Here’s what Chris Fobare a member from the History Dept. who came on May 11th had to say to his fellow GEO members in History afterwards:<\/p>\n
\n
Hello everyone,<\/p>\n
\n
I wanted to send out an e-mail about the GEO contract negotiations
\nthat occurred today. I, along with several other history department
\nmembers, attended a packed session of the ongoing bargaining
\nsession between GEO and the administration negotiators at the
\nCampus Center this afternoon. For the first time, after four months of
\nnegotiations, the administration offered an “off the record”
\nfinancial package, which I’m sure that anyone who is a teaching
\nassistant\/research assistant in the department would be offended by.
\nI know that we are all busy finishing up work for our own classes and
\ngrading papers, but I would seriously encourage all grad students to
\nmake the trip to campus for the next bargaining session (tentatively
\nscheduled for next Friday at 1:30). Yes, I know that next Friday is
\na day that most of us will not be on campus, but your income for next
\nyear is at stake. Today’s bargaining session was approximately one
\nhour\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwe can all take that out of our schedule.<\/p>\n
The reason that I have taken it upon myself to send this email out to
\neveryone is because I think that all of you, as employees of UMass,
\nwould be appalled by the arrogance and combativeness of the
\nadministration negotiators (I am in no way exaggerating the attitude
\nthat they displayed in contract negotiations today). I would ask
\nthat you not simply accept my characterization of the administration
\nnegotiators; go see for yourself! However, it is also important to
\nnote that because we were able to pack the room full of student
\nemployees the negotiations went further today than they have in the
\npast four months. Although the administration only made an “off the
\nrecord” financial offer, it’s the first mention of any financial
\npackage that’s been made since the bargaining sessions began for our
\nnew contract. This demonstrates what can happen if enough graduate
\nstudents show interest in the contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
\n
Over the course of the semester, I have talked with several other
\ngrad. students in the department who expressed their dismay with how
\nhard it is to survive on what we make as teaching assistants. The
\ncontract negotiations that are currently occurring will dramatically
\nimpact all of us. The more times that the administration negotiators
\nare forced to look at a room full of employees (rather than just four
\nor five bargaining members) will seriously make them consider
\nstalling the negotiations. I will be the first to admit that I have
\nnot been as involved with GEO as I should have been, but today was an
\neye opening experience. I encourage you all to attend the next
\nbargaining session and see how the administration views your worth as
\nemployees of UMass.<\/p>\n
Best,<\/p>\n
Chris Fobare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On May 11th GEO Members showed up from departments across UMass to pack the bargaining room and show the administration they stand behind a contract that takes GEO members forward instead of several steps backwards on mandatory fees, health care, and funding for diversity across campus. Many members plan to turn up for bargaining with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geouaw.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}