Fellow workers,
On September 25th GEO held its third bargaining session with management. In keeping with the collective mandate of membership, we withdrew our initial one-year package and informed the administration we would be seeking a full, three-year successor contract like we normally do. The Bargaining Committee began the session with a statement of what our members need and deserve. And we made it clear that we were setting the tone for the rest of these negotiations: we will be bargaining for a fair contract, based on our terms. With 65 members in attendance, we displayed to management that we are strong and unified, and we will keep coming to the table to make our demands clear.
There were very apparent differences between our approach to the session and management’s. The university’s bargaining team arrived 15 minutes late to the session, and when we shared our decision to bargain a successor contract with them, they expressed disappointment and surprise. In a rare moment of candor, they even said the quiet parts out loud: the administration’s goal is to keep UMass “competitive” on the market, not to support its essential employees. At one point, the admin’s lead negotiator even told us that UMass doesn’t think it’s their “responsibility to provide all the resources that you think you need in order to live the way you think you need to live.” In a nutshell, according to UMass, our needs aren’t their problem. They are more concerned about their own profits.
GEO’s position stands in stark contrast. We need stronger support for graduate workers with disabilities. We need more recourse for graduate workers who need to leave a hostile work environment so that no one has to worry about a gap in their funding. We need to ensure that terminal masters’ students can apply for jobs in the bargaining unit, which many departments attempt to prohibit or limit. And of course, we need to be able to afford the cost of living in the area. If the framework of a one-year extension means deferring some or all of these issues, then we cannot work within that framework.
Turning to successor negotiations means we have the space and time to address all the priorities and commitments that were reflected in our one-year package proposal, while also being able to expand on these and address other articles in our contract. Our intention is to think expansively and to push for transformative change for graduate workers at UMass. This change will be made by and for our members—every single member in good standing of GEO is welcome to join any bargaining session, as well as to join us in drafting proposals, planning our contract campaign, and providing any other suggestions and inputs on what should be in the contract—and what we need to do to get it.
The only way we’re going to get what we need as workers is if we all show up for each other at the bargaining table and elsewhere. GEO’s bargaining committee is holding our next meeting on Thursday, September 28 from 9-11am in Campus Center 917, and is open to ALL members in good standing. Here we’ll discuss next steps for drafting proposals ahead of our next bargaining session. We’ll also be checking in about plans for our bargaining town hall, which will be held on Thursday, October 5 from 5-7pm in Campus Center 168. There are also several open positions on GEO’s bargaining committee, some of them paid; see this call for nominations for more details!
Finally, make sure you mark your calendars: Monday, October 16 is our next bargaining session (room TBA). We need to continue to make strong showings at these meetings to affirm our strength and signal our seriousness about winning a fair contract that meets our needs.
Questions? Email bargaining or geo!
Solidarity always,
The GEO Bargaining Committee
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In solidarity, GEO Leadership
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