On Friday, April 24, GEO met with University management to hear counter-proposals to our Impact Bargaining Proposals. Here’s an update and also some action items that we can all do together!
Summer Pay: The University offered a $300,000 hardship fund for graduate students to apply to, along with a $125,000 fund for research support. Administration proposed to control disbursements of these funds without any oversight by the GEO or transparent application process. This paltry amount would support only 35 grad students with full time pay. Members were appalled that the research support fund offer will not to pay students until after the summer.
Housing: Administration continued to assert that they did not wish to bargain over the closures of North Village and Lincoln Apartments. Administration negotiators declared it “not appropriate” to discuss housing at the table. They brought up various administrative committees and claimed GEO members could access those to address concerns about housing. We reminded them that GEO was denied a seat on the Admin’s committee and the ability to represent our members in these venues.
When pressed, they revealed the real reason they don’t want to discuss housing: they don’t want to set a precedent. We need to continue to push to bring the housing decision makers to the table. It is absurd that UMass doesn’t want to bargain over housing, despite being the largest landlord in Amherst. GEO members reacted strongly to the University not willing to acknowledge that when we work from home in a pandemic, housing is a matter of working conditions.
Vacation: Administration agreed to pay out vacations if supervisors denied their requested dates. By the way, this is already in our existing contract.
Job Security: Administration refused to provide assurances of job security for grad students. citing the deficit the University faces. Negotiators from the Admin side professed ignorance to the way the $347 million UMass Amherst endowment works, as well as ignorance to the way the federal CARES act funds will be used by UMass. Members brought to the table the fact that the deficits graduate workers face to their landlords and creditors are far more urgent than line items in the University’s multi-million dollar budget; we also pointed out that there is no reason the University cannot run a deficit.
Make this happen – TAKE ACTION from home
Membership Meeting Wednesday, April 29th at 6pm
Zoom in to discuss the Union response to these proposals. What actions do you think should we take? What other concerns do you have? What support to you need to fight for your rights? [must pre-register here] (If Zoom asks, the password is: GEOmembers)
Send Chancellor Subbaswamy a symbolic “Eviction Notice”
UMass is intent on evicting residents of North Village and Lincoln apartments. Show your discontent by sending the Chancellor a notice evicting him from University-owned housing and add a personal touch. Here’s a nice (and honestly pretty funny, but) effective template: https://geouaw.org/eviction-notice/
Contact your legislator! Yes, even if you are international!
While we continue to put pressure on UMass, we simultaneously need to make a concerted effort to stay on the radar of state legislators who decide funding for UMass. The more they are engaged with our needs, the more likely we are to get more funds at the state level allocated to UMass, and make sure those funds actually come to us. You have the right to talk directly to the state-level legislator who represents you and your town. Yes, even international students have that right! Our livelihoods impact the communities we live in and legislators need to know. Rachel Bell (OEB) and other geomembers on Slack have come up with a phone script and an email script to get you started [scripts here]! Other members have volunteered to text you the name and contact of the rep for your town. Keep your phones close and get ready to make some calls! If you don’t want to make a phone call, use the email template instead! If you want to find your representative now, you can use this link; when you find them, click on the person’s picture to get their contact info. Want to get involved with this? Join the Slack here!
