Dear members,
Mark your Calendars: Spring Membership Meetings
Coming up, Feb 12, March 12, April 9, and May 21 – all Fri 4-6. Details in flyer – see you there!
GEO Election Notice: Nominations open, deadline Feb 12
Ian Busher, elected last year to serve on the Bargaining Committee, has moved on from UMass, leaving a position empty, so it’s time to elect a new person into this PAID position. According to the bylaws we are supposed to have the voting at the first membership meeting of this semester. However, due to everything being virtual, we will be conducting an online election (as we did last Spring) with voting offered on multiple slots/days.
To make this election happen, we first need an Elections Committee, up to 5 elected rank-and-file members who will run a fair and impartial election. Full notice coming soon.
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Nominations open upto Feb 12 for Election Committee (5 positions, volunteer), will be elected by “Zoom poll” function at first Membership Meeting, Feb 12
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Nominations open upto Feb 12 for one paid Bargaining Committee member (1 GEO-position, paid 10hrs/week with all GEO benefits, duration of appointment is as long as bargaining continues), will be elected by online ballot on ElectionBuddy, conducted by the new Elections Committee
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Nominate yourself or any GEO member by emailing steering
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Elections Committee nominees, your tasks will be (1) running this barg comm election in Feb, and (2) running regular GEO officer/steering elections in April/May
Impact Bargaining current outlook: Admin must share proper info before we can settle anything!
Last week we came back to the bargaining table with questions on workplace accommodations. We learned from the RAPMU experience that the whole process was super unclear and rarely granted. We need Admin to explain “High risk employees shall be eligible for remote work or other accommodation as designated by their Department and subject to review by Central HR. Requests for remote work or other accommodation shall not be unreasonably denied.” Michael Eagan (from Admin), got really upset about why this is being discussed again, arguing that our members’ contracts have started and this proposal has been on the table since November, yet we have not talked much about it. We want to REMIND the Administration that Spring contracts were largely not even issued back in November. Also, even if the Spring contract has started, teaching does not start till February 1st, so face-to-face instructors have certainly not been to their workspaces yet. Especially given the new COVID strain and rising cases, our members have the FULL right to know about the accommodation process and have a dialogue about how this should be handled. In addition, we still have not received clear information about the air quality of each building where classes are held or students are residing. Due to the lack of meaningful response to these info requests, an Unfair Labor Practice Complaint has been filed.
WORTH ATTENDING! Labor Notes/WMALF Virtual Troublemakers School
The Western MA Area Labor Federation is partnering with Labor Notes to offer a Troublemakers School – we HIGHLY recommend going to this, it’s run by fantastic people who literally wrote the book on organizing.They aim to build labor power and solidarity in Western MA from the Worcester Hills to the Berkshires. Includes: Organizing Skills Workshops: Beating Apathy; Turning an Issue into a Campaign; Race and Labor; What Is a Rank-and-File Union?; Fighting Austerity and Winning; and MORE. Fri evening Feb 5, and daytime Feb 6 and 7. The “price” is $5-$10-$15 (sliding scale) – but DO NOT get put off by a price-tag, no one will be turned away (even if you don’t/can’t pay). All details/registration HERE.
Budget cuts & organizing: Silent job losses and what to do next
Economics grad student workers are organizing to protest silent cuts they are experiencing in their department – a huge amount of money has been cut from their dept budget (to the order of hundreds of thousands in discretionary funds). This has directly resulted in a reduction of total assistantship-hours offered to grad workers. It is really important that we talk to each other, member-to-member, dept-to-dept, to demand budget info that directly affects us. GEO members and Stewards are already having discussions about individual depts/schools budgets to find out which depts or schools are affected. Also, just yesterday we got a response to a GEO-wide budget-info request (made on Dec 17) from Admin and will share this info as we decipher it. Write to (bilgesu) to say “I’m interested” to tune in more closely.
Remember last semester PoliSci and Sociology reported job losses? What happened after that? It’s important to forge ahead, get concrete info, and then take action so that we safeguard our jobs against austerity.
There is a recurring Organizing Committee meeting EVERY WEEK – any member can drop in to get involved or even just get updates when you want them. See GEO website calendar for details, including TODAY at 3:30pm.
Beyond GEO:
Across-unions organizing
Austerity is something all the UMass unions are fighting! In the Fall, while GEO reps were in the thick of impact bargaining, Patrick Burke (UAW2322 rep) was doing a lot of work behind the scenes in worker-coalitions across our campus (Professional Staff, Clerical Staff, and Faculty and Librarians – PSU, USA, MSP). There are also always things happening across ALL UMass campuses (UMass Unions United; includes UMass Boston/Lowell grad workers), and statewide coalition to put pressure on UMass to stop austerity. This semester, we are working together on critical health and safety issues. There is a recent push from GEO members for leadership to take an active role in supporting workers across these unions in their campaign to Bring Staff Back. GEO members have often been at the front of metaphorical and physical picket-lines to support other workers, and we are excited to respond to members’ desire to build solidarity to fight furloughs, job cuts, and budget cuts in the many ways they affect all of us! We’re currently in discussions about how best to do that, more coming soon.
Defund UMPD: Survey
The Racial Justice Coalition’s Campaign to Defund UMPD and the Restorative Justice Taskforce are working to find areas where campus safety responses can be carried out by responders other than police. Collecting information from students and community members about UMPD-community interactions to guide this work. Please help by filling the survey [only once per person, pls]: rjtumass
In solidarity,
Dora and Jyoti, Co-Chairs
