Summary of Bargaining Session 12 & Next GMM!
Table of Contents:
Events
Summary of 9/19 Bargaining Session
What do we want?
What does the administration want?
What is next?
General Membership Meeting (Online: 9/21st @12pm, In-Person: 9/22nd @5:30pm)
Summary of 9/19 Bargaining Session
During yesterday’s session, the GEO leads and co-presidents Karla Sanabria-Veaz (Social Work) Nachiketa Adhikari (Math) asked additional questions about the administration’s package proposal, provided admin with GEO’s definition of equity and presented a new proposal to the administration. While the administration made it very clear that it is the GEO’s responsibility to make a move, we saw admin’s package proposal as insufficient because it does not address the bare minimum of our pillar demands of Waiver & Wages, Access & Justice, and Health & Safety.
What do WE WANT?
The GEO wants the administration to answer all of our questions pertaining to the English Language Proficiency article in the counter proposal. In addition, the GEO wants to learn about the cost of the University’s contract with United Health Care. And most importantly, we want to receive a complete counter proposal from the administration that is not in a package form.
We also demand the administration uphold its Reaffirmation of Our Commitment to Institutional Equity statement they sent over massmail on the (14th/9/2022) that contradicts their farcical counter package proposal they have provided us on the 25th/8/2022. Is it equitable that international students from English-speaking countries who are not white have to take a costly English proficiency exam? Is it equitable that graduate workers who are parents do not have access to changing tables in their workspaces, let alone paid child care? Is it equitable that the university dictates the modality of the instruction without providing explicit language in writing about the accommodations that they claim they are providing?
Here is what equity means to the GEO, according to the statement we read to admin:
“The GEO recognizes that many groups of people have historically been and continue to be exploited and discriminated against based on race, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, class or nationality. For us, equity is the implementation of systemic measures to provide people access to the resources they need to overcome this exploitation and live fulfilling lives.”
[Image description: Doge meme. Big one on the left has a GEO logo on its chest and reads “GEO’s proposal”. The tiny doge on the right is crying. It captions “Admin proposal”.]
What graduate workers want is a fair contract that meets our current economic and material needs.
We are grateful to one of our members who read a testimonial to members and the admin during the bargaining session. Here is their testimonial, which gives a glimpse into the life of a graduate worker who is a parent:
—--------------------
“Poop for the Fourth of July
This 4th of July holiday my infant daughter's daycare closed the Friday before for the long weekend. Unfortunately, my funding appointment still required that I complete duties that day. I desperately searched for hourly day care or babysitters I could hire for the day, but the cost for a full day of care meant that we wouldn't have enough left for groceries next week. With the cost of regular day care, most months we are just barely scraping by.
My husband, also a graduate student, works in a wet lab and couldn't take the baby with him for obvious reasons. It seemed clear my only option would be to take her with me. I work in a large, shared office space in Beckman and I could lay a blanket on the floor for her to play on. Not ideal, but it was just one day, right?
The day had dragged along relatively uneventfully until around the lunch hour when the smell of a dirty diaper wafted through the air. "Oh no," I thought to myself. Her poop had been so runny the past few days, I knew it was only a matter of time before we reached full on diaper blow out. There was a bathroom just around the corner to my office, but I knew there was no changing table in there. I briefly considered changing her on the sink, but dismissed it as I was pretty sure the space was too small to fit her. I could try to check the other bathrooms, but then I'd be risking leakage in the middle of the hallway. I cringed at the thought of the director or one of the visitors who frequent the building seeing us with poop oozing out of her pants.
So I did the next best thing. I cleared out one of the shared desks and laid her down to change her diaper. The stench quickly filled the office and the student sitting across from me gave me a polite but curt smile and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The poop had already reached the edges of her diaper and began to spill onto the desk. I know it was unsanitary, but what could I do? There were no changing tables in the bathroom to clean her up. I wiped up the poop with a baby wipe and quickly stuffed it into the diaper. Another student left the office. Was it because of the smell? Why does it travel so well?
With mess contained and the baby happy and playful again, I wrapped the diaper up and quickly headed out to throw it away in the space where the changing table should have been.”
—--------------------
What do THEY (the administration) want?
The administration wants us to reduce our proposal because, in their view, it is too expensive to fairly compensate graduate workers for their labor.
However, the University has raised 2.25 billion dollars in the past year alone, which remains untouched, and largely goes to admin salaries, who in turn unilaterally determine how those funds get distributed. They are not interested in redistributing the wealth to graduate workers, who are the most hard-hit by current inflation. Lest we forget, a couple of sessions ago, when Robb was asked if he thought the current wages we have can accommodate an international graduate worker, with a spouse (who cannot work on F-2), and one child, his response was, “that question is not germane.”
What’s next?
We have provided the administration with a counter-proposal that tweaks some of our demands. We will await for the admin’s response on the next bargaining session on Tuesday, 27th/9/2022, from 4-7pm at the Illini Union in Room 210.
Want to learn more about these changes and share your thoughts about them? Listen to our podcast and come to our General Membership Meeting (see below for info).
How can I and my co-workers/friends participate and support?
The stronger our Union is, the stronger the contract we will win! Hence, we need to transform our anger and frustrations into organizing power. No task is too big nor too small for YOU or your co-workers to get involved. Here are some places to start:
Post the organizing TO-DO list in your office and share with friends so you can commit to at least one event.
Consider sharing a testimonial during the sessions (can be done anonymously)
Joining the bargaining team! You can nominate yourself or a friend at https://tinyurl.com/jointheBT. Questions about what that entails? Email Chelsea and Sam at officer1@uigeo.org!
Share our “After Bargaining” podcast with your friends so they can stay tuned in to what’s happening in bargaining.
New Episode of After Bargaining
The lead negotiators of the 12th bargaining session, Karla and Nachiketa, join Essam to speak about the session and how it went. Tune in and learn about the most recent developments of the session and what is the status of bargaining. Listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and Anchor FM. Here is a picture of the leads after recording the episode!
[Image description: Black and white picture. Karla right, Nachiketa left, in front of the flag of Puerto Rico. Karla leaning on Nachiketa’s left shoulder, while holding the peace sign on her right hand.]
General Membership Meeting
[Image description: Flyer with three blue squares at the top. The left-most square contains a drawing of two hands shaking, the middle has a black circle with the white letters “GEO” inside, and the right has a drawing of a megaphone with sound waves radiating out. Underneath is a yellow rectangle with white text reading “General Membership Meeting.” Beneath that, two columns separated by a vertical line list dates and times. On the left: “Thurs. September 22nd 5:30-7:00pm In-Person Channing Murray Foundation 1209 W Oregon St. Urbana, 61801.” In the right column, text reads, “Wed. September 21st 12-1:30pm Virtual Scan the QR code to register or go to https://tinyurl.com/GMM921.” There is a QR code under the line between the columns of text. A blue rectangle at the bottom has white text reading, “Topics: Bargaining strategy for better wages & healthcare.” Black text at the very bottom of the flyer reads, “Questions? Email: geo@uigeo.org.”]
Our next General Membership Meeting (GMM) is coming up! We’ll have two meeting options, one online and one in person. Both meetings will discuss the same content so feel free to attend whichever works best for you.
The online GMM will be held on Wednesday, September 21st from 12-1:30pm on Google Meets. Register to receive the meeting link here: https://tinyurl.com/GMM921.
The in-person GMM will be held on Thursday, September 22nd from 5:30-7:00pm at the Channing Murray Foundation (1209 W Oregon St Urbana). You don’t need to register ahead of time for the in-person meeting.
In this GMM, we’ll give an update on bargaining, talk through bargaining strategy surrounding wages & healthcare, and vote to fill vacant officer positions! We will also be voting on an amendment to the GEO constitution regarding the secretary role, which you can review in advance here.
Join Us for Bargaining Session #13!
The session will take place in-person on Tuesday, 27th/9 from 4pm to 7:00pm at the Illini Union in Illinois Room 210! Please wear a mask if attending in-person. Those that cannot attend in person due to public health concerns can also get a link to join online by emailing officer1@uigeo.org by 11:59pm on Monday, 26th/9/2022.
Join for as long as you can, and invite at least one colleague!
Bargaining Team needs volunteers to help with:
Note taking (you’ll receive a brief training on how to do this!)
Childcare
Procuring coffee/food
Check-in
Sign up to volunteer here: https://tinyurl.com/BARGSESSION13
[Image description: A flyer with an blue-colored background and an image of a megaphone with waves of sound in the upper right. Blue and white text reads “FULL CONTRACT BARGAINING SESSION #13 9/27/22.” In a paragraph below, smaller black text reads, “On Monday, September 19 from 4pm to 7pm, GEO’s Bargaining Team will be negotiating with university administration on topics of access and justice, wages and waivers, and health and safety in our contract.” At the bottom, white text reads “Illini Union - Room 210. Please wear a mask if attending in-person! Email officer1@uigeo.org for link to join online. On the bottom left is a white logo with the letters “GEO” inside.]
Announcement of Officer Elections
The GEO Coordinating Committee (CC) is currently soliciting nominations for several vacant officer positions. If you’re interested in running, contact them at geo@uigeo.org.
Nominations will be accepted until the General Membership meeting on September 22, 2022.
After the CC has accepted your nomination, GEO will also make every effort to share any campaign/election materials with membership.
Here are the vacant officer roles:
Secretary
Grievance Committee Co-Chair
Solidarity Committee Co-Chairs
Officer-at-large
Some of the positions have tentative commitments from candidates, but some do not! You can find more information about the union’s committees here and learn more about the GEO as a whole here.
GEO will be conducting the election electronically, using ElectionRunner.
If you are a GEO member, you will receive an email invitation at your illinois.edu email address to participate in the GEO’s officer elections. To vote, sign in to ElectionRunner using the link sent to your illinois.edu email. The online polling will open at 12:00 PM Central Time on 9/23/22 and will close at 8:00 PM Central Time on 9/24/22.
If you do not receive your login information on 9/22/22, please contact us providing your name, netID, and a non-UIUC email address you wish us to use for the elections.
When filling out your online ballot, be sure to carefully read all candidate options and candidate profiles. To read more about a particular candidate or team-ticket, you can click the blue info button to the right of an option on the ballot.
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org