Graduate Employees' Organization at UIUC
GEO Local 6300 IFT/AFT AFL-CIO at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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News and GEO-L

Member Communications

Wage Bargaining Session 4 Summary, Healthcare Open Letter, and Mutual Aid Resources

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Table of Contents:

  • Announcements:

    • Wage Bargaining Session #4 Summary

    • Healthcare Open Letter Update

    • Mutual Aid Resources

  • Events:

    • GEO Officer Elections

  • JOIN A GEO COMMITTEE!

  • CONNECT WITH GEO!

Announcements



Wage Bargaining Session 4 Summary:

Rather than presenting us with a new counterproposal, the Administration resubmitted the proposal they made to the GEO in our second bargaining session, March 9th 2020, comprising: a 3% increase to the current minimum in contract year 4 (2020-21), and the Campus Wage Program for year 5 (2021-22). 

  • The Administration’s representative began the session by invoking the financial effects of COVID-19 on the country and state. When asked, he was unaware of what portion of university funds came from the state or federal government. 

  • Admin’s representative stated that his recommendation to the Provost’s Office was to argue changed circumstances and offer less money, but because the Provost did not want that his team is instead resubmitting their previous proposal. 

  • We stated that their Campus Wage Program proposal (in lieu of a percentage increase for Year 5) was not acceptable to membership. They responded with a willingness to bargain if we come back with a counterproposal. We restated our willingness to make a proposal that is acceptable to both membership and the board.

  • The Administration stated that they believe that reappointment wages are not mandatory. We hold that wages are a mandatory subject of bargaining.

  • Administration claimed that GEO’s most recent proposals were unreasonable and asked that our next one be one significantly closer to what they consider acceptable.

  • The majority of the university’s current wage proposal for all grad workers could be paid just with the pay raise President Tim Killeen received this past month. 

    • Other Big 10 universities have proposed pay cuts for upper-level administration. Our proposal is well within the University’s budget, yet we are still asked to take on burden, when we are already not compensated fairly for our work.

Healthcare Open Letter Update:

On Wednesday, May 12th, the GEO formally sent the “Healthcare @UIUC: Open Letter from Academic Labor Organizations” to its destinees, the Chancellor, Provost, and Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, with over 100 individual faculty signatures of support. Thanks to members’ readiness to engage their faculty and department leadership on the very important topic of healthcare, this is a promising sign for continued collaborations with a broad range of faculty from across the campus, and specifically with the academic labor organizations who co-sponsored the letter with GEO -- the NTFC and CFA. 

While the Graduate College’s announcement of Supplementary Summer Block Grants (SSBG) funded by the CARES act for grad employee summer fellowships is a relief as well as victory for grad employee organizing over these last few months, the grants unfortunately do not meet the needs articulated in our open letter. Cost-recovery and self-sustaining programs are excluded from receiving SSBG funds for their students, and departments are exercising various forms of discretion in awarding grants to their own students. SSBG grants cover 87% of the summer health insurance fee for those who receive them, but do nothing about the 33% increase to health insurance premiums for all students to be levied starting this fall. If we want to see the healthcare premium revoked, we will need to continue actions this summer! Contact the Work Action Group for info: waglist@uigeo.org

GEO Mutual Aid:

GEO's Mutual Aid Working Group is sending out their COVID-19 Impact and Mutual Aid Survey one last time to ensure that we have a comprehensive sense of the issues, needs, and resources of all campus workers. You do not need to be a GEO or union member to fill out the survey.

Feel free to check out GEO's Mutual Aid Resource List, which provides links to community and national resources ranging from financial and housing support to food assistance and mental health information.

Mutual Aid in the Community:

  • The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) has launched a grocery delivery program to help assist those in the CU area who are having difficulties obtaining groceries during the COVD-19 pandemic.

  • There is no delivery fee or shopping fee.  The PSL asks you to reimburse them for the cost of the groceries, but no one will be turned down because of inability to pay.

  • You can view the details of the program here.  All grocery orders will be taken through this order form.  They can also pick up prescriptions; this is not included in the order form, but can be requested directly through the email provided in the details of the program.

Events

GEO Officer Elections

GEO will be holding online elections starting on Wednesday, May 13th at 7AM CDT. The online polling station will close at 11:59PM CDT on Wednesday, May 20th. On the morning of the elections, each GEO member will receive an email from ElectionRunner informing them of their randomly generated login ID and password and providing them with a link to our online election. If you do not receive your login info on Wednesday morning, 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. An example is below:

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In addition to our normal officer positions, there is a Constitutional Amendment being proposed to create a new Secretary position. The Secretary’s duties would be to maintain the accuracy and security of GEO’s membership database and to work with GEO staff to analyze membership data to assist with organizing efforts. The full text of the amendment can be found here, with the proposed constitutional changes in red.

As a reminder, there is an error with the online ballot. Under the Officers-at-Large section of the ballot, there are three candidates listed. The GEO has three Officer-at-Large positions, so you should be able to select up to three candidates to elect to that position. Unfortunately, the ballot is only accepting two votes for that position. The Elections Committee will still certify the election of the three candidates who receive the highest number of votes.

When filling out your ballot, please select the two Officer-at-Large candidates you would most like to fill the position. If you feel that this limits your choices and you still want to vote for three total candidates, please reach out to the Elections Committee at geo@uigeo.org and we can manually add your third Officer-at-Large vote to your ballot. The Elections Committee apologizes for this oversight and asks for your patience as we adjust to digital elections.

JOIN A GEO COMMITTEE!

We are a member-run union; we depend on the commitment of our members to stay as strong as possible. You can find details about what each committee does and how to contact them on our website. No special knowledge is required. You can also follow the calendar of events on our website for the date and time of upcoming meetings: http://uiucgeo.org/calendar. Meetings are open to membership, and coming to a meeting does not commit you to joining a committee. 

Upcoming meetings:

Healthcare Working Group (health@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more 

Stewards’ Council (sc@uigeo.org) - Tuesday May 19, 5:30-6:30pm

Finance Committee (treasurer@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more

Solidarity Committee (solcomm@uigeo.org) - Friday May 22, 4:30-6pm

Grievance Committee (grievance@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more

Communications Committee (commcomm@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more

Coordinating Committee (cc@uigeo.org) - Contact for more

RA/PGA Working Group (geo@uigeo.org) - Thursday May 28, 6-7pm

Bargaining Team (barg@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more

International Students Working Group (geo@uigeo.org ) - Wednesday May 20, 2-3pm

Work Action Group (uiucgeowat@gmail.com) - Contact email for more

Mutual Aid Working Group (geo@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more

GEO Tech Working Group (dg49402@gmail.com)- Contact email for more


Note: Due to COVID-19, all meetings are now held online. Contact by email or check the calendar for more information on how to join remotely.

CONNECT WITH GEO!

Have comments about the GMM? Other kinds of feedback for us? We want to hear it! Reply to this email or use our anonymous google form. You can also get in touch through our website and social media:

Website: www.uiucgeo.org

Twitter: @geo_uiuc

Facebook: @uigeo @geosolcomm

Instagram: @geo_uiuc


In Solidarity,

Graduate Employees’ Organization

809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room

Champaign, IL 61820

Email: geo@uigeo.org

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