GEO Announcements, New Working Groups, and Upcoming Meetings
Subject: GEO Announcements, New Working Groups, and Upcoming Meetings
***February 8, 2022***
Table of Contents:
Announcements:
Events:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Administration threatens GEO over call for safety, GEO planning a response
Last Wednesday, February 2, 2022, Robb B. Craddock, a representative of university administration and the Senior Director of Labor and Employee Relations, sent GEO a letter in response to our Online Work Action that was scheduled for February 2-4th. Craddock threatened to discipline graduate workers who shifted their modality of instruction online, despite previous messaging granting instructors the authority to move classes online for up to a week due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This has already had disastrous consequences, with some GEO members like Drew Weiner making the difficult decision to resign instead of conducting in-person classes against the democratic will of the instructors and students. Weiner was forced to delete a line about Covid safety from the course syllabus prior to the semester beginning, and the university’s response only got worse from there. Weiner polled students the day before in person instruction would resume and 90% of them decided that they would like to go online for now. “I believe my department trusted me as an instructor, and I believe they were sympathetic to my and my former students’ preference to remain online, but that administrative policy prevented them from giving me permission to make the changes that would have kept us safer,” Weiner said. “Rather than overruling my and my students’ preference to remain online and put them and me at risk of life-threatening illness, I resigned.”
Work Action Group Reformulating
Are you upset about the callous treatment of graduate workers by administration? Do you want more robust COVID-19 protection measures? Do you want to support the Bargaining Team? GEO is reformulating the Work Action Group (WAG) to address these issues and more. WAG is a great way for members who cannot commit to working on a committee to help the union achieve our goals. If interested, email geo@uigeo.org to find out more and get added to the WAG slack! When we fight, we win!
New Welcoming and Political Education Committee
CALLING ALL GEO MEMBERS: Are you interested in joining our Welcoming/Political Education Committee? We reach out to have conversations with new members to inform them of what the union has to offer them. Email commcomm@uigeo.org to join!
[alt text: Yellow speech bubble on top of a white square. Text in the middle reads, “Are you interested in joining a Welcoming Committee which reaches out to new members and creates political education content? Email commcomm@uigeo.org to join one of our meetings!” On the bottom left is a black outline of a bullhorn with 3 lightning bolts coming out of it. On the bottom right is a black bar that has “CALLING ALL GEO MEMBERS!” on white text on top of it.]
Financial Review
Our financial review for FY 2020-21 has been completed. We are still trying to figure out how to make it available to members online. It is always available for review at the GEO Office upon request by GEO members. Please email treasurer@uigeo.org with any questions.
EVENTS
Stewards Council Meeting: Collective Action Debrief & Strategy Session
As you may know, we sent a GEO-L on Friday, February 4th explaining the threats that we received from the University Administration about our planned action and their shameful intimidation to graduate workers committed in keeping themselves, their students and co-workers safe. We want to clarify that no legal action has been committed against the GEO nor their members because the Work Action did not take place. After consulting our legal counsel, GEO leadership and several rank and file members, we believe the best way to move forward is by:
postponing our action,
reactivating the Working Action Group (WAG) which coordinates our direct actions. If you’re interested in joining email geo@uigeo.org, and
completing this Google Form by the Grievance Committee https://tinyurl.com/GEOCOVID19 as soon as possible so you can report any unsafe COVID-19 related working conditions.
For this reason, we want to invite you to our next Stewards Council Meeting on Tuesday, February 8th from 6:30pm to 8:00pm via Google Meet (https://meet.google.com/dmm-umcv-phm) so we can collectively debrief about our online action and develop a collective strategy moving forward. Participating in this meeting will be an excellent opportunity for you to meet other GEO members, give your feedback and ideas, and participate in the Stewards action plan to increase membership for full contract bargaining this Spring. Please reach out to our Stewards Co-Chairs at sc@uigeo.org if you have any questions.
Special Bargaining GMM: Vote on Your Contract Pillars!
A dark purple and lilac poster. Next to the black GEO logo, the text reads, “SPECIAL BARGAINING GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING, FEBRUARY 9TH, 2022”. Beneath the heading, white text in a black box reads: “AFTERNOON SESSION 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm, EVENING SESSION 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm”. White, bullet-pointed text on the purple background reads “See the results for our fall bargaining survey”, “Discuss what we’ll fight for this bargaining cycle”, “Vote on the bargaining pillars for 2022”, “Learn about the bargaining timeline for 2022-2023”, and ends with “This is your contract–come join the fight!” The lilac box below includes black text reading “REGISTRATION REQUIRED, OPEN TO ALL MEMBERS”, followed by a QR code and the white text, “scan the QR code OR go to tinyurl.com/Feb2022GMM”. At the bottom of the poster in purple is the text, “PLEASE EMAIL US IF YOU NEED ANY ACCOMMODATIONS!” against a lilac background with the GEO’s contact information listed. Email icon followed by “geo@uigeo.org”, web icon followed by “uiucgeo.org”, Facebook icon followed by “facebook.com/uigeo”, and twitter icon and instagram icon followed by “@geo_uiuc”.
Wednesday, February 9, 12:00-1:00 & 6:00-7:00 pm, Online via Google Meets. Click to register!
Join the Bargaining Team at this General Membership Meeting to . . .
See the results from the fall bargaining survey,
Discuss what we’ll fight for in 2022,
Vote on the bargaining pillars, and
Learn about the 2022 bargaining timeline.
This is your contract–come join the fight! Register Here!
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org