Mask Mandate Changes, GEO 2/17 COVID-19 Impact Bargaining Session Summary, and Health & Safety Grievance
COVID-19 Impact Bargaining
Subject: Mask Mandate Changes, GEO 2/17 COVID-19 Impact Bargaining Session Summary, and Health & Safety Grievance
***February 18, 2022***
Table of Contents:
Announcements:
Events:
Announcements
UIUC Administration to End Indoor Mask Mandate
In a massmail sent Thursday, Chancellor Robert Jones announced changes to UIUC’s mask mandate. As of February 28, UIUC administration will no longer require face coverings indoors on campus except for in classrooms, passing periods, healthcare facilities, mass transit, and a few other case-by-case exceptions. The massmail also stated that proof of a negative COVID-19 test or COVID-19 vaccination will no longer be required to attend athletic events at State Farm Center, summer camps, or commencement ceremonies.
GEO is outraged that this decision was made without bargaining with graduate workers. Graduate workers, our students, faculty, and staff will experience a drastic increase in exposure to COVID-19 if masking requirements are removed from the spaces where we work and live. This change will directly impact the health and safety of our graduate assistants working in libraries, campus housing, and other on-campus locations. The fate of graduate research assistants will be left up to inconsistent policy on a lab-by-lab basis. The risk of exposure for our graduate teaching assistants, who make up 50% of instructional workers on campus, substantially increases as well since many more students and workers will come to class infected without knowing it. The detrimental effects of the end of the mask mandate will be compounded by the lack COVID-19 exposure notifications, testing, and building access status checking throughout campus. We demand that UIUC administration meet with us to negotiate over these changes!
The massmail states that “as we enter this new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may not all experience the same emotions.” We are sure that the administrators who made this decision and who have the luxury of working from home whenever it suits them “welcome the loosening of some COVID-19 mandates.” Meanwhile, the massmail suggests that “others,” i.e., the people whose working conditions, learning conditions, and very health, safety, and lives are at stake, “may experience some level of discomfort with this change.” The massmail reassures us that each individual may still choose to wear a mask.
In other words, university administration is abandoning each of us to fend for ourselves, when we know that effective public health requires all of us to do our part to keep our community safe and healthy! To join us in coming together to make our voices heard in opposition to these changes made without our input, sign up for GEO’s next COVID-19 impact bargaining session on Wednesday Feb. 23 at 8 am and get involved with GEO’s Work Action Group (details in events below)!
Summary of COVID-19 Impact Bargaining Session on 2/17/22
Our Demands: At Thursday’s Impact Bargaining Session, the Impact Bargaining Team (IBT) and a total of 31 GEO caucus members presented three proposals:
Extending the university’s mask mandate in all indoor university spaces through the end of Fall 2022, regardless of whether the State of Illinois mask mandate expires at the end of February 2022.
Administration Response: We are looking into this and consulting with public health officials. We will let you know as soon as possible.
Based on the low quality of N95 masks that the university has previously distributed and how difficult they are to reuse, unlimited access to high quality masks in a variety of sizes for all members of the on-campus community. GEO also offered to work with the administration to help distribute the masks to graduate workers.
Administration Response: The administration will look into providing us with more masks, as well as looking into providing higher quality masks and a variety of masks that would fit different face sizes.
A COVID-19 exposure notification system based on course enrollment and assigned work spaces that is not reliant on self-reporting or app exposure notifications.
Administration Response: The university believes that we are doing a good job of keeping community members safe.
IBT also requested additional information about targeted testing, ongoing COVID-19 vaccination requirements on campus, the research and data being used to make COVID-19 policy decisions, and more.
Administration’s Response: While the administration was willing to consider providing us with more masks, we did not receive any sort of concrete responses to our demands or a guarantee that better masks would be provided. Nor was the administration prepared to offer any proposals that would improve the safety of our members. The administration claimed that they were doing a great job keeping us safe without offering the data to support their claim, while the GEO presented member testimonials and clear proposals with our asks. This claim was made despite seeing 6,048 cases of COVID-19 on campus between 1/2/22 and 2/15/22 (Source: UIUC’s COVID-19 Testing Dashboard), having 11% of undergraduates on campus test positive during the same time period (Source: UIUC’s COVID-19 Testing Dashboard), and having 39 community member deaths in Champaign County in January (Source: CUPHD COVID-19 Dashboard).
During the bargaining session, we received a massmail stating that the mask mandate would no longer be in effect for spaces on campus besides classrooms, healthcare facilities, and spaces governed by federal mask mandates. Not only does this communication show that the administration is not organized in their internal communications and bargaining with unions, but it is also a policy decision made outside of impact bargaining.
GEO’s Response: We appreciate the additional masks provided to us by the university administration after months of struggle, but the most vulnerable members of our community are still at high risk because of the lack of exposure notifications and the partial release of the mask mandate on campus. Grad workers need the mask requirement to be universal across indoor UIUC spaces to be able to work and learn safely. Providing 10 masks that are not high enough quality to be safely reused is not enough to keep workers or students safe for an entire semester. Exposure notifications based on course enrollment and assigned work spaces are necessary for workers and students to be able to make the best decisions about their health and safety, especially in knowing when to test and to avoid contact with those at high risk of severe COVID-19. We won 10 masks by joining together with workers and students throughout campus to take action, and we will keep fighting until we win safer working and learning conditions for all!
GEO is compiling a list of high-quality masks, as recommended by members, to share with the university administration. Please share your masks recommendations with us here: https://forms.gle/H2myRu7ptTn5a9Xr5
GEO Health & Safety Grievance
In response to UIUC administration’s unwillingness to take COVID-19 safety concerns among graduate workers seriously, the GEO filed a mass grievance against the university administration this morning. This grievance is on behalf of members who are being required to work on campus (under threat of dismissal) despite being at risk of exposure to the virus. The grievance also reiterates GEO’s demands, as outlined in the January petition, for worker choice of modality, an exposure notification system, consistent checking of building access, frequent testing, and more N95/KN95 masks. Our grievance argues that UIUC administration violated their contractual obligation to provide a healthy and safe environment for workers and to provide access to supplies and equipment necessary to do our work.
According to Hallie Workman, a teaching assistant in the Department of Communication, “I've been teaching in person throughout the whole pandemic. I felt safer teaching in August of 2020 than I do today. Now that the university isn't enforcing its testing and building access policy, I don't feel like I can keep my students safe in my classroom.”
For more information, see GEO’s press release or contact the Grievance Committee at grievance@uigeo.org.
EVENTS
Next Impact Bargaining Session
Next Impact Bargaining Session: Our next impact bargaining session will be Wednesday February 23rd at 8:00 am. RSVP here to receive a link: https://tinyurl.com/COVIDIBSess19
[image description: Dark red poster, with white GEO logo on top right. Top left has green bar jutting out, bottom left has purple bar, middle right has pink bar. Left of the pink bar in big white text is “COVID-19 IMPACT BARGAINING SESSION - 2/23/22”. On the bottom right in white says “PACK THE SCREEN! Attend virtually and support our union’s Impact Bargaining Team! February 23, 2022, 8:00 AM CDT, Register here: https://tinyurl.com/COVIDIBSess19. IBT members will be negotiating for a more comprehensive COVID-19 notification system, unlimited PPE (K/N95 masks), and extension of the UIUC mask mandate past February 28.]
Work Action Group and Impact Bargaining Planning Meeting
Saturday 2/19, 10 AM- Join us to plan next steps for actions to take and to move forward based on today's impact bargaining session. We want to have everything in line for our next bargaining session! This meeting is for anyone who wants to collaborate with COVID-19 impact bargaining, WAG. All experience levels and background knowledge are welcome and appreciated. Find the meeting link on the GEO Calendar.
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org