Last Bargaining Session of the Year's Summary #19
The GEO met with the University administration’s bargaining team to continue negotiating our new contract, specifically the Recognition and Non-Discrimination articles. To open up the session, we read our statement condemning the admin for sending in armed police to forcibly remove graduate workers at our Tutor-in last week, when all we were doing was providing free food and tutoring to our students preparing for finals. The admin's bargaining team provided no response, again demonstrating their lack of respect for public higher education and for those who do much of the University’s academic work.
The rest of the session revolved around the issue of the grievance procedure and the admin’s proposal to modify the complaint process for graduate workers who have been victims of discrimination and harassment. These modifications are only for complaints of discrimination and harassment; the grievance procedure for other complaints (such as overwork) remains unchanged. The admin still insists upon us having to go through their inefficient, time-consuming Office of Access and Equity (OAE) process that oftentimes takes months to resolve, condescendingly telling us that they are “experts” in this field and know what is best for us. Their justification? The 2020 Title IX regulations require the University to use the same process for all sexual harassment claims. To address this, we presented a counter proposal with modifications to the Non-Discrimination article in which a grievance can be taken up after the required Title IX process, while also maintaining the right of graduate workers to directly utilize the much faster grievance process in other cases of harassment and discrimination.
Yet again, it was clear that the admin and Robb Craddock, the lead negotiator, do not respect graduate workers. Robb dismissed our concerns about graduate workers’ limited options for redress if the OAE process (for which the University has just four investigators, each handling 20-30 cases at a time) fails them, saying that having a parallel grievance process could lead to “two different distinct results which isn’t in anyone’s interest.” We disagree: having access to a grievance-arbitration process where an arbitrator (an entity external to the University, unlike OAE) could provide relief or restitution is very much in our interest.
To this end, the GEO recognizes how negotiations have been going rather slow, with no tentative agreements on any article yet. The GEO sees mediation as an important step to expedite the bargaining process and have tentative agreements. Towards the end of the session, the GEO asked if the admin would be willing to pursue joint mediation in the hopes of reaching agreement on a fair contract sooner, but the admin refused, stating that they “do not believe it is necessary at this time.”
“I am glad we fought for the grievance procedure, and learned of its importance at the bargaining session.” - Wyatt (Mathematics)
“The OAE's job is to make sure that the University doesn’t get sued. I’ve known people that have gone through the OAE process and the case coordinators are always apologizing that they can't do more for us because of what their bosses and the University administration are telling them to do.” - Grace (Mathematics)
How can I and my co-workers/friends participate and support?
Tell your friends and co-workers about what is going on in bargaining and invite them to attend the next session with you!
Consider sharing a testimonial during the sessions (can be done anonymously). Email barg@uigeo.org.
Consider joining the bargaining team or the bargaining support team! Questions about what that entails? Email 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. Our latest episode can be found on our bargaining page here https://www.uiucgeo.org/full-contract-bargaining-2022. The new episode will be up soon!
The After Bargaining podcast episode (forthcoming)
The After Bargaining episode that summarizes the happenings of the bargaining session will be published on Saturday. Stay tuned. In the meantime, listen to previous episodes and share them to stay up to speed with bargaining.
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org