PRESS CONFERENCE @4PM -- Summary Bargaining Session #23
PRESS CONFERENCE @4pm
The Illini Union at the Quad side. The Graduate Employees’ Organization will hold a press conference that will speak to what happened in the bargaining session. Be there! Support graduate workers’ struggle to fight and win for a fair contract.
Table of Contents:
Bargaining Session TL;DR/Summary
The Bargaining Team provided a proposal with numerous articles, which include Wages, Fee Waivers, Health Care, Child Care and much more.
The proposal aims to guarantee wage increase above minimum wage, removal of fees including their yearly arbitrary increases.
The Union also made substantial movements and dropped some of their articles that they had proposed earlier.
The admin caucused and returned with a non-economic response.
What happened in the session?
The lead negotiators, Chelsea (Psychology) and Nachiketa (Mathematics) of the GEO’s Bargaining Team came with a proposal that covers Wages, Health Care, Fee Waivers, Child Care, Dues Deduction & Fair Share, Health & Safety, Duration, Labor Management Meetings & Consultation, Appointment Terms, Orientation & Training, Evaluations, Hours of Work, Employee Rights, and Distribution of Information. The aim was to make a substantial movement, based on members’ feedback, to agree on a fair contract that meets graduate workers’ demands.
After spending nearly two hours, the Administration came back with a package proposal that DID NOT address what members have been waiting for – nothing in their package mentioned anything about Wages, Health Care, Child Care, Fee Waivers, Dues Deduction & Fair Share, and Duration. In other words, they did not respond to our economic proposal.
What their package included is minute movement that accepted much of the concessions the GEO has offered in our initial package but nothing economic. They did not have a wage proposal in response.
When the Union inquired about the rationale for their response. One of their arguments for removing and not responding to not only our wage proposal but also our Child Care, they said that
“It is our preference in regard to your proposal with Child Care, it is our preference as an administration to take the money out of child care stipends to and apply those increases across the entire bargaining unit… Those resources, we would prefer to allocate them across the entire unit.” - Robb Craddock.
What the Administration is trying to do is divide us. Make us fight over the crumps they want to give us. What they are saying is that if we ask for Child Care, we won’t get the desired wage increase; making graduate workers fight against one another. Which we will not do. We will fight for one another.
We must show up to the next bargaining session on the 2nd (info below).
How do members feel after seeing the Administration's response?
“They have been telling us that we have not been bargaining on economic items. What happened here? They did not respond to our economic proposal!”
“So mad what they said about child care and wages. As a woman, there are tons of parents here. It is disgusting!”
“They are trying to make us fight against each other by taking away the funding for certain groups.”
“Robb mentioned there are no workplaces with premium free health care. I Googled it. There are companies that do it.”
What can my co-workers and I do?
Members are angry. Members are frustrated at the Administration's laughable response today. We must show up to the next bargaining session. Here is what to do!
Attend our next bargaining session on Thursday 2nd/3/2023: Join us for our next bargaining session on Thursday, 2nd/3/2023. From 12:45 to 5:30 at the Room 300, Levis Faculty Center. Bring a friend, tell colleagues in your department! We will discuss wages and health care. Sign up for a role here: https://linktr.ee/geobarg
Invite your friends to the session. Pack the room. Tell the Administration that we will not take this laughable movement.
Image description: "A green flyer for the GEO's 24th Full Contract Bargaining Session on March 2nd, 2023 from 12:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Levis Faculty Center Room 300. Fair wages and summer healthcare will be discussed. The flyer says, "We need you there to show up for our community and show our power to the administration. The University works because we do." Please wear a mask! Childcare, food, and coffee provided."
After Bargaining to be aired tonight
As we send this summary expeditiously, please tune in tonight for the podcast episode. The episode will be a more detailed summary of what happened in the session, while centering the lead negotiators’ voices (Chelsea and Nachiketa).
[image description: light purple background with GEO on top right. Middle top title reads “HAVE YOU MISSED RECENT BARGAINING SESSIONS?” in black. Below it is the After Bargaining Logo. The next three respective lines read, “THE GRADUATE EMPLOYEES ORGANIZATION HAS A PODCAST”. Below, center, QR Code. Left of it is an image of a microphone. Below QR Code in is a link: “https://tinyurl.com/yc8kszu6” in white. Below that in black text reading “After Bargaining Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, Anchor FM, and many other platforms.”]
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org