Bargaining Session Summary #25— Admin starts to make movement on wages, members say it's not enough
Executive Summary (Summary in a Flyer),
Bargaining Session TL;DR/Summary
Earlier this week, GEO and admin sent a joint mediation request to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).
At the session, GEO presented a comprehensive proposal, and Admin provided a comprehensive counter-proposal.
GEO’s minimum wage proposal:
$23,400 in Year 1 (21% increase, with retroactive pay)
$25,100 in Year 2.
Admin’s minimum wage proposal:
$20,450 in Year 1 (5.9% increase, without retroactive pay)
$21,319 in Year 2
$22,225 in Year 3
$23,170 in Year 4
$23,865 in Year 5
Six graduate workers presented testimonials sharing the challenges of being a parent and affording childcare, healthcare, and other expenses under the current contract.
At the end of the session, GEO and Admin exchanged non-economic packages. We are close to an agreement on some of these articles, including Hours of Work and Appointment Terms.
What happened in the session? (VL;WR-- Very Long Will Read)
Thanks to the pressure that GEO members have been putting on UIUC admin by showing up to bargaining sessions and making our disappointment at their proposals clear, admin finally relented earlier this week and agreed to our proposal to pursue mediation. GEO and admin have jointly requested a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) and are waiting to hear back from them.
At the session, GEO’s lead negotiators Chelsea Birchmier and Nachiketa Adhikari presented a comprehensive proposal, which includes the following modifications from our previous proposal:
Minimum Wage: Moved down $200 to $23,400 in Year 1 (21% increase, with retroactive pay) and $500 to $25,100 in Year 2 (9% increase).
Reappointment raise: Moved from 12% to 8% for Year 1
Healthcare: Moved from 100% to 95% for health insurance subsidy
Fees: Held to waivers for the General Fee, Transportation Fee and International Student Fee, but dropped the proposal for Visa fee reimbursement
Some GEO members, who are parents, came to the bargaining session with their children and delivered testimonials on the hardships faced by parents, not being able to support their families on the wages that the university administration is offering and suffering from physical and emotional pain as a result.
“The stress of not being able to afford some of my bills had me extremely depressed the last 2 months to the point I have considered dropping out of graduate school because working [with only] my bachelors would make me more money to afford my daughters and I’s living expenses.. I talked to my daughter about it. I asked her if she wanted mommy to get a job and make real money, or if she wanted mommy to be a doctor… she said she wanted mommy to be a doctor… I don’t want to give up on my dreams, I am here because I love learning and I am going to try my hardest.”
- Erica Natalie Belloso (First year PhD student in Plant Biology)
[Image description: Graduate student Natalie posing with her daughter at the bargaining session]
The administration couldn’t really say anything in response to justify their ghoulish decision to continue to deny GEO members childcare and improved dependent healthcare coverage, and force parents, particularly women, to choose between having a degree and taking care of their families. GEO’s lead negotiators pointed out that the raise admin offered is already less than the cost of childcare alone, while the university has seen profits of over $300 million. In response the admin lead negotiator Robb Craddock said “This [wage increase] is the relief we are willing to provide.” Is this a good enough justification to you?
After hearing these testimonials, admin offered a five-year contract proposal with a starting 5.9% wage increase, and increases for five years that amount to a 23.7% wage increase over five years. They continued to reject our proposals on Fee waivers, childcare and dependent healthcare coverage. Admin’s proposal does reflect slight movement from their last one, movement that was only made possible by GEO members attending sessions and putting pressure on admin. Last week over 50 graduate workers walked out of the session while calling for livable wages. This offer still does not afford GEO members a significant enough wage increase to be able to handle their living expenses - when inflation is 9%, a 5.9% increase is a real (adjusted to inflation) wage decrease, especially considering that admin is still refusing to offer retroactive pay to account for the past 8 months that graduate works have been working without a contract.
At the end of the session, GEO presented a package proposal with non-economic items, including Appointment Terms, Orientation and Training, Evaluations, Hours of Work, Labor Management Meetings and Consultation, and withdrawals of Paid Time Off for GEO Business, Links and Websites, Management Rights, and Personnel Files, which we appear to be making movement on towards an agreement.
What’s next?
Do you want to accept admin’s 5.9% wage increase with ZERO retroactive pay and no fee reduction? If not, here is what we must do together!
Join us for our next bargaining session on Friday March 24, 10am-5 pm (Location TBA). Coffee & childcare provided. You don’t have to stay the whole time, and can bring other work—your mere presence in the room is powerful!
Volunteers make the bargaining sessions run! Sign up for a role to help with check-in, note taking, or child care here: https://linktr.ee/geobarg
Sign and share GEO’s petition demanding that the Administration immediately sign GEO’s contract proposals for wages, fees, healthcare, access and justice to uphold the rights of graduate employees at UIUC: https://tinyurl.com/GEOPetition23
You can use this email template to invite faculty and/or department heads to sign the petition: https://tinyurl.com/geobargtext
If you have friends or colleagues who are not GEO members, ask them to sign a membership card: https://www.uiucgeo.org/join#member-form (you can also pick up membership cards in the GEO office, 809 S 5th St, in McKinley Foundation, during office hours Mon 4-6 pm, Tues 12-2 pm, Wed 1-3:30 pm, or Thurs 1-2:30 pm—except for Spring Break—or email geo@uigeo.org)
If you would like to host a GEO town hall / meeting in your department, GEO Stewards Council can help you with planning, provide slides and materials, and cover the cost of food. Reach out to Stewards Council Co-Chairs Grace and Clara at sc@uigeo.org.
After Bargaining Podcast (UPDATED)
We just uploaded the newest episode that corresponds with this GEO-L/Bargaining Session Summary.
In this episode, Chelsea and Nachiketa join the podcast to share what happened in the bargaining session on Friday, 3/9th/2023. In the episode, they provide a brief description of where we are in the bargaining process and then speak to our proposal and admin's response. In addition, Chelsea and Nachiketa speak about the history of working women's struggle and how the GEO is fighting for equity-related benefits (such as increased wages and child care). Chelsea also shared on the member's testimonial as graduate worker who is a parent. Nachiketa and Essam (the host) speak to the importance of showing up to the next bargaining session on Friday, 3/24th, for as long as they can. GEO believes that something big will happen in that session. . Check out last week’s episode on the previous session if you haven’t yet, to hear from GEO Bargaining Team lead Sam Froiland.
[image description: Chelsea (left) is sitting next to Nachiketa (right) and a candle is lit in front of them. They are both wearing GEO beanies.]
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org