Strike Warning #11: STRIKE DATE SET FOR NOVEMBER 3

Strike Warning #11: STRIKE DATE SET FOR NOVEMBER 3, 2011
October 24, 2011

Number of days without a contract: 481
Last bargaining session with the SIUC administration: October 21, 2011
Next bargaining session with the SIUC administration: October 27, 2011

Fellow graduate assistants,

Three weeks ago, we voted to authorize a strike if no significant progress has been made at the bargaining table on the things that take money out of our pockets: high fees, a stipend that isn’t keeping pace with the cost of living, being forced to take and pay for classes we don’t need under the 8-credit hour rule, and health care that forces us to pay for any real help.

Three weeks later, the administration’s offer remains the same:

1 percent stipend increase beginning January 1, 2012
1 percent stipend increase for FY 2013
2 percent stipend increase for FY 2014
No new fee freeze or payment of fees by the administration
No contractual obligation to follow the guidelines of the Affordable Health Care Act

This is a plan that amounts to about a $15 a month stipend increase for this year and next year and about $25 a month in 2014. That doesn’t sound like much — especially when you realize there is no protection or help when dealing with current or future fees.

This is a plan that continues to take money from your pocket.

GAU membership voting to authorize a strike put pressure on the administration to do better. They haven’t. We need to increase that pressure to reach a fair contract but if we can’t get a deal that keeps our money where it belongs we will have to use our last option: a strike.

The GAU bargaining team has given the following resolution:

The Graduate Assistants United (GAU) bargaining team resolves that GAU set a strike date for 12:01 a.m., November 3, 2011 unless a tentative agreement is recommended by the GAU bargaining team before that time. The strike ends when the GAU bargaining Team recommends a tentative agreement or the membership of GAU votes to end the strike.

The Faculty Association, the Association for Civil Service Employees, and the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association have also set November 3rd as their strike date. We are not alone. Standing together we have the power to protect ourselves and gain a good contract.

Our contract is the policy for GAs; it protects our appointments, it covers our salaries, it covers our hours of work. The contract is our way of having control and power over our working conditions.

Our contract is our shared governance. Now is the time to exercise our voices and tell the administration we want something better.

You can contact the Board of Trustees, President Glenn Poshard, and Chancellor Rita Cheng directly to deliver that message:

Ms. Misty Whittington
Executive Secretary of the Board
Office of the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees
(618) 536-3357

Rita Cheng: rcheng@siu.edu
SIUC Chancellor
(618) 453-2341

Glenn Poshard: poshard@siu.edu
SIU President
(618) 536-3357

GAU will also be having an open meeting for international graduate assistants Thursday October 27, from 5-6pm in the Student Center Ballroom A. Please join us and get informed, share your concerns, and tell us what’s going on in your departments.

Communications will be more frequent as we countdown the ten days until the strike deadline.
You can stay informed by reading our webpage (http://gaunited.org), joining our Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6789631853&ref=ts), following our brand new Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/#!/SIUCGAUnited), or subscribing to the blog for all four IEA-NEA unions on campus (http://siucunions.wordpress.com).

In solidarity,
Kristi Brownfield
Vice-President for Communications