jpodesva

Non-retaliation

November 15, 2011 Leave a comment

Language from the Faculty Association’s back-to-work agreement section of the Tentative Agreement:

“The Board also agrees to take no legal or disciplinary action against any student, graduate assistant, civil service employee, administrative professional employee or non-tenure track faculty member for his/her actions in support of the Faculty Association during the strike.”

If you feel like as if you’ve been retaliated against for your support of the Faculty Association during the strike, let me know ASAP.

Filed under Uncategorized

Wow.

November 3, 2011 Leave a comment

Wow, what a night. I’m still processing the whole thing, and its hard to believe we have a tentative agreement. I can honestly and without reservation believe that the tentative agreement (TA) I signed last night is the very best deal we could get, given the state’s financial constraints, and three other unions bargaining simultaneously. I also believe with the same resolve that going on strike would not secure us a better deal. Take a look at the executive summary just published and see what you think. Taken as a whole, I think you will find that it is the best deal for the most people, for want of a better phrase. Thanks so much to everyone for their support in a journey that has taken nearly 500 days to complete. I must single out three people: Jim Clark, Kristi Brownfield, and W Doc Stodden. Without them, we wouldn’t have a union, let alone a contract. Their patience and good humor was an example that I didn’t always live up to. The electronic version of the TA will be out soon, for more details.

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with contract

The Bad and the Good

October 7, 2011 Leave a comment

Re the Chancellor’s email:

After the usual fear-mongering, there’s something interesting at the end:

“Health coverage is an issue in which all of our students – 16,000 undergraduate and 4,000 graduates – have a stake. The Administration is committed to ensuring that our students have quality health coverage at competitive rates and is willing to explore with our student governance leaders and the GAU, benefit alternatives along with appropriate comparisons of premium, cost and benefits. Any conversation about enhanced healthcare benefits and related costs must be considered in the context of compliance with federal health care reform (ACA) and affordability for all of our students.”

That’s carefully non-committal language in the email, but could it perhaps be evidence of a slight movement in the administration’s position? We’ll see next Friday if Cheng & Co. really are committed to decent health-care for Graduate Assistants, or if it is just lip-service. Keep the pressure up, they have to respond.

Filed under health care, Uncategorized

An Interesting Experience

September 20, 2011 2 Comments

True story: I’m having lunch the other day in a local restaurant, and sitting next to me were three or four students who happened to be Graduate Fellows of some sort or another. I truly wasn’t eavesdropping, but I overheard them discussing what would happen if a strike came. They were truly agonizing over what position they should take. I introduced myself as GAU’s President, and we discussed the situation. As Fellows, they are not covered under the present contract, but we’re working on getting that changed in the future. But for now, if a strike comes, they’ll have to follow their consciences. At the same time, the person sitting next to me introduced herself as a new member, and asked what she could do for GAU! This has never happened to me in the three or four years I’ve been in the union.

I drew a couple of lessons from the experience. First, the word is getting around the community that a strike may be looming, and people of conscience are figuring out where they stand on the issue. In this instance, my lunch companions realized that the only choice that didn’t result in compromising key principles was to support GAU. Second, both GAU’s recognition in the community as well as membership numbers are both trending up. Did you know we have at least 25-30 new members in the last week or so?

Now let’s keep up the pressure on the University to bargain in good faith and on ourselves to preserve this momentum.

Filed under bargaining, events

Important!

September 19, 2011 Leave a comment

From our official statement, which can be read in its entirety in an earlier post: “On Friday September 30th, at 3pm, GAU leadership will be holding an open informational meeting in Lawson 141. At 4pm, the door will close and we will ask dues paying members to authorize your GAU bargaining team to call for a strike if no significant progress is being made at the bargaining table.”

I want to reiterate that if the authorization passes, it doesn’t mean we’re going on strike on the 30th, only that you give the bargaining team the authority to declare a strike as a last resort.

If it does come to a strike, the responsibility lies with an administration that considers sitting at a table saying “no” to be bargaining in good faith. We remain committed to negotiations, and hope that it doesn’t come to a strike. However, we have to prepare for the worst.

Filed under bargaining

Bargaining Update

September 16, 2011 1 Comment

Yesterday’s bargaining was a disappointment, to say the least. The insurance information we asked for in JUNE? Sorry, don’t have it. Economic offer? Sorry, don’t have it, thought they did inform us that it won’t be much anyway. However, we did schedule a whole slew of further bargaining dates, as if this thing is going to stretch on forever. Well, I can assure you, it won’t. The status quo is unacceptable, and if the administration won’t listen to GAU, they will listen to us when we join with our sisters and brothers in the Faculty Association, the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association, and the Association of Civil Service Employees.

What can you do to resolve this situation without having to resort to a strike? Join us! Sadly, this is an administration that only thinks in terms of, and only respects, power. The more members we have, the more power we have. It’s that simple, actually. Also, if you are a member of GAU, you get to vote on whether or not to strike, and when the administration has come back to reality, you have the ability to vote on the contract.

Join us, and exercise the power that scares the hell out of the administration. Believe me, the last thing Cheng & Co. want you to do is join the union. That should tell you something: they’re scared of your potential. They should be.

Filed under bargaining

Saturday’s Rally

February 27, 2011 Leave a comment

Coverage of Saturday’s rally in support of our sisters and brothers in Wisconsin can be found here. A big thank you to Gray Whaley and Holly Hurlburt for organizing it, and to everyone who attended!

Filed under events

Negotiations update

February 18, 2011 Leave a comment

On Friday February 18, 2011, after ten months of bargaining with the
SIUC administration, the GAU bargaining team met with a federal
mediator to discuss our current contract. We wanted to let you know
our progress and where we are with bargaining.

We have managed to fix and clarify several minor issues within the
contract. However, the major work is still not finished! This
includes:

The rights of assistants to have multi-year contracts: no more
uncertainty about whether you will have an assistantship the next
semester
Fees: GAU proposed a fee freeze at the 2010-2011 fees level (that’s
$3,115 for the academic year). This freeze would last for the length
of the contract.
Stipends: GAU proposed a $0 increase of GA stipends for the year of
2010-2011, and a $100/month stipend increase or a percentage stipend
increase that matches the increase the Faculty Association bargains,
whichever is less, for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 years.
Health care: GAU wants a 100% reimbursement of the Student Medical
Benefit Primary and Extended Care fees. Our current reimbursement is
at 50% for the Primary Care fee only. We also asked for the health
care deductible to be reduced from $1000 to $250 as well as the
inclusion of dependent coverage.

NONE OF THESE ISSUES HAVE BEEN RESOLVED. GAU believes that all
graduate assistants should have job security, a living wage, and a
healthy and safe working environment.

So how can you help? Join us in getting the message out. We’ll be sending out postcards for you to sign and return to me (Jim Podesva), which will be presented to the Board of Trustees. We started out with 300 cards in three days, imagine how many we can get in a month’s time!

Filed under bargaining, volunteer