Important Meeting

Fellow SIU GAs — are you struggling to pay rent and bills when your monthly stipend check arrives? You are not alone. We all share in working so hard for what seems like almost nothing because that’s where our bank accounts end up too quickly every month.

Join us this Monday, Jan 17 at 3 pm in the Mississippi River Room, SIUC Student Center.

Now is the time for us to BECOME VISIBLE. The University could not run without our teaching, research and other valuable work. However, despite our expertise, training and dedication, we do not receive a living wage. Our health benefits fall short for almost any illness beyond the common cold. Our spouses and children go without coverage.
AND graduate course fees eat our stipend and loans before we can even make it to the grocery store.

The fees increases have surpassed the gains we made with our last contract. Apparently the administration believes we DO NOT DESERVE more pay, better health coverage or frozen fees. The administration has offered no substantial improvement in any of these economic areas during negotiations last year.

In order to improve our pay and benefits we need to BECOME VISIBLE and convince the administration that it’s time to use the money set aside in reserve. It is also time to stop the expansion of administrative positions and pay until we have the modest increase that will we deserve. Really, it’s a small thing to ask of people who make such a big contribution to the University. We do not believe this is too much to ask, given the top twenty five salaries add up to more than $5 million a year.

Your help is needed if we are going to win some of what we deserve.  Come to the meeting on Martin Luther King Day to discuss how we can fight for better pay and benefits. We’ll honor the collective action that led to more equality in the U.S. during the civil rights struggle, its connection to organized labor, our pay rates and our health care coverage. Then, we’ll work together to come up with creative and effective ways to persuade the administration to listen to us better.

Agenda will include an update on GAU Contract Bargaining & Federal Mediation, and planning to demonstrate our solidarity and determination to achieve the equity and fair treatment we not only deserve – but that which we have earned.

Contact me directly at jimpodesva@gmail.com, or Dave Vitoff in any case to offer your help!

Thanks in advance and best wishes for a new year,

Jim Podesva
President, GAU

Enter the Mediator

No, it’s not the recently discovered Bruce Lee movie in which he renounces violence and takes up labor relations, it’s merely the administration’s latest ploy at the negotiation table.  GAU was notified this morning that in response to our proposals, namely a freeze on fees and a reduction in health insurance deductibles from $1000 to $250, that it thought little progress could be forthcoming as things stand now.  As is their right, they desire to employ the services of a mediator.  The mediator’s decisions will be non-binding, however.  By not even attempting to meet us halfway on any issues of importance, the administration’s illegal attempts to lay off or reduce the hours of non-tenure track faculty and now its threats to junior tenure-track faculty, the administration has revealed itself for what it is: a bully.

On January 17th at 3:00 p.m. in the Student Center’s Mississippi room  we’ll be discussing where we go from here.  Your feedback is essential, and it is definitely in your own self-interest to be there.

I’m sorry for not wishing you this sooner, but have a great break!

Jim P.