Strike Warning #1

Strike Warning #1
September 19, 2011

Number of days without a contract: 446
Last bargaining session with the SIUC administration: September 15, 2011
Next bargaining session with the SIUC administration: September 23, 2011

Fellow graduate assistants,

I am sad to report that our last bargaining session on Thursday was unproductive. The meeting lasted a total of forty minutes in which we reviewed the issues still open — including relief from high fees and substandard health care — and set bargaining dates through the end of October. It is clear that the administration has no interest in settling our open contract anytime soon. If we want a fair contract, we will have to take steps to show President Poshard and Chancellor Cheng we are serious about achieving our goals.

GAU leadership is prepared to do that and we hope you are too.

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.

We believe this will send a strong message to the administration that bargaining has gone on long enough. It is time to sit down and find real solutions to the problems facing graduate assistants on campus.

For more information on what a strike would mean, please visit the strike FAQ page GAU and our sister unions have put together: http://siucunions.wordpress.com/strike-faq/

GAU leadership will also be organizing department meetings to inform you of the status of bargaining and what a strike authorization vote means. If you are interested in setting up a meeting in your department, please email us at: gau.siuc@gmail.com

You can stay informed by reading our webpage (http://gaunited.org), joining our Facebook group, or subscribing to the blog for all four IEA-NEA unions on campus (http://siucunions.wordpress.com).

A “strike warning” means conditions are favorable for a strike for GAU and our sister unions, the Association of Civil Service Employees, the Faculty Association, and the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association. The administration can solve this crisis today by settling our contracts. Make your voice heard by joining GAU!

In solidarity,
Kristi Brownfield
Vice-President for Communications

http://gaunited.org

Strike Watch #8

Strike Watch #8
September 12, 2011

Number of days without a contract: 439
Last bargaining session with the SIUC administration: August 2, 2011
Next bargaining session with the SIUC administration: September, 15, 2011

Fellow graduate assistants,

I am pleased to inform you that after a month and a half of waiting to hear from the administration, we now have our next bargaining session scheduled for Thursday September 15.

However, just because we are finally able to get back to the table does not mean our legitimate concerns will be addressed by an administration that favors delays to talking and vetoes to trying to find mutually beneficial solutions.

It was that environment that prompted GAU to file a notice of intent to strike in May and for GAU leadership to continue to plan for the very real possibility of a strike.

In the coming weeks, you will be seeing two very important emails going out. The first will be a confidential internal survey to ask you your opinions about a strike. This will NOT be a call to strike or a strike vote. This survey is open to any graduate assistant represented by GAU and we urge you to take two to three minutes to fill it out when the survey is available.

The second email will be about the scheduling of a strike vote. As much as we all hope a strike can be averted, we must also realize that to make progress and show the administration we are serious about our needs around fees and health care a strike may be necessary. Please be aware that only dues-paying members will be eligible to vote when the time comes to decide if we will collectively take action. If you want to have a voice in the future of GAU and in your working conditions, you must join!

You can stay informed by reading our webpage (http://gaunited.org), joining our Facebook group, or subscribing to the blog for all four IEA-NEA unions on campus (http://siucunions.wordpress.com).

A “strike watch” means conditions are favorable for a strike for GAU and our sister unions, the Association of Civil Service Employees, the Faculty Association, and the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association. The administration can solve this crisis today by settling our contracts. Make your voice heard by joining GAU!

In solidarity,
Kristi Brownfield
Vice-President for Communications

http://gaunited.org

Strike Watch #7

Strike Watch #7
September 6, 2011

Number of days without a contract: 433
Last bargaining session with the SIUC administration: August 2, 2011
Next bargaining session with the SIUC administration: unknown

Fellow graduate assistants,

GAU leadership wants to start this email by thanking all the volunteers who helped make last week’s rally possible and all the graduate assistants who showed up to support GAU and the other IEA campus unions. The rally was a success — which you made possible.

A successful rally does not mean the problem is over! This is where the hard part starts. Now is the time where we all have to start asking ourselves one question:

What am I willing to fight for?

You need to start asking this question because as we near fifteen months without a contract we also see the rising potential of a strike. So you need to be prepared to fight.

Do you want fees to stop rising? You have to fight for it.
Do you want better health care? You have to fight for it.
Do you want a say in your working conditions at SIUC? You have to fight for it.

Fighting for those things can be done by joining the union, showing up for union events, and — should the situation require it — GAU members voting to go on strike.

It’s time for all of us to start thinking — and answering — what do I really want? Do I want to keep my head down, continue to be afraid, and accept whatever the administration wants to dish out? Or am I ready to stand up and fight for what’s important to me?

The time when members are called upon to do just that is coming. And it’s coming soon.

You can stay informed by reading our webpage (http://gaunited.org), joining our Facebook group, or subscribing to the blog for all four IEA-NEA unions on campus (http://siucunions.wordpress.com).

A “strike watch” means conditions are favorable for a strike for GAU and our sister unions, the Association of Civil Service Employees, the Faculty Association, and the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association. The administration can solve this crisis today by settling our contracts. Make your voice heard by joining GAU!

In solidarity,
Kristi Brownfield
Vice-President for Communications

http://gaunited.org

Strike Watch #6

Strike Watch #6
August 29, 2011

Number of days without a contract: 425
Last bargaining session with the SIUC administration: August 2, 2011
Next bargaining session with the SIUC administration: unknown

Fellow graduate assistants,

You may have noticed that the last few strike watch updates I have been sending have said “unknown” for the date of the next bargaining session. GAU has repeatedly reached out to the administration’s bargaining team to set a date and we are still waiting for a response. Dates are not the only thing we are waiting on for a response; in June, the GAU bargaining team requested information from the university regarding health care. We still have not seen that information. These delaying tactics are part of why we are now 425 days — that is fourteen months — without a contract.

We need to show the administration that we are serious about our issues still on the table — health care, fees, the 8-credit hour rule — and about settling a fair, mutually agreed contract. GAU needs your help to do that! We have two upcoming events we would like to invite you to:

Wednesday August 31, 6pm-7:30pm: Open Meeting
Lawson 231
Come meet the GAU officers, bargaining team members, get informed about who we are, what we do, and what will happen if we cannot come to an agreement with the university.
The first 10 signed in attendees will receive a free 2GB flash drive!

Thursday September 1, 11am-1pm: Rally to Support Quality Education
The intersection of 51 and Grand Avenue
This rally is to support quality education provided by professionals including faculty, staff, and graduate assistants. If you support labor, if you support the people who are the heart of the university, if you support fair contracts, if you support SIUC and the SIUC community — show up! Show the administration we’re serious about what we do and settling the open contracts.

You can stay informed by reading our webpage (http://gaunited.org), joining our Facebook group, or subscribing to the blog for all four IEA-NEA unions on campus (http://siucunions.wordpress.com).

A “strike watch” means conditions are favorable for a strike for GAU and our sister unions, the Association of Civil Service Employees, the Faculty Association, and the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association. The administration can solve this crisis today by settling our contracts. Make your voice heard by joining GAU!

In solidarity,
Kristi Brownfield
Vice-President for Communications

http://gaunited.org

Strike Watch #5

Strike Watch #5
August 22, 2011

Number of days without a contract: 418
Last bargaining session with the SIUC administration: August 2, 2011
Next bargaining session with the SIUC administration: unknown

Fellow graduate assistants,

We’d like to give a warm welcome to all new graduate assistants to campus and a welcome back to all of us who are returning for the start of the fall semester. The beginning of the semester is usually one of the hardest times, as we adjust to the duties of our assignments, learn or relearn to balance work, studying, and our personal lives, and just try to become situated at SIUC and in Carbondale. The union is here to help with that! If you have questions, concerns, or problems, let us know and we’ll do our best to help you out.

Right now, the leadership of GAU has two large concerns of our own; these are concerns we heard about from you: rising cost and inadequate health care. I want to make you all aware of a new change in law that will definitely effect the cost of graduate education:

Beginning July 1, 2012, there will be no more subsidized loans for graduate students. Subsidized loans are ones in which the government pays the interest on the loan during the time we are in school. All graduate students will be eligible for after July 1st are unsubsidized loans, where interest is charged during the time we are in school. The money the government saves from this will be mostly put into funding Pell Grants, which graduate students are generally ineligible for. Here are three informational links you may want to check out for more information:

Students to feel pinch in debt deal [CNN]
A Graduate Student Burden [Inside Higher Ed]
Chart of the Day: Student Loans Have Grown 511% Since 1999 [The Atlantic]

The other area of rising costs we all are very aware of are fees. Fees have tripled over the last ten years and are still rising dramatically. Unfortunately, our stipends have not been keeping pace with these changes so that we end up losing money. Right now, an average doctoral student working twenty hours a week is working for nine months — but only getting paid for seven. The rest of that money is paid back to the university in fees. You can actually see a chart, made by History graduate assistant Andy Barbero, that tracks — adjusted for inflation — exactly how much fees at SIUC have gone up:

Fees Adjusted for Inflation

A good, fair contract for graduate assistants could help that problem. Congress made graduate education drastically more expensive because there was no one there to speak up for graduate students. Their voice wasn’t heard in Washington, D.C. GAU is dedicated to making sure that we bring the graduate assistant voice to the bargaining table and to the Board of Trustees meetings; the message we are bringing is “No More Fees.” You can help us do that by coming to GAU events to show the administration we are serious about settling a contract that is equitable and curbs the skyrocketing fees.

SAVE THE DATE:
Wednesday August 31, 6pm-7:30pm: Open Meeting
Thursday September 1, 11am-1pm: Labor Day Rally

A “strike watch” means conditions are favorable for a strike for GAU and our sister unions, the Association of Civil Service Employees, the Faculty Association, and the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association. The administration can solve this crisis today by settling our contracts. Make your voice heard by joining GAU!

In solidarity,
Kristi Brownfield
Vice-President for Communications

http://gaunited.org

Strike Watch #2

Strike Watch #2
August 1, 2011

Number of days without a contract: 397
Last bargaining session with the SIUC administration: July 13, 2011
Next bargaining session with the SIUC administration: August 2, 2011
Days left to the start of the academic year: 18

Fellow graduate assistants,

We are now just 18 days from the start of the 2011-2012 academic year. While all of us are preparing for the return to classes we are teaching, research we are conducting, and administrative work we are responsible for, Graduate Assistants United (GAU) is still fighting to bring you a fair contract. We will be bargaining with the university team tomorrow at 2pm. Our end goal is to gain a good, mutually acceptable contract for our members, who are integral to the smooth operation of the university. A good contract will ensure that SIUC is an attractive and sought after place to come for graduate students. Everyone benefits from a contract — not just graduate assistants but the university community as a whole. Included in a “good” contract should be:

• Provisions for adequate health care by the university committing to follow the new guidelines set out under the Patient Affordable Health Care Act. The biggest change to our health care plan under these regulations would be the removal of the year wait for coverage of preexisting conditions.
• Relief from the skyrocketing fees at SIUC. Fees over the last ten years have tripled and they are still going up. GAU is asking for a fee freeze, not a fee reduction as the University of Illinois-Chicago did, but a freeze at the 2010-2011 levels.
• Assistants shall not be used to replace permanent workers and/or used as strike breakers under the “other duties” clause
• GAU partnership with the administration expressed in the form of a reasonable fair share agreement that legitimizes graduate assistant solidarity and power; all graduate assistants pay a fair share fee for the cost of union representation.
• A ratified agreement effective July 1, 2010.

A “strike watch” means conditions are favorable for a strike for GAU and our sister unions, the Association of Civil Service Employees, the Faculty Association, and the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association. The administration can solve this crisis today by settling our contracts.

Make your voice heard by joining GAU!

In solidarity,
Kristi Brownfield
Vice-President for Communications