Mission

The GEO works to find common ground among all graduate employees, regardless of race, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, citizenship status, department, job category, or membership in the union. Membership in the GEO is, and will remain, voluntary. The GEO strives to be inclusive and open to all graduate employees, operate along democratic principles, act always in the best interests of graduate employees, and act responsibly toward the entire university community.

What We FIGHT for as a Union

By bargaining with the university administration in good faith, toward mutually agreeable improvements to employment policies and benefits for graduate employees, we hope to achieve the following:

• Fair Grievance Procedure: GEO advocates for written, transparent processes for addressing employment problems. The procedure should be multi-step, protect employees from retaliation, give employees the option of union representation, and include the right to appeal to a neutral arbitrator to make binding decisions.

• Fair Workload: GEO and the university administration should cooperate in addressing the problem of unreasonable workloads and move toward greater consistency of workloads across departments. Unpaid job duties should be phased out. However, the union does not seek to limit the right of graduate employees to choose how and when they work - we only strive to rectify problems of overwork if they arise.

• Accessible Health Care: We believe that health care is a right, not a privilege. The GEO and the University should work together to improve health care conditions so that it more closely serves the needs of the graduate employees, and includes things such as affordable plans for spouses, dependents, domestic partners, and timeline reimbursements.

• Support for International Employees: The GEO advocates for policies that address specific employment concerns of international graduate workers. The union and the university administration should work together to find timely and practical responses to rules that limit international students to 50% appointments and therefore makes pay increases difficult or limit the types of appointments non-citizens can take.

• Stipends: The University should continue improving the stipends of all graduate employees both by increasing the minimum stipend and guaranteeing regular cost-of-living adjustments. The university should ensure that no employee receives a pay cut or freeze in order to fund pay increases for others. The union will not seek pay caps or limits on departments’ ability to offer higher salaries.

• Good and Safe Work Environments: Every graduate employee deserves a workplace that is safe, respectful, and free from harassment or discrimination. Recognizing that, the GEO will work to strengthen and enforce university policies against discrimination and sexual harassment. We also advocate for ensuring protections against unsafe or hazardous job conditions as well as compliance with workplace safety laws across departments.

• Tuition Waivers: The University should restore full tuition waivers for all graduate employees regardless of program status. Employees with less than 25% FTE appointments should receive partial waivers. Graduate hourly employees whose work exceeds 10 hours a week on average should receive a full waiver.

• Paid Training: Graduate employees new to an assistantship should receive paid job training. If a graduate employee’s job description includes work in hazardous settings (which include, e.g., exposure to chemical, radiation, or biological hazards), the employee should be paid to attend formal safety training programs.

• Family Support: The GEO is committed to making affordable child care a goal of the University and supports University subsidized child care for all employees. The GEO and the University administration should work together to establish a feasible child care plan for graduate employees with children.
  

Our History