Bargaining Session #2 - Summary

We packed the room AGAIN!

At Session #2, 128 GEO members showed up, and many actively participated in the in-person and online Slack caucus!

What happened at the session?

The University’s bargaining team (BT) asked many questions about GEO’s proposal. While we made good progress, the University’s BT said they have more questions to ask at Session #3.

The questions mainly focused on hypothetical situations rather than addressing GEO’s key point that grad workers’ deserve dignity, financial wellbeing, protection, and respect. GEO’s responses to the questions were thorough, reiterating that the proposal was crafted based on feedback from grad workers about their real-life work experiences.

The University’s BT pushed back on several topics. Here are two examples:

• The University’s BT challenged our proposed definition of harassment, which is meant to extend protections to all graduate workers. Our definition is based on specific cases of supervisor bullying and abuse that could not be grieved based on the current language.

• Our proposal addressing overwork of grad workers also received pushback, but the University’s BT agreed that this section needs revision following the inclusion of RAs. We expect to continue discussing this issue at future meetings.

A common thread throughout the questions was that aspects of the proposal address "pre-employment," which the University’s BT suggested is a permissive topic.

ℹ️ Permissive topics are topics which both sides can discuss but neither side is required to do so. 

What about the University’s ground rules proposal from last session?

GEO’s BT did not respond to the University’s ground rules proposal (which is a permissive topic), but they did ask clarifying questions about it. The University’s BT revoked two points from their ground rules proposal:

1. limiting the number of participants and

2. access to sign-in information.

What now?

We hope to see you at the next session, which is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in the Illini Union Ballroom.

We expect the Admin to bring their first non-economic counter proposal and address more questions.

The Slack #caucus chat popped off this session! 🎉 Let’s keep up the energy!

Email GEO@uigeo.org to join the GEO Slack.