Bargaining Session #1 - Summary

On Monday 4/6, over 150 GEO members attended our first full-contract bargaining session with the University! During the session, the University brought a ground rules proposal and GEO BT presented our contract proposal.

Ground rules are rules for engaging in bargaining. These rules are a permissive bargaining subject, which means that both sides can discuss them but neither side is required to do so. The University included three key proposed rules:

• To limit the number of session attendees on each side to 30, which would limit member participation.

• Document which GEO members attend bargaining.

• Limit GEO’s communication with our membership during bargaining by forbidding social media during sessions.

Because the rules are a permissive subject, GEO is not required to respond or agree to them.

The majority of the session consisted of BT’s presentation of our proposal, which rests on our three bargaining pillars: financial wellbeing, protections, and respect. The full proposal includes 43 pages, including wage increases and full fee waivers to ensure that grad workers can thrive, not just survive; protections for international workers, for our academic freedom, and against AI job erosion; and respect in the form of timely NOAs and reimbursements, overwork protections, and more.

What now?

At Session #2, the University plans to ask GEO’s BT questions about our proposal and expect to have a counterproposal on non-economic items at Session #3. Once Session #2 is scheduled, show up to demand a response to our proposal!

GEO members standing together with their fists up in solidarity