Bargaining Session #9 - Summary
Days working without a contract: 30!
What does this mean? When the contract expires, its rules stay in effect so long as we are in negotiations. This means that contract wages will not increase until a new contract is in place. The new contract only applies once the entire contract is agreed upon and members vote to accept it.
On Thursday, September 10th, 119 members attended the ninth bargaining session.
The university administration and GEO’s Bargaining Team (BT) discussed 13 total articles, ending in greater shared understanding and productive movement on both sides.GEO’s BT brought three packages:
Package One: Nondiscrimination Statement and Miscellaneous Provisions (which includes use of university resources, union rights, notifying the union of immigration matters, inappropriate workplace behavior, and artificial intelligence)
Package Two: Academic Freedoms and Intellectual Property & Authorship
Package Three: Expenses, Wages, Fee Waivers, Tuition Waivers, and Summer Automatic Waivers
The university administration brought two package proposals:
Package One: Appointment Terms, Distribution of Information, and Health and Safety
Package Two: Orientation and Training
During the four-hour session, we heard one testimonial from a grad worker who is no longer in their program because they faced such pervasive bullying. Both bargaining teams established some mutual understanding of how to define inappropriate workplace behavior (which we called “bullying” in previous proposals) and the process for resolving the issue.
Then, two members presented impactful testimonials about their economic needs, the inadequacy of our health insurance coverage, and the challenges of working under the current intellectual property and authorship policies of the university.
Both members expressed that Admin’s current proposal hinders their ability do their best teaching and work.
As the session wrapped up, GEO’s BT brought an economic proposal that made some movement but held to the strongly felt priorities of members: financial wellbeing, protections, and respect.
As of this bargaining session, over 500 unique GEO members have attended bargaining since the start of bargaining in April.
Come out to Bargaining Session #10 on Thursday, September 24 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in room 314A in the Illini Union.
Stay tuned for all passed contracts being posted on the GEO bargaining portal
Bargaining Q & A
q: Why does geo try to get the administration’s intentions on the record?
A: After the final agreement is ratified, both sides can refer to what was said “on the record” at the bargaining table to guide how we interpret the contract. When contract violations are discussed (grievances), we can use these on-the-record statements in our arguments. This is also why notetakers are essential.
q: Why are we spending so much time on some of these articles when I’m most interested in wages?
A: Once mandatory subjects of bargaining like wages, healthcare, benefits, and hours of work are settled, negotiations are essentially done. This is why we have to begin with articles like nondiscrimination, orientations, distribution of information, and more early in bargaining so they don’t get completely left out. In the meantime, we can still make progress toward economic items like we did in this session.
Q: What are package proposals and why do we pass them?
A: Packages allow each side to “package” multiple items together and require that they all be accepted, or none will be accepted. This allows both sides to propose items that are dependent on accepting other items.
