Wage Bargaining: 3rd Session Summary
GEO members,
Tuesday morning, April 14th, the third negotiation session over GEO member wages for Academic Years 2020-21 and 2021-22 took place on Google Hangouts, with a second linked session on Jitsi for membership and caucus.
Key takeaways from the third session:
GEO stands on the principle that all workers deserve a living wage
The Administration argues that graduate employees only work enough hours to earn 37.5% of the living wage for a full-time worker, and their offer of 74.6% of a living wage is therefore generous.
The Administration does not think that we have a right to bargain the reappointment section of Article XIV, “Wages”
BT proposes to hold Bargaining Session #4 at the end of April
The date and time of the fourth bargaining session will be agreed upon by the GEO Bargaining Team and the Administration over email.
Information and Aid needed by your Bargaining Team
The Communications Committee needs help to make bargaining a transparent and successful process! Email commcomm@uigeo.org to volunteer for discrete tasks (i.e. social media posts, flyer design, GEO-L editing)
Share a testimonial about your own reasons for needing a living wage as a graduate worker with commcomm@uigeo.org
Testimonials can be written or recorded, Tweet-length or full paragraphs, and with or without photos.
Our next General Membership Meeting (GMM) will take place today, Wednesday, 4/15/20 5:30-7PM CT virtually over Google Hangouts. We will be discussing this bargaining session in more detail then, so please come if you have questions or want to get involved! Join us over Google Hangouts and see the Facebook event for more information.
Full Summary of Bargaining Session 3
Our Proposal: A living wage.
We proposed a minimum wage of $25,107 (with a 6% raise for those making above this minimum) for the first year, and a minimum wage of $26,613 (with a 6% raise for those making above this minimum) for the year after. This is commensurate with a living wage. Furthermore, our proposal includes a clause that all fee increases should be compensated for by equivalent raises. We need a living wage so that all of our members can survive. Many graduate workers are rent burdened and are in precarious situations. We need a living wage to fix this.
The Administration’s response: Living for 9 months, Scraping by for 3 months.
The Administration wants to only pay us enough to live for 9 months, not 12. Our position is that all graduate workers need a living wage, and that a living wage is universal: it is enough money to survive. The university hopes to present our position of a 12 months living wage as irrational; this ignores how common such arrangements are in education work. This is the standard for how K-12 teachers are paid, with a similar 9-month school year.
Further, it is our position that graduate labor provides much more value to the university than they give to us: tuition alone comprises ~20% of university revenue, and instruction cannot occur without graduate labor. The university wants us to split hairs and argue about hours and months; we want to make sure all of our members can live without undue burden.
The right to bargain wages
The Administration holds that we do not have the right to bargain wages above the minimum. Both the Bargaining Team and the Administration brought in testimony. Our testimony corroborated that the intent of the wage reopener was to bargain all wages. Their testimony said that the wage reopener is not about bargaining wages in general. Wages are a mandatory subject of bargaining, and it is our position that we have the right to negotiate for all wages.
If you are interested in learning more about the GEO wage re-reopener or would like to get involved, please attend the April GMM or email us at geo@uigeo.org.
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org