WE’RE WINNING! GEO reached a tentative agreement on seven articles! Summary Bargaining Session #20
What happened at the bargaining session?
With the theme “NEW YEAR, NEW CONTRACT,” victory is OURS! During our 20th bargaining session we managed to sign two tentative agreements in seven sections (articles) which will become part of our new contract: Tuition Waivers, Recognition, Non Discrimination, Grievance Procedure, Use of University Resources, Leaves and Holidays, and No Strike/No Lockout. Our lead negotiators Chelsea Birchmier (Psychology) and Sam Froiland (History) negotiated several gains including medical condition as a protected category, improved immigration leave protections, paid parental leave for up to 6 weeks, unprecedented additional days for bereavement leave and protecting grad workers’ ability to choose the grievance procedure for discrimination. Read more below to find out more, what’s next and how you can get involved. Listen to the episode below to learn about what tentative agreement is and much more!
What did WE win?
We, OUR Union, want to win the fair contract that we all need in the most expeditious and effective way possible. Food prices increased 10% in December according to the Consumer Price Index and the longer we are without a contract the harder our conditions will be. We achieved and will continue to achieve the leverage and power to advance negotiations by GEO members showing up consistently to bargaining sessions and making our voices heard. The highlights of what we won include:
Non Discrimination:
The inclusion of medical condition as a protected category.
Leaves and Holidays:
6 weeks of paid parental leave.
An increase from 3 days to 5 days paid bereavement leave for close relatives and loved ones.
Up to 3 days (with supervisor request) of paid bereavement leave for distant relatives and gender neutral language— and according to admin, no other Union on Campus has this leave of up to 3 days paid bereavement leave for distant relatives.
A process through which graduate employees can request paid time off for religious observances.
Strengthened immigration leave policy such that the university must make a good faith effort to place a grad worker in the same assistantship they were hired for when experiencing immigration-related delays in travel.
Tuition Waivers:
Continuing our 20-year-long struggle, we managed to protect the guaranteed tuition waivers and access to public education that we had won in the previous bargaining cycle of 2018.
Grievance procedures:
Maintained the integrity of our ability to grieve discrimination and harassment in our contract except in cases of Title IX, sexual misconduct policy, and imminent safety violations.
Expanded the number of days to submit a grievance when a graduate worker experiences a contract violation.
No Strike/No Lockout
Addition of no lockout to the existing no strike clause, which forbids the university from locking out grad workers from our offices and Illinois accounts during a labor dispute.
If you would like to read the tentative agreements in full, attend an upcoming GEO event or email barg@uigeo.org to schedule a time with ben from Bargaining Team to view the agreement in the GEO office.
Although we celebrate the victory we accomplished last night, the fact that we waited 10 months for this accomplishment shows that we need a third party to mediate between us and admin to expedite bargaining. Mediation is a form of dispute resolution using a neutral third party; mediators are generally called in late in the bargaining process to help facilitate agreement. Unfortunately, yesterday was the second time admin refused to agree to bring in a mediator.
Some of the members of the GEO Bargaining Team, from left to right, Arthur Paganini (Mechanical Engineering), Dante Dabaghian (Law), Sam Froiland (History), Aaron Councilman (Computer Science), Karla Sanabria Véaz (Social Work), Chelsea Birchmier (Psychology), ben wallis (History), Abhishek Kodumagulla (Physics), Nachiketa Adhikari (Math)
“When they agreed to three days of leave instead of one, it struck me that [admin] can be inventive, they can think with us about these things, when they tell us no that’s not the truth. They don’t refuse to bargain with us because they can’t, they refuse because they don’t want to.” —Sharayah, GEO member
What happens next?
Our next bargaining session is on Friday, February 3rd, 12:45-5:30 PM at Illinois Union rooms A & B. Bring a friend! Sign up for a role here: https://tinyurl.com/GEOBARGROLES
Check the following flyer for all the dates of upcoming bargaining sessions:
[image description: light purple background with megaphone on top right and GEO logo on top left. Middle top title reads “FEBRUARY BARGAINING SESSIONS” in black. The next three respective lines read “SESSION #21 3RD/2/2023 12:45PM-5:30PM Illini Union Rooms A&B; SESSION #22 10TH/2/2023 12:45PM-5:30PM Illini Union Ballroom; SESSION #23 16TH/2/2023 10:45PM-3:30PM Illini Union Ballroom.” Below, center, black text reading “This is it! We cannot WIN without YOU showing up for OUR grad community. The University only works because we do!” At the bottom small writing in black reads “Childcare, food & coffee provided.”]
GEO will hold a Bargaining Information Meeting Thursday, February 2nd, 6-8 PM in Siebel Center for Computer Science 1404. Dinner will be provided. Open to all Graduate Students.
(image description: Dark blue background, yellow GEO logo at the center top. Below the logo “Graduate Employees’ Organization” in white. The title of the flyer in boldened white “Bargaining Information Meeting Open to all Graduate Students”. Underneath it “Thursday, February 2nd 6-8pm”. The location is “Siebel Center for Computer Science 1404 Dinner Provided”. A paragraph at the center bottom in white reads “Get information on bargaining, as Bargaining Team questions and share input and ideas. Small groups will be facililted in several languages including: Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian. You do not have to be a GEO member to attend”. The bottom left has a QR code and next to it on the right “Scan QR code for for to ask bargaining questions”.]
Our next GMM is February 7th, 6:15PM-7:45PM at Room 4035 of the Campus Instructional Facility. The topics under discussion are bargaining strategy and communications.
[image description: Blue, white and Yellow background. Black GEO logo on the top right. At the center in black “GENERAL MEMEBRSHIP MEETING” and below it in yellow “NEW YEAR! NEW CONTRACT!”. The middle section reads “TUESDAY - FEBRUARY 7TH 2023 6:15-7:45 PM IN-PERSON”. The lower mid section reads “Room 4035 Campus Instructional Facility, Urbana, 61801” And below that in yellow “TOPICS: BARGAINING CAMPAIGNS & BARGAINING UPDATES”. At the bottom reads “To submit more topics fill out https://tinyurl.com/GMMComment Questions? Email Karla and Nachiketa at geo@uigeo.org”.]
New Episode of After Bargaining
Tune in and give a listen to Graduate Employees' Organization and their success on the 20th bargaining session. Chelsea and Sam, the lead negotiators, join the After Bargaining podcast to share why this session was a success. The GEO signed seven tentative agreements and the leads provide intricate details of what these agreements are and what they mean to graduate workers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Share the episode with your friend! Listen here! or here: https://anchor.fm/after-bargaining
[image description: Black and white. Sam (left) and Chelsea (right) standing next to each other, smiling]
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org