November 3rd, 2016 Newsletter

BARGAINING AND GMM UPDATES

The first General Membership Meeting (GMM) of the 2016-17 academic year was held Wednesday, Nov. 2.

We discussed our platform as it currently stands, which will serve as our starting point for negotiations. The University’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiative is an opportunity for us to work for just and equitable employment. We can do that through our bargaining platform in two ways: (1) by securing compensation for the work that grads (among others) do in service of DEI and (2) by ensuring that graduate education and employment are as accessible as possible to everyone.

The bulk of our platform is our plan for (2), i.e. our DEI Strategic Plan for Graduate Employment. That’s clear in the case of issues pertaining to parents, international employees, trans folks, etc. — but it also applies to “bread and butter” issues, since the university must pay a living wage and offer adequate benefits in order to be accessible to those without family wealth to fall back on.

At the meeting, we discussed
- Union Security: starting next year, GEO will be affected by Michigan law that prohibits requiring nonmembers to pay a fair share towards the cost of union representation. We voted on the best way to structure the membership decision in the future so as to encourage all GSIs and GSSAs to become members and keep the union strong and financially stable.
- Work Hours: we discussed the possibility of having harder caps for hours worked weekly than the current contract language allows for. Several members spoke powerfully about the impact on international students whose visas limit the number of hours they can work, and a working group has formed to make a recommendation at our next GMM on December 2. If you care about this issue and would like to volunteer your time working on it, contact Dominic at dominic@geo3550.org.

ELECTIONS UPDATE

The UM Board of Regents is the final authority that will sign off on the contract we negotiate this year. Two Regents who’ve been reliable allies to GEO, Larry Deitch and Denise Ilitch, are up for reelection.
Michigan state government has been pretty hostile to labor in the past few years, including targeting Detroit teachers with harsh penalties when they held a sickout to protest the poor condition of their schools. This election is an opportunity to put a stop to those attacks and give ourselves the breathing room we need to make progress. The Huron Valley Area Labor Federation has a list of endorsements for labor-friendly candidates, which you can check out at https://hvclc.org/fall-2016-endorsements/

GEO EVENTS

With Election Day approaching, area canvassing efforts have entered the get-out-the-vote stage. Come out and knock doors with us to elect labor-friendly candidates.
Several canvassing shifts are scheduled every day of the week, up to and including Election Day. Conversations would involve asking likely supporters about their voting plans, checking their polling locations, ensuring they have transportation, etc. We’d like to turn out as many people as we can, for as many shifts as we can! Here are three different ways you can sign up:-Online link:
-Paper: There are paper versions of the online form in the GEO Office (339 E. Liberty St, Suite 340). You can fill one out and turn it in to a GEO staff member.
-Text: Text ‘Zone3’ (must be one word, no spaces) to 94502 and you will receive a list of the dates and times for which you can sign up.

-Contact Rebecca Thomas (renicholet@gmail.com)

Email Jesse Holloway (solidarity@geo3550.org) if you want to join the Solidarity and Political Action Committee
Canvassing effort is stationed out of the LiUNA office, 3080 Platt Rd, Ann Arbor, MI, 48108

We’ll meet at the Diag to post flyers for the following week’s rally as far and wide as we can. We’re pulling out all the stops to turn out as many people as possible to the rally. Let’s stand together!
Contact: marjorie.g.herbert@gmail.com for more information.

The bargaining team is entering its first bargaining session with the University in less than two weeks. We will meet at the Diag at 12:30, hear a few speeches, then march the team over to Palmer Commons for their first bargaining session. Wear your GEO t-shirt! This is a great way to show support for your fellow graduate colleagues, who make up the team and who are committed to volunteering many hours of their time to negotiate our contract.

Wednesday, Nov. 16. 6pm: Stewards’ Council Meeting.
- Every department at the University needs at least one steward to relay GEO news to their colleagues and to represent their department’s concerns at biweekly stewards council meetings; however, many departments are underrepresented at GEO!
- Contact: Kimberly Daley at headstew@geo3550.org to find out if your department has a steward. Meeting held in the GEO office, 339 E. Liberty Ave, Suite 340.

LET’S MEET IN COMMITTEE

Grievance Committee: definition: these member-volunteers manage all grievances filed by GSIs who are having problems with their employment. Contact: grrrchair@geo3550.org

Organizing Committee: definition: this committee is in charge of communicating with the membership, to hear their concerns and make sure that as many members as possible feel engaged and active with the union. Contact: occhair@geo3550.org.

OUR FRIENDS

GRIN (Graduate Rackham International) is a new organization providing social events, mentoring, professional development, and individual and collective advocacy for international graduate students. They’ve got several events coming up, including a career panel and a mental health workshop, and you can check them out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/um.grin/

IN THE NEWS

GEO Stands in Solidarity with Standing Rock. GEO joins our graduate worker friends and colleagues across the US and Canada in calling on the AFL-CIO to rescind its support of the Dakota Access Pipeline. http://www.thecgeu.org/2016/10/grad-labor-movement-stands-in-solidarity-with-standing-rock/

AFT Welcomes Princeton Grad Union. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), GEO’s parent union, welcomed the union representing graduate student workers at Princeton University as an affiliate, as it gains momentum across the U.S. http://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-welcomes-princeton-grad-workers-union-momentum-grows.

Thanks for Reading!

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