Bargaining resumed Tuesday, October 21st. GEO passed proposals for No Strike/No Lockout and Recognition. The No Strike/No Lockout clause is a legally required section which prevents workers from striking--but as our agreement has expired, passing this proposal does not stop GEO from going on strike during bargaining. With the Recognition proposal, we are fighting to get fellows and graduate hourlies included in the bargaining unit in order to protect more workers from exploitation, as well as protect the current bargaining unit from union busting. This can happen when regular TA/RA positions are switched to hourly positions, causing these to lose representation. The university returned proposals regarding Additional Employment, Labor–Management Meetings and Consultation, and Management Rights.
Unfortunately, they rejected proposals intended to allow bargaining unit members to use materials they create in outside employment and streamline the process for international students to get authorization to work outside the university in the case they are not employed on campus. The lack of movement or counter-proposals at a time when higher education as a whole is under attack and international students face an intense crackdown is immensely disappointing. We expect that the university will pass back our economic proposals regarding Wages, Healthcare, and Appointments, which will cover fees and 12 month contracts, in the coming weeks. Please join us at Bargaining Committee meetings Mondays at 5 if you have ideas regarding what should be in this contract, and please join us at the (virtual) bargaining table so we can show a strong, united front and push the university to give us what we are worth! RSVP for these events and more here.