GEO returned to the table Friday March 20 after a long wait to accommodate the administration's schedule. This was our first session with Commissioner Rosa Tiscareno from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) serving as a mediator. This meant a large amount of the sessions was going over expectations and the commissioner speaking with both caucuses to get a feel for the status of bargaining. However, both of us came with proposals.
GEO has many proposals on our side, so we held a preliminary caucus the prior Monday we called Bargaining 21.5. This let us pass Discipline and Dismissal, Expenses, Training, Additional Employment, Non-Discrimination and Anti Harassment, and No Strike/No Lockout. There were no major changes to our previous passes other than some minor stepdowns and small clarifications we included after problems were brought to our attention by members.
The university returned the trio of Wages, Healthcare, and Appointment Terms (where our fee waiver proposals are). The proposals did not inspire confidence. THey showed no willingness to compromise in either health care or appointment terms, keeping things status quo other than the increase in the CampusCare fee. While, they did increase their insulting wage offer from a 1% raise to 2% and said they continue to look into bimonthly payments, this wage is not sufficient to support graduate workers and does not reflect the value we bring to the university.
It is becoming clearer that the university needs some help to understand that this university does not work without us. We need your help to convince them of the value of all of our labor. We also hope our mediator can help them to understand this in our upcoming sessions on April 3, April 10, and April 17 from 11AM-3PM.