Hail to the victors!  We have a tentative agreement.  Here is the bargaining team’s summary.  

Dear GEO members and supporters,

Due to our successful walkout today, which shut down activity across
campus, the Administration asked to reenter bargaining this afternoon
in the interest of avoiding a second day. Following a marathon session
of negotiating, at 11:42pm Tuesday night we reached a tentative
agreement on a new contract.

Because of this progress, the GEO Bargaining Team, empowered by
stewards, activists, strike captains, and picketers has CALLED OFF the
second day of the walkout Wednesday.

This is a HISTORIC contract that shows the power of organized labor.
The administration has never been willing to bargain with us during a
walkout before.  They were also willing to engage us on particular
issues on which they were previously unwilling to talk.  We made huge
progress in this round of bargaining, and it is all due to the power of
our members and the support of other unions and workers supporting our
issues.  Some highlights include:

SALARIES: A combination of percentage and lump sum increases
totaling 13.6% (only a percentage point less than our strike platform
proposal). Salaries will increase 6.2% in the first year and 3.5% in
the next two years. In the final year of the contract, a 0.5 GSI will
make $17,395 for two semesters’ work. 

LOW FRACTIONS: Since  bargaining began, GEO membership voiced strong concern for the need to address the problems faced by those working the fewest hours and having the toughest time getting by. This contract includes several historic
achievements for low-fraction employees that GEO has been working
towards for decades. ALL of us will now receive zero-premium health
insurance. Low fractions will finally receive an equal hourly wage for
their work. And all those working 7.5 hours or more per week will now
receive FULL tuition waivers.

MENTAL HEALTH CARE: GEO members made it very clear that the
University should take mental health care issues seriously. The
administration has agreed to move forward by either increasing the cap
on mental health office visits from 25 to 30, or by establishing a
$30,000 pool to pay for those who max out their visits. GEO and the
administration will meet to decide on the optimal approach.

PARENTS’ ISSUES: We continued moving toward ensuring access
for student parents with increased child care subsidies and a new
parental leave policy that ensures 6 paid weeks of maternity leave.

POSTING: We made significant progress in our efforts to make
it easier for grads to find open GSI and GSSA positions away from their
home department. From now on, we will be able to subscribe to a
listserv to which all available positions will be posted (and
unsubscribe when you get one).

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR EMPLOYEES WITH DISABILITIES: Through this contract campaign, we’ve raised awareness in the union and across the University about the issues faced by employees with disabilities. While we were unable to persuade the administration to immediately address these employees’ needs, we have put a process in place which will facilitate continued progress. Next year, GEO and the administration
will jointly hire a GSSA whose projects will include working with employers with  mployees to address the barriers they face at this institution. Look for more action ahead as we continue to work with all of those across campus who are joining together to make this a truly accessible university.

The tentative agreement will be presented to the GEO membership at our
March 31 Membership Meeting and sent for ratification by the entire
membership.  Questions and details about the contract will be addressed
there.

As a union, we offer our heartfelt thanks to all the supporters who
played a key role in making these historic gains possible: construction
workers who took a day’s pay cut to stand in solidarity with us;
students who marched on the picket lines; LEO members and other faculty
who cancelled classes and respected our picket lines; the great cooks
from the Wobbly Kitchen who fed us; and the union brothers and sisters
from around the country who sent in faxes and letters of support, and
joined us in our efforts today.

In solidarity,
Colleen Woods
GEO Lead Negotiator

Helen Ho

GEO President

After a long day on the picket lines, our union members can use a beer. GEO has booked the Taproom at Arbor Brewing Company. The festivities begin at 5:00 and end at 11:00.

Also, we are back at the bargaining table today, and hopefully we’ll make some progress. We’ll have a bargaining update around 8:00pm, also at Arbor Brewing. Get your news, get a beer, put in your two cents about bargaining.

Over 600 people showed up to walk the picket lines! Although SNRE is a small department, we are mighty! Many of our GSIs showed up to picket. Perhaps not coincidentally, the administration called us back into bargaining today.

We are also getting some press outside the Michigan Daily. The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a story on the walk out, as did the Detroit Free Press, and The Ann Arbor News. Even Michigan Public Radio is in on the act.

After we put across our proposals, the administration had no counter offers. Although GEO was prepared to bargain until midnight, they went home about an hour and a half after we put forth our package, around 9:00pm.  Sleep tight, administration. We’ll see you on the picket line tomorrow.

Come to the Operation Failsafe meeting 7:00 pm. Come talk about the proposals made today by the administration.

Today the administration offered us this package:

• 4.89% first year, 3% in years 2 and 3
• No-premium health care for all fractions
• Wage parity for lowest fractions (0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2)

We are countering with this package:

• Take summer bridge pay off the table
• 52 visits for mental health care, instead of full parity
  
• Salary proposal remains the same ($781 +3% Cost of Living Adjustment, 3% in year 2 and 3)

Come discuss!

Bargaining started this afternoon and could potentially go till midnight to try and prevent the walkout.

The administration is clearly concerned about the job action, and since negotiations started a few hours ago they’ve pushed a lot of paper across the table. It looks like more substantial proposals today than in all the previous sessions since December, combined. There are some considerable concessions on offer, including on low-fraction healthcare and hourly wage parity.

GEO wants people to come to the negotiations pronto, so they can weight their options in caucus, and again at this evening’s failsafe meeting. Here’s what Stephen Sparks has to say:

Hey everyone,

We’re having a discussion about what people’s bottom lines are at the moment given the movement at the table. they’ve increased the ‘competitive adjustment’ in the first year to a total of a 4.89% increase. they’ve proposed health care benefits to ALL employees, including low fractions. and a new wage parity chart that particularly helps out low fractions. the discussions are continuing. we’re having a ‘fail-safe’ meeting tonight at 7 in the GEO office at 330 E. Liberty St, 3rd floor. COME TO MASON 2306 to join the conversation, and COME to the fail-safe meeting at the office!!!

in solidarity,
stephen

GSIs want both a fair contract and a fiscally responsible institution. Fortunately, we can have both! Below are the costs of some of the items on the table. Remember that we have a $7 billion dollar endowment to work from, and that the University of Michigan’s general fund is $1.3 Billion. The total cost of GSI salaries per year is $24 million, or 1.8% of the general fund. Basically, we’re a bargain!

Some issues on the table and their cost:

Full Health care for GSIs teaching at fractions above 0.2	$270,000 over the life of the 3 year contract
Wage Parity for low fraction employees	$60,000 per year
Last year’s 3% raise	$800,000

Some things GEO already conceded, and we will NOT be getting:

Full Health care for GSIs teaching at fractions below 0.2	$135,000 over the life of the 3 year contract
Dental Coverage II	$950,000 per year
Vision Coverage	$600,000 per year

Here is the latest on contract negotiations. The good news:

• parental leave is settled at 6 weeks!
• Low fraction employees (0.2 and above) can have health care, contingent on other proposals

The Bad news:

• The administration is “packaging” certain proposals together, meaning that we can’t pick and choose what we want.
• Low fraction health care is part of one of these packages

To see the status of all our bargaining issues as of March 21st, click on the link below for our handy bargaining cheat sheet. Look smart in front of your friends when they ask you about the negotiatons!

march 20th bargaining update

To: GEO members!

THANKS to the awesome momentum that has been building over the course of the week due to the hard work of GEO members, today in bargaining we had movement at the table!

This is what happened: GEO received important proposals on both salaries and benefits from the administration’s bargaining team. On salaries,their wage proposal remains at 3% for 3 years. (3, 3, 3) the admin. However, their proposal included a 150 dollar “competitive adjustment” addition to the first year of our contract—which would essentially bring the first year to 3.9%—still well short of the 9% ask set by the strike proposal. They did not move on wage parity.

On benefits the administration did offer to extend full health care to members working at .20 (our current contract provides full health care coverage for .25 and above). This is a central issue for employees working at lower-fractions and potentially a big win for our union.

Importantly,the administration’s bargaining team is packaging their proposals so that if we want to accept one of their proposals it is necessarily tied to all of the other proposals in the package. In other words…..at this stage in bargaining nothing is guaranteed until we sign a final agreement. As membership we need to continue to have conversations about priorities and these will happen during caucus sessions, stewards meetings, and the meeting on monday the 24th at the GEO office at 7pm.

This is a very important thing to keep in mind—what it essentially means is that we need to keep the pressure on the University. The threat of a walkout, today’s rally, and the turnout at bargaining are examples of the kinds of pressure that we need to continue to exert to have the administration keep moving.

Thanks to EVERYONE who turned out to the rally and bargaining today…..let’s keep the momentum going and win strong contract!
Solidarity,

Colleen Woods
Lead Negotiator

Here’s a .pdf cheat sheet to the union’s current contract proposals, and the administration’s response in each case.
Strike Platform Issues Status March 19 2008

Recommended: every time you read “no movement” replace with “a poke in the eye with a sharp stick” for full effect.

Note that this does not reflect the administration’s new proposals from the rally-day bargaining on the 21st, discussed in negotiator Colleen’s update above.