Bargaining Update, May 12th

GEU Communications

Shout out and special thanks to all the folks who attending the bargaining session last Friday, including our allies from PSUFA and AAUP! We love seeing our members and our PSU community allies. We have another session on Friday, May 19th from 9am – 4pm.

After months of work and twenty (20) counter proposals, we finished appointments! This is a huge milestone! Along with appointments, we tentatively agreed on workload, summer session, and defined graduate assistants. Here are a few gains received:

Appointments:  

  • Notice of Appointment:
    • All GAs will receive a notice of appointment via email. Folks on an academic year appointment will receive their appointment notice four (4) weeks in advance of the term and most GAs who are on term appointments will receive theirs at least two (2) weeks in advance. This is a HUGE win!
    • These will include title, length of appointment, salary per month, FTE (Full-Time Equivalency), estimated working hours per month, tuition remission per term, any student fees paid by the employing unit, and any benefits. These letters will also include estimates of student fees and health insurance premiums GAs will be required to pay.

 

  • Work Assignment Notice:

 

    • All GAs will also be provided a Work Assignment Notice, which describes work duties, expected preparation, and any required trainings or orientations.
    • If the information is not ready at the time of their appointment notice, most GAs will receive this at least two (2) weeks before the start of the term.
    • A GTA will be listed as the instructor of record if they have a direct role and primary responsibility for delivery of instruction and responsibility or shared responsibility for assessing students for a final grade. GAs who are instructor of record will receive these at least four (4) weeks prior to the term.
  • GPA requirements will be set by each employee’s academic program, not their employer.
  • For work assignments that can reasonably be expected to continue, GAs should be appointed for an academic year or twelve (12) months!  Currently, many GAs are appointed term-by-term for several consecutive terms.
  • If a GA is not renewed, then they may contact their hiring supervisor to discuss whether other employment opportunity exists, who is required to respond within five (5) working days.
  • The University also agreed to monitor appointments and use of single term appointments.

Work Load:

  • GAs will not be required to work more hours than specified in their notice of appointment.
  • If a GA is working over their paid hours, the GA may request a meeting with their assigned faculty member or supervisor. This will lead to one or more of three options:
    • Identifying ways for the GA to accomplish the work within the assigned FTE, and/or
    • Make changes to the required work duties without lowering assigned FTE or hourly pay rate, and/or
    • Change the assigned FTE without reducing the hourly pay rate.

Summer Session:

  • GAs may be appointed for summer term for up to 1.0 FTE.

Stay tuned to read the full tentative agreement for appointment, workload, summer session and to find definitions. During this session, we also agreed on language for health and safety, as well as discipline and discharge.