Membership Bargaining Update: 8/15/22

Bargaining Weekly on Mondays 11 am – 3 pm: https://pdx.zoom.us/j/89575632910

Admin’s Healthcare Anti-proposal

Hey GEU folks! It’s that time of the week where we share disappointing news from the university administration. You may recall that last week, GEU proposed combining a small emergency fund with healthcare subsidies, making it PSU’s turn to make a counter-proposal.

Well, we have no proposal from PSU this week. What we do have is their assurance that they are absolutely not willing to give healthcare subsidies to GAs. Whatever is in their next proposal, it will not be the most straightforward means of giving employees health benefits.

Every week they offer a fresh excuse, but the real reason is simple: they would rather placate us with one-off benefits that they can retract or hold hostage later. We will not be placated. As the Fall term approaches, we are ready to fight for healthcare!

Multi-year Contracts

PSU continues to resist granting GAs employment stability in the form of a right to be reappointed. But, they have made some movement by offering that departments can voluntarily offer appointments longer than one year. This is not enough for GAs in the many departments that will not offer such appointments, but it is a start; negotiations continue.

Next week

All of the remaining articles are in PSU court, we will hear their counters next week and continue to push for needed GA benefits and rights! 

What you can do

In the past month, you wrote letters to President Percy. If your experience was anything like ours, all you got was a lousy, copy and paste email – so, let’s get louder. Sign our open letter calling on PSU to give GAs the benefits we deserve: Open Letter to President Percy

In the coming weeks, you will be hearing more from the Contract Action Team about in-person actions around the start of the Fall term. We will show PSU that we will not quietly accept the status quo. Stay engaged, stay hopeful, and stay mad.