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Still no firm proposals from PSU

Hi GEU folks! Let’s dig into what’s going on in bargaining. We’re getting into the big issues today: healthcare, childcare, and assistance with DACA and visa fees. Three crucial issues, which happen to live in the same part of the contract: Article 21. You’ll be hearing about Article 21 a lot!

After over a month with no reply from PSU, it’s apparent their team had not even looked at our last proposal for article 21. They had even forgotten that the GEU team had presented it! Once PSU had finally reviewed the proposal, they suggested a vague “creative solution” rather than consider it. Details are sparse, but here’s the gist: still no healthcare support, still no childcare support, still no fee assistance… but instead, a single pool of money to use as an assistance fund for GAs with acute needs. Rolling all of these important and unique issues into a single blanket fund? Acute solutions for chronic needs? Consider us skeptical.

We’ll need to see the details, but there’s likely a long way to go in these negotiations. Perhaps this can be the start of a more fruitful conversation on all of the issues. Especially if all GAs stand up now to let PSU know how important the issues are for us.

Today in bargaining we made our case about healthcare. The verdict: PSU’s student health plan is bad! We compared it to its equivalent at University of Oregon and OSU, and it is significantly worse in every dimension. Our premiums are up to 11 times higher than the competition, and our out-of-pocket maximum up to 7 times higher. We don’t get dental or eyecare, or options to buy insurance for our dependents.

TL;DR – we pay much more, for much less health coverage. For details, take a look at our slides HERE

We have proposed that PSU fully subsidize our plan, and collaborate with GEU to select better plan options for future years, with more and better coverage. Now we wait for a response! Keep coming to observe our sessions every Monday from 12-3pm and stay up to date! Check your email for the link!

Other topics

We also heard from Becca Lawrence, incoming Assistant VP for Equity and Compliance, about some of the challenges of dealing with equity complaints and investigations. Welcome to PSU, Becca! We appreciated hearing from you. Also, special thank you to our speaker on Healthcare, Glenn! We appreciate you so much!

Next week we will present our arguments about childcare! Join us!

At about 2:30am on Saturday morning, the GEU and PSU bargaining teams signed an outline of a complete economic agreement.

Here’s the gist:

• 3-year contract, no reopeners

• $184 one-time bonus for all GAs in the Spring, (equals 40% fee remission, before taxes).

• Annual raises for everyone, based on the Portland-Vancouver-Salem CPIU, with a floor of 1.5% and a ceiling of 3.5% (same deal AAUP has)

• 0.3 minimum FTE starting in the Fall, up from the current 0.15.

• Increase to minimum hourly rate of 5.64% this summer, 3.33% in Fall 2018, 3.22% in Fall 2019, 3.19% in Fall 2020.  This (plus the new minimum FTE) takes the minimum monthly salary from $355/month now to $825/month in Fall 2020.

• Mandatory fee subsidies (excluding matriculation fee) for all GAs at 45% starting Fall 2018, 60% starting Fall 2019, 80% starting Fall 2020

• Joint health insurance working group empowered to access census, claims data, write requests for proposals, etc., which will produce a report just in time to inform the next round of contract negotiations.

Although this contract is a compromise, there is a lot to be proud of in the work that we ALL did to create a contract that sees immediate monetary benefits for GAs. To put this first contract into context, CGE’s first contract in 2001 established (regarding economic issues) only a minimum salary rate and an annual $330 per GA per year for health insurance (for more info on CGE’s contract evolution, click here). In addition to establishing a minimum salary rate and a working group to do the leg work for future health care coverage, our contract includes a Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA), a minimum FTE, annual increases to the minimum salary rate, and a large percentage of fees remitted.

We’re working on an analysis of the total cost to PSU of the contract, and will send that information out when we have it.

Hey GMM friends, check out this cool tool:

Bargaining Impact Tool_GEU