Where’s the contract?
Hi GEU folks! You may be wondering, where is the new Graduate Assistant contract? As you may know our previous contract expired on June 30th. Well, contract bargaining is continuing into the summer as GEU negotiates at the table with admin for GA rights and support.
We’ve had minor successes with finding agreement with a couple articles, but major issues such as healthcare, union information rights, and reappointment guarantees are stalled, with admin largely rejecting our positions while offering nothing in return. They say:
No to healthcare – because helping GAs would be “inequitable.” They don’t plan to help anyone else, after all.
No to childcare – the administration outright refuses to negotiate on childcare benefits, forcing us to consider legal action to continue fighting for GAs with dependents.
No to union rights – if union leaders can’t reach our bargaining unit, we can’t help our bargaining unit. PSU refuses to comply with state law by providing member contact information.
If PSU won’t negotiate, what’s to be done?
Introducing the Contract Action Team!
It’s time to put more pressure on PSU away from the bargaining table. We’ve made our case for better treatment, but PSU’s administration doesn’t care about the needs of GAs – they’ll only respect our strength, and our strength is our members. It’s time for member action!
So our Grievance Officer emeritus, Sean Anderson, has stepped up to organize a new Contract Action Team (CAT). You’ll be hearing from us in these updates with calls to action: simple things that you can do to help show the administration we mean business. As much or as little as you can commit to, remember that the CAT is you.
Call to Action
First things first: please fill out our contract action availability form, found here: [Link], so that the CAT leadership can plan events for maximum pressure.
Then, mark your calendar for our first event: letter writing on July 20th in the GEU office. Enjoy some donuts and coffee while explaining to the university exactly why you care about our priority issues. We’ll handle postage! Or if you can’t make it, stay tuned, remote options will be announced soon. And of course, if you can attend bargaining sessions, come support your bargaining team first-hand.
The next session is on July 11th starting at 11 am. Join us at the zoom link: https://pdx.zoom.us/j/89575632910
