Today we concluded our second bargaining session for our contract extension and limited economic reopener on three topics: fee remission, minimum hourly rate, and cost of living adjustment.
After PSU’s disappointing initial proposal, GEU opened the day with the following counter proposal.
- 100% student fee remission — excluding matriculation fee from our first proposal
- $18 minimum hourly rate — 86 cents less than our first proposal
- Cost of Living Adjustment of 3% — 0.9% less than our first proposal
In this counter proposal, we gave up remission of the matriculation fee, lowered our minimum hourly rate by 86 cents, and lowered our cost of living adjustment by almost 1%.
After we presented this counter proposal, how far did PSU stretch to meet us?
Not very far. The only difference from PSU’s opening proposal and today’s proposal is an extra $12 per month for our GAs working at the lowest hourly rates (about 1/3rd of all GAs)
PSU’s current proposal:
- 100% student fee remission (excluding matriculation fee) — unchanged from their first proposal
- $16.50 minimum hourly rate — up 25 cents from their first proposal for a total of 4% increase from our current minimum
- Cost of Living Adjustment of 0.75% — unchanged from their first proposal
PSU’s offer of a 0.75% Cost of Living Adjustment is not adequate, especially given the recent agreements to give a 1% COLA to our unionized faculty colleagues on campus (PSUFA and AAUP), and our already low wages.
We need our members to show up to support us at bargaining as observers, and check your emails or reach out to organizing@pdxgeu.org and bargaining@pdxgeu.org to get involved in our union.
Our next bargaining session is tomorrow May 28 from 10am to 12pm.
Contact info@pdxgeu.org for details how to join the bargaining session as an observer.
In solidarity,
Graduate Employees Union Bargaining Team