Bargaining Update 4/28 and 4/29

Your bargaining team is headed into another session of bargaining today, and as they do, we wanted to update you on what's been going on this week.

We had bargaining sessions scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. At Tuesday's session, the Administration tried to cancel both Wednesday and Thursday meetings. At a time when we are all busy doing the final exam prep and grading of final papers for our students, our bargaining committee, who manage to prioritize both their undergraduates and our contract needs this week, were unfortunately not prioritized by the Administration.

Tuesday's bargaining session was a little frustrating. We presented the administration with a compelling economic proposal that was designed to help the nearly 50% of TAs who work here for the minimum salary first by prioritizing raising the base wage for them, doing the most good with the money MSU allocates for us. We were met with what seemed to us to be a fundamental insensitivity to the struggles that students go through when they make so little. We were asked "is it really fair to compare yourselves to the poverty line when you're only working 20 hours?" Despite the fact that many of us go above and beyond our hours to work with our students, providing one-on-one feedback to them and writing letters of recommendation, do an additional 30+ hours of research to work toward our degrees, and are active citizens in our departments, they ask why we don't take on part time jobs to supplement our income.

Consider this example from one of our international members: they were promised a quarter-time appointment in music, and are allowed to work outside of MSU only in the field of music because of regulations associated with their Visa. One member of the administration suggested they tutor her kids in music. First, getting paid under the table is illegal everywhere, and especially problematic when one could lose their visa, and second, with what time could this member self-advertise, pay for a car to travel to her house or pay for office space in which to provide those lessons? This doesn't even consider departments that contractually obligate people to not take positions outside of the department in order to receive an appointment.

We thought we were getting somewhere with mitigating their concern for overlap issues, a problem with their payment system that they have asked us to resolve in the contract, but were informed that they need more time to answer how they will implement the appointment period suggestions we made in our platform to mitigate those concerns relative to pay periods and class schedules. We pointed out that they had had our proposal for some time and that they were employees paid to do this work. We also believe that, at an R1 research institution, they  have enough paid people on staff to do the research in a timely manner. They took up much of our bargaining session doing this research. Again, they are paid to do this, and we are TAs and RAs volunteering our time. Yet we are generally meeting the deadlines we agree upon and have much more research evidence that we bring more than a mile with us to Nisbet Hall, while they do their research in offices above our bargaining room. We are truly impressive students, and MSU should be proud of our diligence.

We are having trouble understanding why our perspectives, and our proposals, are provoking such curious responses form the administration. Given that our teaching contributes approximately $226 million dollars to the university's revenue (2014-2015) and around 30% of the teaching (which wer're pretty sure is the reason MSU exists) the fact that we are asking for around 2.2% of their budget to sustain us doesn't seem outrageous at all. Asking for salary above poverty line for 2 people, and for healthcare to keep us prepared to teach the ~40,000 students at MSU each year seems pretty reasonable to us.

Not happy? Come out to our MARCH FOR THIS, this Friday at the Rock, 12:30.

Bargaining Update - Last Week

Sorry for the delay getting the bargaining update from last week up. We are all busy with amazing GEU actions like the GEU Bargaining Block Party that had LOTS and LOTS of people out! We're still tallying numbers, but we handed out over 100 shirts, ran out of food twice, and even signed up a few new members! Thank you for coming out, for telling your friends and colleagues, and for following us here, on facebook, and on twitter.

We're having a March for THIS on Friday, starting at 12:30 at the Rock and wandering over to the Hannah Admin building. Look for updates (especially if you have to join us a little late) on social media to see where we're at, and join us! Its supposed to be BEAUTIFUL on Friday, so you have no excuses!

Bargaining update:
We met with MSU twice last week, on Tuesday and Thursday. Most importantly, MSU finally unveiled the 'magic spreadsheet' they were using to calculate our potential wage increases and healthcare compensation. Unfortunately, its not all that magical. It is the same spreadsheet they used during our bargaining negotiations 4 years ago, using numbers they told us about in previous bargaining sessions. Our team was sadly underwhelmed. Basically, they say they will give us 2% to add to our overall compensation package, to be divided how we see fit. Here's what's in it:

1) to keep the healthcare we have presently, we have to abandon ALL of our economic platform. No dependent coverage subsidies, no salary increases, no bus passes, no compensation for SEVIS, international, or engineering fees, no childcare subsidies. The small amount left over from what they anticipate healthcare to eat the 2% increase they are willing to give us would look like this on our paychecks byweekly:

Next year:
 level 1 level 2 level 3

¼ time $0.987 $1.092 $1.14

½ time $1.974 $2.184 $2.28

¾ time $2.961 $3.276 $3.42

At year 4:
level 1 level 2 level 3

¼ time   $3.965 $4.38 $4.58

½ time $7.93 $8.77 $9.16

¾ time $11.89 $13.16 $13.74


So, we have been waiting months to see this proposal from MSU. They do bargaining for a living. And they gave us this. A terrible compensation increase that in no way keeps us competitive as a research institution, forces us to choose between increased cost of living compensation and healthcare (which we SHOULD NOT HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN). And worst of all, they lied and said they were working hard on a model that they, in reality, didn't change since the last time we bargained a contract with them in 2011. We could have had this information to you as early as January, but it was intentionally withheld from us, the volunteer leaders of the bargaining team, under the guise of paid MSU staffers 'working hard to figure it out'.

You may notice that you didn't get a wage increase in your appointment letters. That's because we haven't negotiated that yet. You ARE ALREADY BEING IMPACTED by the changes that could happen in this bargaining session. You have received an appointment letter because its something GEU bargained for in previous bargaining years.

If you haven't yet come out to an event to support the GEU, or even if you have, YOU NEED TO COME OUT THIS FRIDAY! The only way your contract will have reasonable healthcare and wages is if YOU come out and take up space. Unfortunately, MSU doesn't respond to us at the bargaining table unless we come out to events like the March for THIS on Friday. Thanks to your efforts with the Bargaining Block Party, we expect good things in our bargaining sessions this week, but we have to keep showing our support to the bargaining team to see gains in the next couple weeks. RSVP your commitment to Friday's march on our facebook page:

Solidarity!

GEU Bargaining Block Party - Today!

Come out today between 12-3 to the green space behind the International Center, called People's Park, grab some lunch on the GEU, listen to music, enjoy the sunshine, and contribute to your contract by being present in a space. Sign an oversized banner for our march next week, learn about this week's bargaining sessions and the progress the bargaining team can make when we all show up at an event like this one!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1576828829253844/



 

Upcoming bargaining dates

Upcoming bargaining dates, in a beautiful hand-drawn calendar drawn by your bargaining team!

Want to attend as an observer or offer support to the bargaining team? Reach out! Geu@msu.edu

#standupforTHIS #geuisu

Highlighting a speech from the Board of Trustees meeting

Solidarity means something important to GEU members. Not all of us make the minimum salary, but we all want the minimum salary to increase for those who do. Not all of us have a spouse or child in need of dependent healthcare coverage, but we believe it should be given to those of us who do. Below is a speech from the Board of Trustees meeting highlighting why what we do is important, even if it doesn't always directly impact our bottom lines.

 

Good morning Trustees,

My name is Amineh Farzannia and I am a graduate student in Math Department. Today I am talking to emphasize  the need for anti-harassment language in our contracts. Given the situation in math department which is very much probable to happen in any other department, we need a very strong anti-harassment language in our contracts.

Some international students have contacted GEU and recently complained about the following issues in math department.

1. Students have claimed that they were subject to hostile behavior  from  the Graduate coordinator, including his intimidating and threatening speech. For example, the graduate coordinator  used racially degrading remarks to several graduate students such as "I don't consider you as a good student" or "this place is not for you" or "If you don't solve your problems, I will sent you back home within a week".

2. International Students have declared that they are not treated equally. One American student has indicated that during an office meeting, this gentleman has said that international students are not good TAs because of their "accent" and their "English".

3.There have been some changes in the department regarding governing policies of the department which are  big concerns. For instance, Recently, some of the International students were prevented from enrollment for Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 because the graduate office considered them as students who are not in" good standing" The

department is totally reluctant to define the term "Good Standing".

 

4. Some of the departmental positions which were supposed to be assigned based on "merit basis" are now mostly assigned arbitrarily. I interpret this to be based off of the Graduate Office's discriminatory actions.

5.I  personally  have been subject to a two-year abusive practice  by my administration and some of the faculty members. I have not been able to focus on any research due to  stress from  two years of harassment created by math department. 

Unfortunately, There are many other issues happening in layers but  due to the lack of time I prefer to stop here. At the end, It is necessary to mention that all of the above claims are based on documentations.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Bargaining Update 4/15

#Fightfor15

While the nation was rallying around raising wages for minimum wage workers, the bargaining team was inside bargaining our contract for the next four years! We provided some great counter proposals, requested by the Office of Employee Relations, and they were prepped - with internal experts that understand the wonky way in which we all get paid at MSU - to counter...

We submitted a new proposal with appointment periods that have a clear beginning and ending date. One of the University's concerns is that we need to change the contract language from salary to stipend is because they don't want to have another 'overlap' issue, where summer term TAs were not paid fully for both appointments.Our language 1) offered a change in terminology from salary to 'pay', avoiding the term they don't want, and 2) gave clear employment dates for each semester, eliminating the possibility of overlap issues, and preserving our pay periods so that we never experience a gap in pay. The deans on the Administration's side seemed supportive of this, but the Office of Employee Relations didn't seem as excited about it, even though it met the needs they expressed. We are concerned about changing the stipend/salary language for a number of reasons, and you can read about them in past blog posts.

MSU brought in someone from the Solutions Center to talk about pay periods and the language that we provided so they could "Open the floor for scenarios that could lead to unintended consequences created by our proposal." After some conversation, it was clear there were none, and our proposal should work. They were appreciative of us bringing forward a proposal.

We submitted a proposal that we would drop our full tuition waiver (sad, but a fight for another day) if they increased our tuition pool, currently under-supported with only 200 credits to dole out over the whole year, and said that we would maintain the 9-9-5 tuition waiver. Elle Gulotty presented data showing the increasing burden being put on the pool and that we consistently are getting increasingly more requests for credits. We asked for 800, and there was a numerical estimation of what we projected would be needed. Its likely that more credits yet might be needed, but we wanted to provide a sound reason for our proposed number.

One dean expressed a concern that these numbers could be inflated because of the 999 cap that has recently been put on students in some departments, and we discussed how we only give credits when there is a confirmed need, not when students want to take an excess of credits. Depending on what credits are waived, the dean brought up, departments lose some internal funding. We explained that, while that is unfortunate, it is not the Graduate Students' problem, nor an obligation of this contract to solve, how the University compensates departments for credits they offer.

It was, in all, a great bargaining session. When we put our bodies on the cogs, there's motion! So keep coming out to events, keep showing your support for the bargaining team, and we'll keep making progress!!

#StandUpForTHIS

Grade In Tomorrow!!!

This is just a reminder to those of you who follow the blog that you'll have another chance to do your work in a public space and show the community how valuable you are THIS THURSDAY, tomorrow, from 10-5 in the Main Library! There will be snacks, free t-shirts, free buttons, and camaraderie!

Come out for an hour, grab a coffee and pick up your swag for the upcoming rallies and events! Remember, this isn't just a fight for a few, this is your contract, and you need to get involved if you want a fair contract! Starting May 15th, the end of our current contract, all of the perks the union gets for you, including parking south of the river, extended check out of books at the library, healthcare, and your salaries are in jeopardy.

Bargaining update 4/13

Some interesting things have emerged in today's bargaining session. Firstly, we made significant progress on medical leave and it looks like we have a draft that could be solidified soon. We are also making great progress on parental leave language that is inclusive and non-discriminatory.

Then MSU put forth their revised economical plan. They will give us our same, already not sufficient, tuition pool back, but retain the reduction of our tuition post comps to 3 credits per semester in fall and spring and 1 in summelr. We provided a laundry list of reasons why this wouldn't work, including that some people defend comps in their first year, others in their 5th or 6th year and that is a substantial discrepancy.

Another win for GEU, MSU has removed the merit pay proposal from the table! This is great, and was the barrier MSU stated was keeping them from proposing specifics on their wage and Healthcare package to us.

They said they didn't wish to talk about our childcare stipend, and were quiet when we talked about how helping a few graduate students with children we save MSU money by not making it possible for all of us to afford to raise a kid, but be an inclusive perk for current grad students and potential recruits.

They proposed a 2% combined wage and Healthcare increase. It is unclear how, or if, the money would be compounded. If we kept quality healthcare, we would lose fiscal compensation increases, AND still end up paying out of pocket for healthcare. We are working on a reasonable counter.

In all, momentum is picking up and it is important that everyone stay vigilant in our reading of the blog and other social media and email updates. It is also important that you attend any and all events in upcoming weeks. Yes it's april, and yes, we're all busy being students and employees of the university, but you will be much busier next year if you need to subsidize your wages with outside employment or file for governmental assistance, or suffer changes based on losing the healthcare you need to do your job. So come out! A post with upcoming events is forthcoming, or follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or keep current in your emails from your stewards and the GEU account. If you're not getting emails, let us know!

#standupforTHIS
#geuisu

Rally and Board of Trustee Meeting This FRIDAY

First and foremost, wear your GREEN! This Friday and every Friday until we get a contract!!!!! Tell your friends, tell your students! Cool kids have school spirit AND support their TAs!

This Friday, the Graduate Employees Union is attending MSU Board of Trustees meeting at 9:30 on the 4th floor of the Hannah administration building. Before hand we will be holding a rally at 8:30a.m. outside of the Hannah Admin Building to spread the message that we NEED a contract that fairly and justly compensates and protects graduate employees for all of the hard work that we do. 

Wear green, come out and get a free t-shirt, coffee, donuts, and a better contract! 8:30a.m. Hannah Admin Building

Following the rally we will attend the Board of Trustees meeting and have a speakers address the trustees during the public comment section. We hope to persuade the trustees to pressure the Office of Employee Relations to bargain with the GEU for the contract that graduate employees deserve. 

If you can, come to the Board Meeting, bring your grading, and do your work in a way that is visible to the Administration!

Following the GEU speaking to their elected officials there will be grade ins and a series of workshops held outside of the Board of Trustees meeting room located on the 4th floor of the administration building until 6p.m. when the building closes. These workshops will range from a History of MSU Activism to Consent in the Workplace. All workshops in one form or another will address the need for making higher education a safer and more inclusive space. As such, all workshops will count towards Responsible Conduct of Research (please email noah_s@comcast.net with questions on this!). Coffee / donuts will be provided during the rally and food will be provided during the teach-ins. If you want to make the event more successful or have ANY questions, please feel free to email our staff organizer Noah (noah_s@comcast.net). We hope to see you there!

Grade in continues with workshops that can count toward your Responsible Conduct of Research hours (depending on departmental requirements)!

Summary:

April 17th 8:30am-6pm : Come Any Time!

• 8:30-9:30am Rally Outside Board of Trustees Meeting
• Purpose: spread the message that we NEED a contract that fairly and justly compensates and protects graduate employees for all of the hard work that we do. 
• Coffee / Donuts provided
• 9:30am-12pm Attend Board of Trustees Meeting
• During the public comment section we hope to persuade the trustees to pressure the Office of Employee Relations to bargain with the GEU for the contract that graduate employees deserve. 
• 12-6pm Teach Ins and Workshops!
• After the Board of Trustees meeting the GEU will be a series of workshops on the 4th floor of the administration building 
• Workshops will range from:
• What does activism mean to you? 
• History of MSU Activism
• Consent in the Workplace. 
• Responsible Conduct of Research
• All workshops will address the need for making higher education a safer and more inclusive space
• Workshops will count towards Responsible Conduct of Research (please email noah_s@comcast.net with questions on this!).  
• Food Provided
• If you want to make the event more successful or have ANY questions, please feel free to email our staff organizer Noah (noah_s@comcast.net). 
• We hope to see you friday!

The Administration on sexual assault surveys

As part of our bargaining with the university, we've worked to get TAs to no longer be mandatory reporters when students tell us about sexual assault.  Students who may disclose an assault may just be looking for someone to listen and not want the matter investigated or even just disclosed to more people.  In performing our jobs, we want to be able to hear what our students have to say and refer them to campus and community resources that the student then has the choice to use or not use.  By having TAs be mandatory reporters, we believe this has and will continue to have a chilling effect on the authentic discussion of sexual assault on campus and on students initially, cautiously seeking help.

So far, the university has not budged.  Last week, Paulette Granberry Russell (director of the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives and senior advisor for diversity to President Simon) told us that we must not care about our students if we don't want to be mandatory reporters.  Quite the opposite: We simply want to give them a choice and control in the situation, thereby not re-victimizing them. 

Then, an email was supposedly sent to all students on campus this week about sexual assault experiences and issues.  Some students did not get the email, though.  During a Steering Committee meeting, Granberry Russell and President Simon said the email with the survey was not sent to students whose directory information was restricted.  A GEU member questioned them, asking if that would seriously bias the results as sexual assault survivors are more prone to restricting their directory information for obvious reasons.  Granberry Russell and President Simon did not see any problem with them being excluded.

MSU's response to issues of sexual violence continues to be tone deaf, but GEU and your bargaining team are working hard on your behalf to change that!  If you have an experience you would like to confidentially share so that we can use it at the bargaining table (without your name) to make a positive change, please let us know.

Bargaining update 4/6

Alright, guys! GEU has been at the table with the Administration again and we have some updates to provide.

Firstly, we want everyone to be aware of the fact that the University has told administration not to speak to any of us about the bargaining process. They realize that these changes impact the ability of grad directors and others to recruit new graduate students and has very real impacts on the students they work with on a daily basis. Our interests as faculty and graduate students are aligned. We want to be productive members of our department, we teach the same students, and we work together on departmental committees. Yet the University feels that our supervisors shouldn't know about the changes that will impact their students. All the more reason for us to have conversations with our supervisors about these changes.

Secondly, we've been negotiating a number of things with the University. We have come to some understanding on a few issues, like jury duty, medical leave, anti-harassment language, and parental leave. We talk about many issues each meeting, bringing up concerns and questions for language and going back and making modifications to the language for the next meeting. 

Some things that came up in yesterday's meeting:

1) we want to remove departmental fees and other fees incurred by international students and which are required. The University doesn't want to entertain this, so we have tabled it to bring up again. None of us get paid enough to pay those fees to the University. Not all of us have fees, but for those who do, it can be a full paycheck!

2) the University is spending valuable time at the bargaining table changing the language in our contract to call our wage a stipend instead of a salary. The language is currently interchangeable and they want to make stipend the only language used, striking the language that makes it interchangeable. Now, there are a number of reasons why we think they are doing this, but there are also a lot of consequences. Some peoples financial aid would change if they didn't have a salary, some international students would have issues with visas, and generally there are a lot of governmental hoops that many of our colleagues must jump thru, that receiving a stipend instead of a salary would make much harder or impossible. A small issue, but one that could have giant implications for many members.

3) MSU thinks that active shooter training and mandatory reporting are worth their monetary resources to provide to us, but will not entertain either mental health or CPR training, even as a reimbursement for voluntary training. Mental and physical first aid would help prevent the need for active shooter training and would better ready us to be mandatory reporters. But the University says that being able to deal with students physical and emotional interests are not part of our jobs, and are not in the fiscal interest of MSU. 

4) MSU is afraid that we will abuse reduced meal plans because, by their own admission, the administrators who use it pay for their friends and their children, and they are afraid that at 6$ a meal, they will lose money feeding us. None of us can afford the relatively crappy (also admitted by the University) meals at the $9 rate, but considering our long hours, we would eat there if we could afford it. They aren't losing money because we rarely eat there now, but would gain money from us because we would start to eat there. If there is any margin of profit on $6, they will make money on this choice. They are reluctant to consider this.

5) they still haven't given us a monetary value for our salary for the next 4 years. This was due to us by April 1st, but they still haven't provided it to us. They made mention that there was only so much pie to go around, and we asked if this was why they weren't interested in mental health first aid - because it cost them money - and they said no.

6) We are pushing them to discuss merit pay, as they said they won't give us a number for wages until we discuss merit pay. We provided 14 reasons why merit pay is completely untenable to us, to our faculty supervisors, and to the undergraduates who's educations' both us and MSU should value. We will post those reasons in another post, so stay tuned.

Upcoming bargaining dates!

We're about to start another bargaining session. Follow the livetweeting (until our tweeter/reporter goes off to her real job as a TA), and look for an update tomorrow sometime. In the mean time, her are our upcoming bargaining dates and a few other important dates you should be aware of:

4/13 Monday     12noon-4pm
            Family Day! We anticipate the following important topics to be discussed. If you have an interest in this meeting, we need you to come out to the session and show support!
            EB rooms
            Childcare subsidy
            Dependent care, if we get time

4/15  Wednesday   10am-3pm
4/23  Thursday   1pm- 5pm
4/28  Tuesday   1pm-5pm
4/29   Wednesday  1pm-5pm
5/1   Friday: MAY DAY   1pm-5pm

GEU shirts available, but if you don't feel like wearing one:
a) you can also just show up
b) if you want to match wear black

Also, we will be doing a thorough shakedown of what's happening in bargaining, and need you to voice your opinion and vote on some issues at our General Membership Meeting this Friday, at the Erickson KIVA, at 5p.m. You need to be there!

Lots of upcoming events for the GEU! I know there are a lot of asks in a busy time of year, but just check out the pictures from the GEU karaoke night last Thursday and you'll know that there's a lot of added value to being a part of this movement. New friends with new interdisciplinary skills you can use to better your dissertation and put a smile on your face. Come early, come often!

Solidarity!

#geuisu #standupforTHIS

Bargaining Update on April Fools...

...but we're not foolin!

Some updates:

1) Paulette Granberry Russell, from the Office of Inclusion,  expressed how  mandatory reporting is essentially about limiting our risk as educators. The biggest concerns she has about us not being mandatory reporters is that it opens us up to risk if our students then experience additional violence that we could have stopped by reporting it. Despite our repeated efforts to point out that mandartory reporting revictimizes the victim, and that most people on campus are not equipped to navigate the nuances of helping a survivor who comes to us in good faith of confidentiality, they maintain their position. We offered an alternative to mandatory reporting that would provide victims with the same information the university proports to wanting to provide, but her concerns were that research doesn't support our alternative. We then offered to provide that research. We provided a story explaining how a colleague was in an abusive relationship and fell out of contact. The issue was subject to mandatory reporting because there was a need to go through channels to check up on the person. Without malice, the email issued to the victim was not vague, and her abuser had access to the email. This created a situation that was extremely unsafe for the victim, and is an unfortunate reality that MSU hasn't offered the promise of a solution to, yet requires us to comply and 'trust' that they will do the right thing for a victim that isn't necessarily ready to deal with yet. The issue was tabled. 

2) We continued discussing anti-discrimination language. It is becoming increasingly clear that both MSU and the GEU want to protect our students, and we're moving toward the ability to validate marginalized voices in our contract language. GEU wants your stories if you have felt discriminated against during your TA appointments at MSU. Especially if SIRS forms become part of our merit evaluation - like MSU proposes - we need protections from our students discrimination and from those above us.

3) MSU STILL HAS NOT PROVIDED US with a number for wage compensation. Their platform, due today, still has "TBD" for our compensation package. When pressed, we were told that there was only 'so much pie' and they were waiting on healthcare numbers from Aetna to offer us compensation. We have proposed a 29% increase in our wages so that we can be competitive with the top quartile in the Big10. If our football team was in the bottom, no one would be happy, so why should the people who spend the most time educating our undergraduates, doing a substantial portion of the research that gives MSU the prestige it has, be compensated so poorly? Why is there so 'little pie?' Go Green and Show Us the Green! We have been assured that that number will come sometime after a series of meetings scheduled over the next two weeks. But why do we have to have our platform ready, with numbers and well researched, on time? We're not paid to bargain the contract, but MSU negotiators are.

4) We made progress on language in employee leave time, and in other language.

The bargaining process is like a dance. There's a bunch of arguing the best phrasing, speaking in coded language, and maintaining respect, since in the end we both want TAs to work and feel safe when they do. We may have very different definitions of what we think graduate students need to feel safe in their jo, in their workplace, and in their representation, but we do want those things. Our lead negotiators dance...that's the only way to describe it...with MSU, and its a precarious waltz. Please talk to a bargaining team member to learn about why this is so important, why you need to get involved, and what you can do to support your GEU. Your compensation, your happiness at MSU, and your colleagues depend on it.

#GEUisU

#StandUpForTHIS