Major Sticking Points Are Clear; General Membership Meeting next Monday!

Unclear standards of academic progress, milestones, and academic probation were big sticking points in the Discipline and Discharge article. We’ve secured a higher standard for assessing when discipline can be classified as purely academic thus allowing union protection in more cases. As a result of powerful testimonies from graduate workers on unclear and unfair practices, the University will begin enforcing greater clarity on academic standards and requirements in graduate degree programs.  They have promised us that this will go into effect by the end of autumn quarter, and you should feel empowered to ask your department administrators to implement these changes. 

Standstills on Non-Discrimination, Abuse of Authority, Union Security:

Continuing our struggle to have protections against discrimination, harassment and abuse of authority, former GSU member and organizer Uday Jain presented on why caste discrimination protections are necessary for the University to be a truly inclusive workplace. Another graduate student shared harrowing testimony about the recent systemic failures of existing procedures at the University to protect students from abusive advisors. We are hopeful that this insight gave the University a reality check and that we will reach an agreement in the next session. 

While there has been relatively congenial bargaining on these two issues in previous sessions, there was a sharp divide on one of the most important issues of our language proposals––union security. The University continues to stall on providing us with language about how it would recognize union membership and facilitate the payment of dues. Their dance around justifying an "open shop" is an affront to the democratic norms of winning a Board-certified union election and is a non-starter for this contract.

Here’s what you can do:

That said, we are at the very tail end of language proposals. You can read a detailed summary of negotiations so far on the state of the negotiations document. 

Finally, we just released the economic bargaining platform! This is the basis of all of our economic proposals, and we are seeking membership approval of the platform at the General Membership Meeting on Monday, Oct. 16th at 6:00 PM. Please register for the GMM to get a zoom link if attending virtually and to help organizers get an estimate on food if attending in person.

Meanwhile, You can hear more about the economic platform and ask questions at town halls and other sessions that are being organized in your division this week.