Firstly, happy one year anniversary to GENU-UAW! Our Bargaining Committee met with the Northeastern Administration last Thursday, to present a handful of proposals and counter proposals, as well as hear counter proposals from Northeastern. Specifically, we presented the following new articles:
- Union Stewards and Officers: A standard article in Collective Bargaining Agreements that establishes recognition for Graduate Student Workers acting as stewards, officers, or Bargaining Committee members.
- Professional and Academic Freedom: This article provides protection from retaliation for political beliefs/affiliations, affirms GSWs’ right to discretion over their own research and teaching free from ideological pressure from the University or faculty, and the right to speak freely as private people without institutional censorship or discipline.
We presented counter proposals for Appointments & Reappointments, Employment Records, and Union Security, and we hope to get closer to reaching a Tentative Agreement on these articles as quickly as possible. Additionally, the University presented their counter proposals for Leaves of Absence, Workplace and Materials, Labor Management Committee, Health and Safety, Hourly Assignments, and Comprehensive and Complete Agreement. Unfortunately, many of the University’s counter proposals were provided in a format that did not allow easily tracking which clauses had changed between versions (“redlining”; standard practice for contract negotiations). This made it difficult to know exactly what language was added or removed without a thorough manual comparison, which in turn makes it harder to ask questions about their changes and reach an understanding on issues. Ultimately, this slows down the bargaining process, and this comes despite our repeated requests for the University to track their changes correctly. Additionally, the University continued to push harmful rhetoric regarding international grad worker rights. When we asked questions about the unreasonable timelines their proposals offered for leaves of absence related to visa renewal, the University reaffirmed their previous statement that international grads should just overstay their visas.
Finally, the University and the Bargaining Committee have come to a Tentative Agreement on Severability. We welcome the movement on this article and we are happy to reach our first Tentative Agreement for this bargaining process. Clearly having many members observing our bargaining sessions, like the over 100 people who attended the prior session, makes a huge difference in the administration’s willingness to make progress. We must keep the pressure up! Notably, however, Severability is a short and very basic article that is standard for most Collective Bargaining Agreements. The University has stalled out the process on this article for months when it should have been an easy Tentative Agreement to reach at the time we originally passed it to them. We look forward to additional movement on our more substantial articles addressing our most important issues.
It’s time for our contract! Sign your name and join us on October 2nd!
Our union has its one year anniversary on September 21st, and we’ve been bargaining for ten months. We have a full contract worth of articles on the table. It’s time for a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that meets our needs and we don’t want to wait any longer. Since our August bargaining session, we launched a petition calling on the administration to stop the delays and start offering improvements. With a majority of graduate workers on the petition, we can show the administration we cannot be ignored or dismissed.
Please add your name to our petition today to demonstrate our demand for a contract NOW, and join us at our Anniversary Rally on October 2nd in Centennial Common at 1PM.
In Solidarity,
GENU-UAW Bargaining Committee
P.S. The full text of our proposals and all previously passed proposals can be found on our website.