• Occupy UMass Boston Takes to the Streets
  • Students March on the State House
  • PHENOM State House Rally

Graduate Employee Organization

The GEO here at U Mass Boston is proud to represent all graduate assistants in order to facilitate and represent you in securing fair wages and excellent working conditions. Our current contract will expire on June 30, 2012 and we are currently negotiating a new contract that we hope will improve workplace standards for all of our assistants. As an open organization we urge you to consider attending one of our bi-weekly meetings to impart your suggestions, knowledge and experiences. This information block will be used to keep all our assistants updated on our current contract negotiations.

Thanks; The GEO leadership committee members. 

News

Postdoctoral researchers at University of Massachusetts ratify first contract

Fri, 04/06/2012 - 1:36pm

Original story published at uaw.org

Postdoctoral researchers at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) overwhelmingly ratified a first contract this week that will provide wage increases throughout the agreement, vacation and sick time, a grievance procedure and job security protections.

Postdoc researchers approved the contract by a 95 percent margin.

The new agreement gives postdoctoral researchers major gains including a 2 percent wage increase upon contract ratification and another in September. There will be a 3 percent increase in September of 2013 and 2014. Eligible postdocs will receive partial reimbursement of child care expenses.

UAW members at Columbia and Teacher’s College ratify new agreements

Fri, 04/06/2012 - 1:34pm

Original story published at uaw.org

NEW YORK -- UAW members of Local 2110 at Columbia University in New York have overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract that covers about 700 office and administrative staff. 

The workers, who were organizing for a strike, reached a tentative agreement with the university on March 30. The university support staff voted 96 percent in favor of the new contract. 

Members were outraged when Columbia, which has an $8 billion endowment, sought substantial reductions in employee benefits, including the cost and coverage of health care, tuition remission and other benefits.

Obama Gives Keynote at UAW Conference in DC

Fri, 03/09/2012 - 2:56pm

UMichigan Grad Students Fight for Union Contract

Mon, 03/05/2012 - 4:33pm

From The Detroit Free Press

In his Feb. 24 column, Free Press editorial page editor Stephen Henderson repeated several common mischaracterizations of the campaign by graduate student research assistants at the University of Michigan to form a union ("Skip politics; do what's right and give up move to unionize students").

His conclusion that barring GSRAs from collective bargaining is synonymous with protecting the excellence of the university is faulty. GSRAs' goals are aligned with those of our advisers and the university: We want to complete our degrees, we want do great research, and we know that hard work is required to be successful in our fields.

Why Labor Organizing Is a Civil Right

Mon, 03/05/2012 - 4:22pm

From The Chronicle for Higher Education

By Richard Kalenberg

On Thursday, I published an op-ed in The New York Times with Moshe Marvit, a labor and job discrimination attorney, arguing that we should amend the Civil Rights Act to outlaw discrimination against workers trying to organize a union. Under current labor laws, dismissing an employee for union activities is technically illegal, but the law is routinely broken because the penalties are so weak. In the op-ed and a new book, Why Labor Organizing Should Be a Civil Right, we argue that the opportunity to organize in the workplace is a fundamental human right that deserves protection under the Civil Rights Act, which has much more powerful sanctions than our labor laws.

Occupy Education: Teachers, Students Resist School Closings

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 1:22pm

From Democracy Now! - Click for video

As students across the country stage a National Day of Action to Defend Public Education, we look at the nation’s largest school systems—Chicago and New York City—and the push to preserve quality public education amidst new efforts to privatize schools and rate teachers based on test scores. In Chicago, the city’s unelected school board voted last week to shut down seven schools and fire all of the teachers at 10 other schools.

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PHENOM News

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