Let’s talk about power and organizing. We can often spend a lot of time getting lost in a rush of actions and updates that happen while we’re here at UMass – while we’re dealing with the university time and time again and the updates can often feel depressing at times, because it’s an endless treadmill and a constant fight – well. We have to see what it is we are fighting for. We have to see what victory looks like.
And fortunately for us, we’ve got a few examples of that.
Howard University faculty threatened a strike two weeks ago over low pay and bad conditions – and after threatening the strike, the university gave in. Howard’s faculty were given a raise to bring their non-tenure-track faculty up to pay parity with tenure-track faculty, as well as one that would guarantee longer term appointments so that faculty would not be working semester to semester.
Sound familiar? It’s the same way we’re appointed – or “non-reappointed” – every semester. It’s a way we’re fighting the university to ensure that graduate students get job security. And we can see that it’s something that we *can fight* and a fight that we can win – as long as we all fight. But what we have to offer about Howard’s situation is second-hand at best, and it’s best that you hear directly from people who were on the ground and fighting the good fight, one that’s been in the making for over a year now.
It’s not just Howard’s non tenure-track faculty pushing on its employer. Across the country, Starbucks have been unionizing in a wave of ratification votes to push for better wages and rights – and Starbucks is terrified. We know Starbucks is scared because of how it is they’re responding. Rather than let the employers unionize and back off, or work in some way to increase benefits, the company is trying to fire employees for their union organizing – while claiming that it’s for violations. In the meantime, those employees are seeking to fight back against their retaliation… and while Starbucks resorts to failed terminations, the best they have to show for it is their anti-union website. Their anti-union website is hilariously bad. We won’t link it here, but it’s good for a laugh and a reminder that the people fighting us often rely – heavily – on money and institutional moment.
While Howard faculty are winning by threatening strike actions, and Starbucks are unionizing across the country, there’s another larger labor win – and it’s JFK8, one of the Amazon warehouses in Staten Island, which voted to unionize the other day. Amazon is pushing back in every way that they can, but the ALU is already beginning to move toward unionizing other warehouses in the area. This win is one that we should view as empowering and one that we can take strength from. An employee fired by the company for unionizing efforts leads an election and unionizes the first Amazon warehouse – and if Amazon employees can do that, then we can fight, too. [See ALU’s website here: https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/]
When we fight together, we win together.
Let’s fight together.
This Thursday, we’re holding our next action on campus. Join us at the union office between 945am and 1015am – and then join us as we march up to Quinn-03 to present our open letter to the Chancellor. If you haven’t yet, you can read the letter here – it’s arguing that we need more and better from the university.
Sign the letter – and spread the word. Everyone and anyone can sign onto the letter, and the more, the better, so share this URL widely! https://forms.gle/mV9S3eiHmt987zKUA When we fight together, we win together, and we have to fight together to get that win.
Join us Thursday.
Let’s push back.
Fall 2025 Elections
REMINDER: SELF-NOMINATE FOR GEO ELECTIONS Want to get involved in the union – and get paid for it? Self-nominate for one of the FOUR open organizing committee spots that we have this semester! Each spot is a 0.5 FTE position, and can be stacked on top of a 1.0 FTE appointment – even if you’re an international student! Any…
Spring 2025 Elections
We are running elections this semester! Starting Monday, February 3, you can nominate yourself for the open organizing committee GEO position. This is a 0.5 FTE appointment that can complement your 0.50, 0.75, or 1.00 current assistantship(s)! You can run for our organizing committee as long as you are a dues-paying graduate worker – a…
Spring 2025 Round of SSF Grants
Dear GEO members. Welcome to the Spring 2025 semester! Applications for the Scholarly Support Fund (SSF) will open on Monday, February 10, at 8 am EST. If you attended a conference during the Winter, or plan to attend one in the Spring (1/6-5/26), or if you incurred scholarly expenses in the last four months (on…
GEO Organizing Committee Fall 2024 Elections
We are running elections this semester! Starting on Tuesday, September 17, you can nominate yourself for the open organizing committee GEO position. This is a 0.5 FTE appointment that can complement your 0.50, 0.75, or 1.00 current assistantship(s)! You can run for our organizing committee as long as you are a dues-paying graduate worker -…
Fall 2024 Round of SSF funding
Dear GEO Members! Applications for the Scholarly Support Fund (SSF) will open on Monday, September 9, at 8 am EST. If you attended a conference during the Summer, plan to attend one in the Fall, or if you incurred scholarly expenses in the last four months (on or after May 1, 2024), it’s time to…
Elections Spring 2024
Voting will open to all members on Tuesday, March 5, and will remain open until the end of the day on Wednesday, March 6 (11:59 p.m. EST). Only dues-paying members will be able to vote. If you are not a dues-paying member but want to become one and vote in this election, please fill out the following dues authorization…
Elections Spring 2024
We are running elections to fill one assistantship position (0.5 FTE) on the GEO Organizing Committee! Starting Monday, February 12, you can nominate yourself for the open organizing committee GEO position. This is a 0.5 FTE appointment that can complement your 0.50, 0.75, or 1.00 current assistantship(s). You can run for our organizing committee as…
Set your alarms to apply for SSF funding
Greetings, GEO Members! Applications for the Scholarly Support Fund (SSF) will open on Tuesday, January 30, at 8 am EST. If you attended a conference during the Winter break or plan to attend one in the Spring, you can start preparing to apply for funding. Remember, SSF is a first-come-first-serve grant, so you will want…
Solidarity with WGA/SAG-AFTRA
The GEO stands in solidarity with the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG-AFTRA), who represent film and television writers and actors and who have been on strike for the last several months. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA are fighting to protect their members from pay cuts and worsening workplace conditions brought…
Join Us at our “BOSTON STANDS UP FOR THE CHERISH ACT” Lunch with Legislators on Thursday Sept. 14 from 12-1:15pm in ISC 3300
It’s time for Massachusetts to commit to more funding to make public higher education truly affordable and accessible! You are invited to join us in welcoming Boston legislators to hear testimony from UMB students, staff & faculty about how we need the additional funding that passing the CHERISH Act would provide. The Cherish Act (S.816;…
Mark your calendars! As the Fall 2023 semester approaches, you can get ready to apply for the Scholarly Support Fund. Applications for the Fall 2023 round of SSF will open on Tuesday, September 12, at 8 am EST. Remember SSF is a first come-first serve grant; funding is awarded to applicants in the order GEO…
We’re happy to invite you to three events that we are holding with the GSA! The Hypocrisy & Humor of the Student Loan Debt Crisis (Education in Equity Series: On Wednesday evening, from 6:00pm-7:30pm, we’re holding the first in our Education in Equity series: join the important conversation with Dr. Venus Evans-Winters and our own Dr.…
SIGNING YOUR DUES AUTHORIZATION CARD – AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
You are all part of – and really, are the heart of – the Graduate Employee Organization, the labor union for graduate assistants at the school. The GEO is a union in all definitions of the word: we negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the university, which then sets minimum pay and benefits for all…
Fall 2022 Elections
Voting for the Fall 2022 elections to fill the sixth – and new – position in the GEO organizing committee will be held online on Tuesday, October 11 (opens at 8 am EST) and Wednesday, October 12 (closes at 11:59 pm EST). Only pre-registered, dues-paying GEO members are eligible to vote in this election. Everyone…
SSF Applications will open soon!
Applications for the Scholarly Support Fund (SSF) will be opening soon after the start of the Fall semester [September 12 at 8 am EST]. If you attended a Summer conference or plan to attend one in the Fall, you can start getting ready to apply for funding. You can also apply for non-conference-related expenses. Please see…
GSA Announces Spayne and Bollinger grants!
You may know about the GSA – the Graduate Student Government – and what they’re up to, and you may have applied to SSF earlier this semester. We’ve got good news. First thing’s first: the GSA is announcing the opening of both the Dr. Robert. W Spayne and Craig R. Bollinger spring 2022 research grants! The Spayne Research Grant (which is for work leading to a master’s thesis or a capstone project) is a competitive grant awarded to assist students in defraying research expenses. The numbers vary, and it can reward up to $1500 each Fall and Spring semester! The…
Keep readingThursday – Bargaining, Action, Social!
GEO, This Thursday we need you to show up! It is a day packed with collective action, bargaining, and some after-bargaining fun! You can join for any or all of it. We have to present a strong and unified front to finally get management to offer us a contract that substantially improves the lives of grad employees. … and we are also LONG overdue to have some time together. Between 09:45am and 10:15am, join us in the Union Office (Quinn-02-081) to prepare for our rally on Quinn’s third floor! From 10:15am to 10:45am, we’ll be at Quinn-03 to hold our action and rally – where we’ll push…
Keep readingPublic College Should Not be a Debt Sentence!
Take Action to Win Debt-Free College in Mass. THIS THURSAY 3/24 You might have heard the news that this week New Mexico became the 31st state to offer some kind of statewide debt-free college. We need your help to win that in Massachusetts! PHENOM (Public Higher Ed Network of Massachusetts) and other groups need our help to advance a debt-free college bill in our state legislature. If it doesn’t move out of committee to a floor vote, this bill will die and will have to be restarted in the next legislative session. S829/H1339, An Act to Guarantee Debt-Free Public Higher…
Keep readingHVAC Presentation and Report
The Massachusetts Teacher Association commissioned a third party to do an airflow evaluation of Wheatley – we now have the reports, and they are not good. Sixty percent of the rooms in Wheatley do not achieve the recommended number of air exchanges per hour. Read the report here. On Friday, join us from 12pm to 1pm as the researchers present their findings directly. You can do so by clicking into this Zoom link at that time. https://umassboston.zoom.us/j/91336634626
Keep readingDorchester Bay City Petition
Please help us get a better Dorchester Bay City Proposal by signing and sharing this petition to Mayor Wu and the Boston Planning and Development Authority to Slow Down Approval. The current proposal for “Dorchester Bay City” is far too big, far too brash, and needs to be slowed down! We hope the new Mayor will recognize this need – but we need to urge her to do so. Please support important changes to Dorchester Bay City (DBC) development and the timeline for approving it. You have heard several times this year from our Administration about Accordia Partners’ plan to…
Keep readingUndoing Racism Anti-Racist Training
The Undoing Racism Assembly is offering two (2) separate virtual training workshops this spring. The first virtual workshop will run on Fridays: March 25, April 1, and April 8 (9am-3pm). The second virtual workshop will run on Thursdays: April 21, April 28, and May 5 (9am-3pm). Participation in all three sessions of the workshop you sign-up for is required. This training is an important step towards being armed with information that can assist with UMB’s aim to be an anti-racist and health promoting university. To register, use this link: https://forms.gle/Je4zQYn7G5NMpF4PA Please reach out to tony.vandermeer@umb.edu and keith.jones@umb.edu if you have…
Keep readingWeekend Demonstration
This weekend is the Eastern Sociological Society – and they’re holding their conference at UMass Boston. We want to make sure the ESS knows who keeps UMass Boston running, and what they want from the university… but we need your help for it. We want you to show up on Saturday or Sunday in the morning and afternoon (you can see the times in the google form below!) to help us spread the word. The plan is to have a non-disruptive presence; ESS isn’t why we’re underpaid. But if we can educate and inform everyone who is on campus for…
Keep readingBargaining This Week
Bargaining is this week on Wednesday. Last session, Management came back to us with an offer – a 2.5% increase in salary for the 21-22 year, and 2.0% for 22-23 and 23-24 year, as well as a 190$ increase to the health insurance cap. We know they can do better. Join us this Wednesday, at 1030AM, Quinn-03-081A, or 1100AM, CC2115 We will be holding more events in the weeks to come. Management is starting to move, which means we have to push them harder. Keep your eyes and schedules open.
Keep readingGEO Communication in Support of Faculty Council and Shared Governance
GEO believes that as a public research institution, the University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMB) should continue and extend its history of shared governance. In earlier iterations of this institution, the faculty’s role in governance was much larger than it is today. It was the faculty which made us a ‘research university with a teaching soul’. This past history of shared governance is partly why we have a strong Faculty Council today. It is this same strength that some fear, and it is this very fear which holds us back from achieving our aspirations and long-term visions. Thus it was with…
Keep readingBargaining – Feb 17 – IN-PERSON
GEO,Bargaining tomorrow will be in-person. Despite repeated asks over the last few weeks seeking confirmation on if this meeting would be over Zoom or in-person, the university only supplied us with confirmation for an in-person meeting earlier today. This deliberate tactic makes it more difficult for us to rally members like you to show up at bargaining sessions.It’s a Thursday morning. We’ll bring the coffee and donuts. You bring the rest.Meet us between 09:00 and 09:15 at Quinn-02-081A —- or join us directly in bargaining between 09:30 and 11:30 in Campus Center 2115. GEO Organizing CommitteeWarren Hinckle
Keep readingBargaining Update
We met with the university on February 1st: management is beginning to be less obstinate toward our demands for more information and more conversation. In the latest bargaining session, in which we had to break down to management in very basic terms why we needed to be discussing actual numbers with them for our proposals,…
Register to Vote
One of these two candidates will fill one position in the GEO Organizing Committee this semester. Check them out and prepare for voting. Register before it’s too late! The elections voting registration period ends on Friday, October 8 at 5 p.m. EST. Everyone needs to register prior to voting. To register, make sure to send…
GEO ELECTIONS: SELF-NOMINATIONS
Nominations and registration for elections are open! Your union (the Graduate Employee Organization) is holding elections to fill one half-time (0.5 FTE) assistantship position on the Organizing Committee with an official start-work date of Monday, October 18. Similar to Fall 2020 elections, all graduate employees interested in voting should register prior to voting. You will…
YOUR ASSISTANTSHIP TESTIMONIALS ARE REQUESTED
GEO has launched a new survey inviting you to share your experiences as a graduate assistant at UMass Boston. It feels important to say this: we know how hard the last few years have been and how painful a lot of the subjects in the survey are. Wages haven’t gone up, university officials have been a mix of dismissive and unresponsive, bargaining has been repeatedly delayed by the university – our goal, with this survey, is to strengthen our ability to present a unified front at the bargaining table and your testimonies are essential to that task. We know that…
ELECTIONS COMING FALL 2021
Ara has completed her run as your elected representative and we thank her for her service and wish her luck! We will thus have one open spot on the organizing committee this coming fall 2021, and as always, are seeking a tenacious graduate student to come and join us to advocate for the rights of every graduate assistant at UMass Boston. If you’re interested, watch this space: we’ll be publishing the timeline and additional information shortly!
FSU Events Next Week!
The Faculty Staff Union is holding two events next week – on Tuesday at 1030 and on Thursday at 2pm. The information for both is below, along with the links to register. Campus Forum on the Future of Healey Library – Tuesday, May 11th from 10:30 to 11:30Register here: https://umassboston.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsf-mvrzIpGNErB9KTPjqR1TCBl1S6gP47 How Do We Get UMass Boston the Library It Deserves? The campus unions (CSU, DCU, FSU, GEO, and PSU) as well as the (outgoing) President (Janrey Javier) and Vice President (Jaely Pererra) of Undergraduate Student Government are co-sponsoring a Forum on the future of the UMass Boston library on May…
Graduate Employee Organization 