Author: geoumassboston

As the official union for Graduate Employees, we have a right to negotiate the impacts of policy decisions made between main bargaining periods. With so many policy changes resulting from responses to the COVID pandemic, we have been in near constant negotiations with University Administration since February.  

We are currently meeting with management around impacts occurring during the fall semester.  Some of the things we are discussing include greater support and protections for international students, clarity on the Massachusetts quarantine, ensuring health and safety protection for people who have to come to campus, monitoring class sizes and work-loads are not increasing for members working remotely, and attempting to make sure that graduate students are not penalized due to class changes. 

We are awaiting management’s reply to informal proposals we mentioned during our last meeting; once we have something in writing (or are ready to propose our own language to management), we’ll come with another update.

Over the last few months, GEO and management have solidified ground-rules and begun the process of main-table bargaining. Management originally proposed a one-year extension of the contract with no change, which we turned down, as we could not see the rationale for it; later, however, we thought that a one-year extension would be good for membership if, and only if, it included a much higher health insurance waiver. We are waiting to hear back on management of this offer; it has been working its way through different offices since we first brought it up, and we have taken the extra time to work on impact bargaining proposals.

If we can get this one year extension, and if membership is willing to ratify it, it would give a large financial boon to those on the health insurance plan–the cost of which, for a full time GEO member, is now a thousand dollars a year. It’s more for those without a full time position. If management is not willing to accept this deal, then we will continue with main table bargaining as normal, seeking a three-year contract; we will be in it for the long haul, and likely will be bargaining until next year. 

Our platform for bargaining was approved last spring by membership. You asked us to focus on the following core ideas:

• Increasing wages for all GAs
• Increasing health insurance waivers
• Eliminating extra fees and charges by making tuition waivers all inclusive
• Increasing mental health and addictions counseling services 
• Developing support for GAs with families
• Providing family and medical leave policies for all GAs
• Increasing transportation assistance for all commuters
• Reducing student food insecurity
• Providing student housing support
• Removing winter pay gap
• Improving support and protections for summer student-workers
• Eliminating tuition for online and summer classes
• Increasing student representation in campus decision-making

To endorse our bargaining platform, please sign up on our website: (https://geoumb.org/geo-umass-boston-bargaining-platform-2020-2023/)

If you’re coming to Boston for the first time, going to be working on campus, or you even just need some guidance on what to do–considering how chaotic everything is and how little everyone knows–you might be looking around for a lifeline. This will help.

• UMB Covid Page (https://www.umb.edu/coronavirus)
• University Resources Home Page (https://www.umb.edu/resources4u)
• Hyperlink to Mass.gov COVID website (https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-updates-and-information)
• Information for Student-Workers (https://geoumb.org/)
• Employee Assistance Program (https://hr.umb.edu/benefits/employee-assistance) 
• Have more questions that these don’t cover? We can help. You can either email us at geo@umb.edu, and we’ll answer it as soon as we can, get in touch with us through Facebook Messenger, or come to one of our pre-semester Q&A sessions. The dates and Zoom link for both are below. 
  • August 31st, 2pm: Zoom
  • September 1st, 8pm: Zoom
  • Join Zoom Meeting
  • https://umassboston.zoom.us/j/91874491570

Additionally, please let us know if you’ve gotten any information from the university about parking on campus once the semester begins.

Hi GEO, The recent horrific ICE decision, followed with a recent executive order by Trump, is something that we have to fight. To that end, we have two actions organized by UAW. First: we’re joining AFT, SEIU, and CWA in supplying supporting documents to the Harvard/MIT lawsuit opposing the recent Trump Admin/ICE attacks on international students and workers. To that end, if you are an international student: please send in your story as an academic worker through this link. The deadline is 6pm today. If you have trouble clicking the hyperlink, you can copy and paste the url here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdgEVbOdZEXZxPwlU86V6D5SuJBep1-U3Zvcdl2_bnZ34yEHQ/viewform Some of the questions are required and ask for information about our local. That information is here: Union Affiliation: UAW 1596 How many F1 members are in your local: Approximately 200 Second: Our comrades at HGSU-UAW are hosting an action this coming Monday. Join us to say #NoStudentBan and #NODeportations. Monday, July 13th, 12pm at the MA State House. You can view the flyer here. We hope you’re able to stay safe and healthy in these difficult times. As always, you can reach out to us at geo@umb.edu, or reach out to us individually using our information below if that makes you more comfortable.

JOIN THE CARAVAN: Wednesday, June 17^th @ 11 am! 

Be part of a state-wide action to send a message to Marty Meehan and the UMass Board of Trustees: Save, Protect and Fund UMass students and workers!
 
Drivers will gather at the Boston Teachers Union parking lot (180 Mt Vernon St.) at 11 am, and walkers will gather at 1 Beacon St. in Boston at 11:30 am.

IF YOU ARE STUCK AT HOME/CAN’T JOIN, YOU CAN STILL TAKE ACTION TO HELP US GET THE MESSAGE TO UMASS PRESIDENT MEEHAN AND THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES! 

Choose from the action options below:

1. Livestream the Rally and Speeches (with music in between) at https://umassboston.zoom.us/j/91448712027

• Share the protest on your facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

• Tweet your support with the #s  —#NoCuts #NoLayoffs  #FundUMB#UMBSafe at:

Marty Meehan (@MartyMeehan) · Twitter

UMass Boston (@UMassBoston) · Twitter

University of Massachusetts (@UMass) | Twitter

• Email Pres. Meehan at mmeehan@umassp.edu and copy us at prostaff.union@umb.edu. Tell him why you need him to

 Put People First: protect our students, our health, and our jobs. 

• Save UMB: No cuts or layoffs!  Cuts and layoffs wreck our urban mission, reducing staffing, teachers, and courses.
• Protect UMB: Ensure a safe campus for all! Prioritize the health and welfare of all members of our community by protecting us from Coronavirus and police violence.
• Fund UMB: Fund Classrooms not Cops!  Budgets are priority lists–put education above policing and surveillance. 

We have a message for Marty Meehan:

Save UMB!
Protect UMB!
Fund UMB!

Join UMass Unions from across the state in a day of action 
to protect our students, our health, and our jobs.  

We demand:

• Save UMB: No cuts or layoffs!  Cuts and layoffs wreck our urban mission,  reducing staffing, teachers, and courses.
• Protect UMB: Ensure a safe campus for all! Prioritize the health and welfare of all members of our community by protecting us from Coronavirus and police violence.
• Fund UMB: Fund Classrooms not Cops!  Budgets are priority lists–put education above policing and surveillance.  

We are hosting A CAR CARAVAN PROTEST for JUNE 17TH at 11:00AM!

We’ll start with a rally at the Boston Teachers Union parking lot (180 Mount Vernon St., next to Bayside), then get in our cars to drive past the President’s office at 1 Beacon St. where we’ll meet a rally of fellow protesters and continue on to some fun and surprising destinations!  We will do a couple of slow-drive loops in loud and joyful celebration to get dear Marty to pay attention to our demands.

Don’t want to drive?  Join the stand out at 1 Beacon St to cheer on the car caravan!  You can hold signs and make a lot of noise.

Sign up to join the standout or the car caravan so we know you’re coming:  https://forms.gle/Gphv1A3ohyCzGNJq8 

If you’re interested in volunteering as a driver with someone else in your car, a photographer, a videographer, or a police liaison, please email Warren at whinckle@gmail.com.

#NoCuts #NoLayoffs  #FundUMB#UMBSafe 
#NoCuts #NoLayoffs #FundUMB#UMBSafe

UMass Boston GEO-UAW 1596 stands in solidarity with protesters and demonstrators around the world calling for justice and an end to racial inequality and police brutality. The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis PD has sparked a new wave of public outcry against the systemic racial oppression inherent in our country, and these protest have often seen violent or agitational police response. We condemn the continued violence of police against protesters. 

Students at UMass Boston have organized a protest to take place on campus later today at 5:30; the protest starts at campus center. We encourage that you show up. If we all speak as one, the state and country will have to listen.

The link to the FB event is here. 

Bring a mask, bandana, or other face covering.

Bring signs.

Wear black in solidarity with those who have been lost to police violence. 

Bring an instrument–including pots and pans–so we can make lots of noise!

Other information can be found on the facebook event page.

The Graduate Employee Organization stands in solidarity with the thousands of protesters who have been militant in demanding justice for George Floyd after his murder by four Minneapolis Police Officers: Rek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao. The killing of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and many other Black Men, Women, and gender non-binary people by the state re-entrenches the anti-Black racism underlying the U.S. criminal justice system and its law enforcement. We stand against police terror, and against the white supremacist system which police terror serves. 

In the last couple of days… [read more and sign onto our open letter here]

• After two months of meetings with the university, we re-evaluated the point of impact bargaining and came to the conclusion that management was using it to delay us from main-table bargaining, and to distract us from other issues.
• The agreement we signed still offers protections for Spring GAs, and runs to the end of Spring semester.
• We were also able to guarantee a pause on parking fees, pushed for the refunds that have come through, and got the optional statue-of-limitations delay for those who may need more time to complete their degree.
• We got the university to agree to the voluntary CDC guidelines for on-campus GAs, and managed to ensure any left-over conference funds would be rolled into next year — and spent on members who were out money due to canceled conferences this semester.
• As we shift away from impact bargaining, our focus will be to re-enter main-table bargaining with the university to get better language and protections in place for GAs–including everything we’ve talked about and been fighting for throughout early Spring before the pandemic hit.