[Peace-discuss] AWARE statement in support of GEO and their labor struggle against the U of I administration?

[Stuart Levy]

I should have brought this up at Sunday's meeting, but here is a
proposal by e-mail:

I suggest that AWARE offer a public statement in support of the GEO in
their labor negotiations against the U of I administration.

The argument is not solely over pay and benefits, which would be worthy
enough; the administration's proposal would redefine graduate students'
tuition waivers as basically optional, dependent on available
funding.    This naturally would mean that tuition waivers wouldn't
remain widely available for long.   Worse, since the administration
considers that the GEO contract only covers grad students with tuition
waivers, the GEO's bargaining power would shrink as the waivers were
taken away.   The GEO considers this a really serious attack, and
community support is critical.

The GEO in the past has gone out of their way to support issues which
AWARE has also supported, such as the case of Steven Salaita - they
consider the role of a labor union to extend far beyond simply taking
care of its current members' employment, and they put real substantive
resources into their mission of solidarity with other issues in our
community, including ones of direct interest to AWARE.   For example,
the GEO spoke out against the firing of Steven Salaita.

Below is a template of a letter we could sign on to.   What do people
think of this?

====

We, [organization], support the Graduate Employees’ Organization in
their effort to bargain a fair contract with the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign. Graduate employees at UIUC have been without a
contract since August 2017 and have been in negotiations since March
2017. We urge Provost Cangellaris to accept the GEO’s proposals for a
new collective bargaining agreement which preserves graduate employees’
tuition waivers, pays them a living wage, and provides them and their
dependents with affordable, accessible healthcare and childcare resources.


Graduate employees perform essential work for the University as Teaching
and Graduate Assistants. At some point, every undergraduate student is
taught by a graduate instructor, and over 2,500 graduate workers on this
campus provide invaluable labor. In fact, Illinois ranks 6th in the
country
<https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2017-02-21/10-universities-where-tas-teach-the-most-classes>among
universities where graduate employees teach the most classes. Grad
employees make Illinois work.

The university administration is attempting to cut the tuition waivers
that are an essential part of grad workers’ compensation. They insist on
removing protections for tuition waivers that GEO won in 2009, and
fought to keep in 2012. They want to give themselves “authority to waive
tuition” and the “right to determine and modify tuition waivers for each
graduate program,” enabling them to not only cut tuition waivers, but to
replace waiver-generating appointments with hourly graduate positions
not covered by GEO’s contract. They’ve also recently revealed a plan to
legally prevent GEO from striking over tuition waivers, a drastic
measure that shows their intent to break the union: by replacing
graduate appointments covered by GEO’s contract, the administration
would have the power to erode and ultimately eliminate GEO’s bargaining
unit.


On top of this, the administration refuses to pay graduate workers a
living wage, and refuses to provide health care and child care resources
for those with dependents. Teaching and Graduate Assistants making the
minimum salary earn about $6,000 less than the University’s own
published cost of living
<https://registrar.illinois.edu/g-additional-expenses-1718>and most have
not received a raise in five years. The administration is also refusing
to provide healthcare coverage for dependents of graduate workers, or a
childcare subsidy for graduate worker parents. Without these important
benefits, graduate workers will not have financial stability and
graduate school will not be equally accessible to everyone.


For these reasons, the GEO has declared that it will strike on February
26th to protect both tuition waivers and its survival.


We urge Provost Cangellaris and the University bargaining team to work
with GEO to provide graduate employees with a fair contract. If the
Graduate Employees’ Organization is forced to strike, we understand that
this drastic measure signals the University administration’s
unwillingness to resolve negotiations at the bargaining table. We will
support actions deemed necessary by graduate employees to protect
themselves, undergraduates, and the integrity and quality of education
at the University of Illinois. All graduate employees, students, and
workers deserve better living, learning, and working conditions.

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