Coalition of Graduate Employees

Sadly, CGE recently found out that Chad, our long-time Organizer, will be leaving us after Feb. 15th to take a new job with the VA in Roseburg, helping his fellow servicemen recover from the mental stress of military life.

This will be a major loss for CGE. Under Chad’s guidance, we have steadily increased our membership to record numbers. In fact, if you’re a member of this Union, there’s a good chance that Chad was the one who helped bring you into the fold. Chad also played a huge role in helping to resolve grievances and to otherwise help our members any way he could, and he worked every day to help keep the Union running.  Not to mention, he is just an all-around agreeable dude.

Needless to say, we will miss Chad immensely, and if you were affected by his good work, you probably will too. So, if you get a chance, drop Chad an email (organizer@cge6069.org), and help to let him know how much we appreciate all that he’s done for us.

Join us!

Executive Council meetings for Summer 2008 will be every other Wednesday @ 3 PM in our office, beginning June 25th.

Everyone is welcome, so come see the inner workings of your union.

What employment issues are most important to you? CGE is beginning the process of bargaining a new contract with OSU that will take effect in 2008, and we want to know what aspects of your employment you would like addressed in that contract. Make your voice heard by taking the 2007-08 BARGAINING SURVEY. It will take only a few minutes, and the results will help the CGE bargaining team decide what issues to focus on as they begin to prepare for negotiations.

Yesterday dozens of grad assistants gathered at Kerr Hall for the first step in this year’s bargaining process, delivering to the university’s representatives a formal notice of our intent to negotiate a new contract. Before delivering the notice, CGE Vice President for Collective Bargaining Joe Tyburczy (Zoology) addressed the assembled members to explain the importance of the task we are undertaking and how all of our combined efforts help to ensure success in reaching the bargaining goals set by the membership.

After Joe’s address we decided we would all go inside to deliver the notice. Our first stop was the Graduate School, and after that we went to a couple of Human Resources offices to deliver the notice to the Director of Human Resources. Finally, after our business was concluded, we retired to Bombs Away Cafe for fellowship and refreshment.

The fact that dozens of grad assistants cared enough to come help deliver this letter lets OSU know how important this contract is to us. However, this was just the first step in the process of bargaining the new contract. In order to be successful we will need to sustain and even build upon this effort by turning out grad assistants throughout the bargaining process. We look forward to seeing you at the next event!

Pictures from the event

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