Coalition of Graduate Employees

After a three-week hiatus, CGE met with the university’s bargaining team to hear them present a comprehensive proposal.  This was the first time the university had made a comprehensive proposal.

Incidentally, this followed on the heels of an open letter in the Barometer from CGE supporters that include the classified staff, SEIU, and ASOSU, the student government, as well as CGE members handing out fliers to OSU faculty and staff about bargaining the day before.

Without mincing words, the university’s proposal was completely unacceptable to the bargaining team.  The essential parts of their proposal are as follows:  Cutting the $300/term in fee relief, no change to health insurance, and an increase in the minimum salary to match the Graduate School’s recommended minimum.  (The minimum increase is take from CGE’s initial proposal.)

As well, the university let us know that the Oregon University System is rolling the Technology and Registration fees into tuition starting next year, along with the Engineering Fee.  This is a huge positive change for engineers, and will result in about $116/term less in fees for all graduate employees.  However, this is something that is happening outside of bargaining.  It was not actually part of the university’s proposal.

On the whole, the university’s first comprehensive proposal is very regressive for almost everyone.  For people at the bottom, the increase in salary could be a good thing depending on FTE; many grads in the College of Engineering are paid well and will see a huge cut in their fees.  However, for the vast majority of graduate employees, the university’s proposal would result in a significant cut.  The CGE bargaining team’s initial estimate is that it would be a cut of about $800,000 per year across all graduate employees.

On top of the highly regressive proposal, the university’s team managed to contradict themselves multiple times:

When they first presented their proposal, they told CGE that the increases they proposed were designed to offset the cut in the $300; however, after we asked them about it again, they told us it was never designed to totally offset the cuts.  This is in addition to having been clearly told at the beginning of bargaining that the intent of the OSU proposal was to keep the amount of money going to graduate employees the same, but to redistribute it away from fee relief.

The second contradiction occurred when OSU’s lead negotiator first stated that we needed to move quickly, and that they could bring in relevant university officials to answer questions about how specific proposals would impact different units as a way to help move bargaining along; just a few minutes later, we were told that conversations take time, and that we needed to understand that.

The third contradiction was when the university’s team told the CGE team that it was necessary for grads to take cuts in almost the same breath that they told us that some departments are giving 4% raises to their grads.

The fourth contradiction came when the CGE team asked the university to bring the cost estimates they had done and the university refused on the grounds that both sides were working from the same data.  Later in the session, the university’s team told the CGE team that the numbers had changed from those we had shown the university at the beginning of bargaining – i.e. those same numbers the university claimed they were using and that they claimed would be good enough for CGE to use.

It appears that the university’s team is willing to say whatever they think will help them without regard to the truth or consistency with previous statements.  This lack of respect shown the CGE bargaining team has been disappointing, if not surprising.

The CGE team will look at the proposal provided by the university and have a response prepared for the next bargaining session, which is on Friday, June 11^th at 2 PM in the Memorial Union Council Room.

Results are in for the 2009-2010 officer elections conducted at tonight’s general membership meeting. Next year’s officers are:

President: Rob Hess
Secretary-Treasurer: Mindy Crandall
Vice President for Collective Bargaining and Grievances: Matt Loewen
Vice President for Communications: Miriah Russo
Vice President for Organizing: Michelle Zellers

Congratulations to next year’s officers. They take office on June 1.

This term’s General Membership Meeting, open to all union members, is fast approaching.  It will be Friday, April 23rd, at 5:30 PM at the Corvallis Senior Center on the corner of 26th and Tyler.  (See below the fold for a map and directions.)

The two big items on the agenda are bargaining and the holding of officer elections for the 2010-2011 school year.  And, of course, there will be food and drink for everyone.

CGE officer positions are flexible and overlap as needed. However, certain positions have primary responsibility for certain areas.  If you are considering running and have questions, please contact the relevant officer at the email address listed.  General inquiries can be sent to unite@cge6069.org.

President: Chairs Executive Council meetings, represents the CGE to other unions and to OSU, participates in AFT and AFT-OR business. Often serves on bargaining team.  president@cge6069.org

Secretary-Treasurer: Keeps the union’s records and oversees the union’s day-to-day business routine. Reports on the union’s financial status to the membership and to AFT. Works with the Business Manager. treasurer@cge6069.org

Vice-President for Collective Bargaining: Chairs or co-Chairs bargaining team as necessary; handles grievances; generally responsible for contract administration and implementation. vp_bargaining@cge6069.org

Vice-President for Communications: Responsible for creation and publication of the newsletter; can be responsible for the majority of communications CGE sends to members and outside organizations. vp_communications@cge6069.org

Vice-President for Organizing: Oversees membership orientation and recruitment, Rep structure, and member benefits. Works with Staff Organizer.  vp_organizing@cge6069.org

There’ll also be plenty of food and drink for all who attend (as long as you RSVP). Hope to see you there!

(See below the fold for a map and directions to the senior center.)

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After about a year and a half, the 2008 $34 Summer Session Tuition Base case is closed, and the conclusion is a CGE victory in arbitration.  Under the arbitrator’s decision, OSU must reimburse all grad employees who were in the bargaining unit during Summer Session 2008 for the cost of the $34 charge.

The arbitrator’s written decision lays out that, because of the way the money from the summer session tuition base is used, the charge is really tuition and not a fee and is thus subject to remission under the tuition waiver guaranteed by our contract. Because arbitration hearings are generally precedent-setting, this reasoning may actually become a useful tool for CGE in fighting fees going forward. The decision itself is an interesting read, and I’d recommend it for anyone who has the time (it’s about as long as a regular academic conference paper).  You can download it below:

• Arbitrator’s decision on the 2008 $34 Summer Session Tuition Base case

There are about 130 or so grad employees who were in the BU during Summer Session 2008 who will be reimbursed under this decision.  Unfortunately, since OSU is not legally bound to apply contract protections to those not in the BU, the approximately 230 grad employees who were out of the BU during Summer Session 2008 and were forced to pay the $34 charge will not be reimbursed under this decision.  (This is just one more example why the OSU administration should agree to include all grad employees in the BU, as CGE has proposed in bargaining this year.)

If you are in the class of employees who will be reimbursed as a result of this decision, you will soon receive a check for $34, regardless of whether or not you are still at OSU.  Those in the affected class of employees should also expect to receive more detailed individual correspondence regarding this matter from CGE in the near future. If you believe you should be reimbursed and do not receive a check within the next few months, please contact CGE.

There’s change underfoot at OSU.

No, literally.  Along with wrappers, empty bottles, and a bunch of other garbage.  You might have noticed the buildings of the OSU campus becoming dirtier and dirtier lately.  That’s because, about a week before Christmas, the company that OSU contracts with for custodial service laid off about 1/3 of their workforce.

Why did they do that?  Because OSU cut the amount of money going to the company, GCA Services Group, by about 1/3, or $400,000.

Here’s how it went down:  Around December 18^th, the entire custodial staff – 94 people – were called to an all-staff meeting at 6 AM, right at shift change.  It was announced that new runs (a run is the regular route for custodial staff) were being created.  Based on seniority, custodial staff picked new runs.  When they hit 61, the projector went off and employees were told that anyone who had not received a new route was now laid off.

One week before Christmas.  One week.

Services Employees International Union Local 083, or SEIU, is the union that represents the custodial workers.  They have released a petition for faculty, staff and students at OSU to sign that requests that OSU President Ray and Provost Randhawa restore the $400,000 to the GCA contract.

CGE is urging our members, and all graduate employees, to sign the petition (you can contact your CGE Rep about this as well).  There is a certain minimum level of service that must be maintained if OSU is going to function (to say nothing of the level necessary to actually attract people or the level necessary to prevent flu or other outbreaks), and right now, the services being offered are far below that level.

Online petition here.

Fact sheet about this issue here.

Corvallis Gazette-Times story on this here.