CGE General Membership Meeting
1-28-2016, 5:30 PM, Corvallis Senior Center

 

Welcome from CGE President Kris Osterloh

• Overview of AFT-Oregon Convention (April 8-10, 2016). This is our opportunity to work with other AFT-OR locals to direct what the state federation does next. We’ll elect delegates tonight.
• OSU’s Board of Trustees is meeting tomorrow. Observe how the Board is governing OSU and have an opportunity for public comment toward the end.

 

Convention Resolutions: CGE’s Convention Committee (Soil Science Steward Shannon Andrews, External Relations Chair Clint Mattox, and VP for Communications Stephanie Parreira) introduce the resolutions they’ve been working on. We take feedback from members tonight. The final vote for approval will be at the February 16 Steward Council meeting.

• Education as a public good: resolution for AFT to fund an awareness campaign
• Remove Congressional block on gun violence research: resolution for AFT to lobby Congress
• Mandatory training on implicit bias and anti-oppression for public employees in Oregon
• AFT-OR accountability on resolutions passed at Convention

 

Convention Delegate Elections: Members had previously submitted 39 nominations pre-printed on the ballots. We open the floor for write-in nominations and receive the following: Kalbi Zongo, Ross Overacker, Ben Hart, Sarah Light, and Jessica Armstrong. Nominees who are present speak briefly about why they’d like to go to Convention. Friends speak for those who are absent. The election committee will be Erin Abernethy, Emily Khazan, and Amélie Ollivier. Secret ballots are cast, to be counted when the meeting adjourns. (See the election results here.)

 

Organizing in Relation to Friedrichs v. CTA: Kris and VP for Organizing Vance Almquist give an explanation of what fair share is, what the Supreme Court is hearing in the case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, and what a potential loss of fair share would mean for CGE. We then move into break-out groups to talk about how CGE can organize better and what obstacles may currently be keeping people from becoming members or becoming active. Then the group facilitators report back to summarize the discussions at their tables.

 

Bargaining Update from VP for Bargaining Thomas Morrill: This last Monday (January 25) was our first bargaining session! Our platform is based on negotiating a FAIRER contract. We have 6 more sessions scheduled already – we’ll email reminders across the Members list and post them on the Facebook group. At the next session (Friday, February 5), we’ll be discussing health insurance. As always, it’s super helpful to have support through members observing bargaining sessions.

 

Open Floor:

• Thomas puts in a good word for a cool OSU student radio show, Inspiration Dissemination, where grads can talk about their research.
• Sam talks about OSU Divest and A Better Oregon petition for a ballot measure related to minimum corporate taxes in Oregon.
• Brittany asks and Clint answers about the Steelworkers / ATI lockout: They’re still locked out of work, but they’re back to the bargaining table.
• Kevin and Vance remark on the Oregon Political Tax Credit and the Oregon Arts Credit.

 

Singing of “Solidarity Forever” to Adjourn