UI official Robin Kaler responds to rising fears about GEO strike

Great reporting!
Hey DI-- great job with some fair and balanced reporting. I'm sure with such hard-driving coverage, you are all destined for great things in the world of journalism.

I SECOND THIS!

Really. You know what's amazing? The fact that the comments provide more information, evidence, research, and perspective than the actual article. I'm seriously wondering if this is some polemic-pitching-tactic of the DI to make people respond to such poor journalism and thus create active debates, or if it really is just poor journalism. I'm thinking the latter.

biased. *******. propaganda.

My interest in the issues of the potential Graduate Employees’ Organization strike stems from my support for graduate students. One of the primary sticking points is the clause that would prevent graduate students from renegotiating or filling grievances over the next few years.

Consider how you might react after finishing years of coursework, finishing the qualifying exams for your PhD, years of sacrifice, working on a dissertation and hearing that tuition waivers will be cut; essentially meaning you would be unable to complete your degree and find employment.

Anyone who has taught courses as a graduate student knows the work commitment and expectations are far beyond the amount reimbursed. In addition to a teaching position, I work another 10-20 hour-a-week job along with financial-aid loans while simultaneously working to finish my PhD.

I care that the current administration contract proposal would prevent the GEO from re-opening bargaining if, for example, the administration sought to eliminate tuition waivers. From the GEO’s perspective, it appears that budget priorities are simply out of place. When campus revenues rose by 7% in FY 2009, only 0.8% ($2.7 million) went to undergraduate instruction. Meanwhile, the Chief Information Officer’s budget rose by 10.9 percent ($1.6 million), and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics budget increased 6.2 percent ($4.1 million). “Other administrative units” also received approximately a 10% raise. The GEO’s living wage proposal represents only .17% of the UIUC budget.

The salary of employees of the university is public record. It is interesting to see the disparity; knowing that without graduate student employment, the university simply cannot function. Any undergraduate at the university who is honest with themselves know it’s primarily their graduate student teaching assistant or TA they have individual personal contact with, their TA who grades their work, their TA who assists during office hours, their TA who writes their letters of recommendation, and that they will graduate having personally interacted primarily with graduate students and virtually no professors.

To Support the GEO on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/GEO/171984109397?ref=ss

Or: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=201800650265&v=wall

To Support the GEO contact:

Dear Chair Kennedy: http://citizenspeak.org/node/1808 or
Dear Provost Easter: http://citizenspeak.org/node/1807

You can also call:
Phone Numbers and Script:
Christopher G. Kennedy, President MMPI Phone: (312) 527-7890 ex: 7890 Or:
Robert Easter, Interim Provost Phone: (217) 244-4545

Over the past year I have become increasingly disappointed with the way the administration and university as a whole operates. They have been hostile to negotiations from the beginning. I plan to leave in the spring with my masters and continue my education elsewhere and I suspect this will be a growing trend if things do not change soon.

"Other employees of the University did not receive raises this year, and it is likely they will face furloughs and some will lose their jobs in the current fiscal year."

It is frustrating to see time and again that administrators like Kaler continue to try and pit graduate employees, undergraduate students, and campus workers against one another. Graduate Workers on this campus are not calling for the University to give them a living wage at the expense of other low-paid campus workers or at the expense of undergraduate education. Quite the contrary. Students and workers on this campus are finally mobilizing together to demand that their labor and education are taken seriously and respected. Paying all workers a living wage is the responsibility of any reputable institution. Kaler and other officials ought to admit that it is a CHOICE on their part to furlough and layoff workers. It is a CHOICE to pay some on campus less than a living wage and offer other top administrators bloated salaries. They could make a different choice, but they don't. And instead, they shamelessly and repeatedly attempt to pass the buck onto the workers themselves, blaming them for their own exploitation and pitting them against one another.

Luckily, workers and students on this campus know better--and we won't stand for it.

In the count of bargaining session, Robin Kaler neatly skims over the fact that the University refrained from matter-of-course contract negotiations with union reps for months, to the point where it took on the character of refusal to talk. The University's lack of action in this regard caused federal arbitration to become necessary. This is not just another normal part of the bargaining process, but a result of the University's decision to de-prioritize its workers. Let's not forget that GA's and TA's are students as well, and they have a right to fair pay (which they do not get: the gap between the stipend and living wage is made up by federal loans, so essentially the University operates on Stafford-loan welfare). They, too, will be unable to go to classes, and they want to perform their duties. If they did not want to work and become educated, they would not have decided on graduate school in the first place. Remember, they are students, too. The separation in rhetoric of undergrads and grads represents an effort by the University to weaken the student body and set an "us-vs-them" mentality, contrary to professed educational goals. Millions sound like a lot coming from Kaler, but this is a tiny fragment of the budget.

Fact: graduate students have the legal right to strike, which you could hardly tell from Ms. Kaler's comments.

"We would hope assistants respect their instructional obligations and do not impair students’ progress in their current courses."
The GEO has been hoping the University would respect their legal obligation to bargain with us in good faith, but we've been waiting since April and it's still not happening.

Fact: The University moved Saturday's 11th-hour bargaining session to Williard Airport in an attempt to restrict our rights to a) sit in on the session and b) to freely assemble. This is the same union-busting tactic the administration tried the last time we bargained, three years ago.

"The GEO’s current wage demands, when added to the health benefit increases to which the University has already agreed, would cost more than $5.21 million."

Fact: "The FY 2010 operating budget is $4.7 billion."
http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/2009/11/12/board-of-trustees-meet...

We are asking for a small part of the University's considerable budget. Education first!

Seriously, University Administration AND GEO... I'm paying nearly $25,000 to attend this school. Please work something out so this great University doesn't become even more of a joke than it has become already this year.

Who here has any legal knowledge... because I'm thinking of doing the math and seeing how much each class costs me, and I plan on suing the University for that amount back if I am not able to attend that class due to the fact my teacher is striking.