Bargaining Update #3

Yesterday, our Contract Action Team headed back to the bargaining table to continue working on our next contract, and here’s what you need to know:

Negotiations have moved past sharing proposals and firmly into negotiating what’s been brought to the table. The overall goal in these meetings is to have both sides (GAU and URI) come to tentative agreements on the proposals that they have negotiated. A tentative agreement means that both sides of the table have been able to work out a resolution on the proposal issues that they feel can be agreed upon by both respective parties. It’s not an official change until it’s ratified by membership, but it’s an initial “okay” from both parties. Once there are confirmed tentative agreements on various issues, these proposals will be brought to the whole bargaining unit – including you! – to consider, vote on, and ratify.

So, where are we at right now? GAU and the reps of URI have reached “Tentative Agreements” or “TAs” with the University admin on a few items, including clarifications to language in the contract, codifying some common practice items, and protections for our bargaining unit.

In addition, we’ve also started to reach some common ground on some of the proposals, even though they haven’t reached a TA yet. There are some places in our proposals where admin are on board with the ideas, but want to clarify language or process or proposals where we are working together to come up with agreeable changes to the current contract. This is good news for us, because it means that while there are still things like language or specific parameters to iron out, we’re making progress with the admin on some of our issues.

However, there is still a lot of work to be done! As you can see, this is a long process – one that involves a lot of consistent effort from our bargaining and research teams. Your continued support and involvement (including coming out to our Town Hall and making your voices heard) helps us immensely as we fight for a better contract. Keep showing up! Keep making your voice heard! We’re going to keep doing the same to make sure this is our best contract yet.

We will be continuing to bargain for more pay, less fees, and improvement to our quality of living as graduate students. Remember, URI works because WE DO! The labor that GAs provide for the university is essential to them, and our knowledge, labor, and skills are all valuable. GAU is committed to continuing to fight to improve working conditions and factors that contribute directly to our quality of life!

Our next meeting with the admin is April 29th, so keep following along with the bargaining progress. If you want to get involved and help us in the fight for better contracts, send us an email at uri.gau@gmail.com!

In solidarity,

Graduate Assistants United

Bargaining Update #2

This week, the Negotiation Team headed back to the bargaining table- this time, to hear counter-proposals from URI's admin. Here's what you need to know:

They outright rejected many of our proposals, including those aimed at alleviating financial hardship (like food insecurity); expanding housing opportunities; and addressing the dire need of graduate students to have access to sufficient parking on campus.

We were, however, able to quickly agree on a few language updates and clarifications in the contract. These were minor clarifications in language or changes to reflect current practice more clearly.

There are also several items that the administration are working on counter proposals for, meaning they have not outright rejected our initial proposals to address certain issues, but are not willing to agree to exactly what we proposed. This means that these are areas of the contract where the administration is looking for mutually beneficial solutions to bring to the table in the next meetings.

If you're thinking, "No.. is this it? Will we not be able to get a better contract?"

This is just the beginning of negotiations. We will be continuing to work and fight to get our grad assistants the best contract we can. And, as you all know by now, our strength is in our numbers! Help us by doing the following:

1. Fill out our Qualtrics Survey, and tell us (and URI admin) how these issues affect you! Check your email for the link!

2.   The South Kingstown Planning Department is meeting on March 25th at 6:30pm at South Kingstown Town Hall about converting the old Schneider Electric Building (by the train station) into 325 housing units (25% of which would be affordable). Let's come out and show our support!

3. The Rhode Island House Finance Committee Education Subcommittee is having a hearing on the education budget next Tuesday the 25th at 6:30pm at the State House. The House Finance Committee finalizes the budget. We are having members of our committee come out to read testimonies from URI graduate students - if you would like to testify, email us (uri.gau@gmail.com) about your experience/struggles (we don’t have to include your name when reading them out)!

4. Most importantly- Monday, April 7th at 5:30 PM (in the Higgins Welcome Center Anchor Room), GAU’s Graduate Student Advocacy Committee is hosting a town hall. We will be speaking with various Rhode Island senators and representatives about our struggles to find housing and to make ends meet. RSVP here and tell your friends..

Folks, URI works because WE DO. Let's work together to make our voices heard!

We'll see you soon! Yours in solidarity,

URI Graduate Assistants United

Bargaining Update #1

Negotiations are underway. Here’s what you need to know!

Last week, members of GAU’s Contract Action Team met with representatives from URI’s administration to share our proposals for the new contract. GAU had the opportunity to share each proposal for the changes that we’re fighting for in the new contract, and hear initial questions from the admin about our proposed changes. We are asking for higher wages, better benefits, less student fees, workable solutions to our housing and parking concerns, and more for our graduate assistants.

The next step in the negotiations process is for the administration to meet with each other, talk over our proposals, and get back to us with their own proposals. Then, we’ll meet again after spring break to hear their counter-proposals for the contract. This gives representatives on both sides of the table a chance to hear out important issues, see where there’s already common ground, and find out what issues will need to be taken to the bargaining table going forward.

It will be a few weeks before we meet with the admin again, but in the meantime, we want to hear from you! Please fill out our Contract Negotiations Survey (check your emails!) and tell us about your life as a graduate assistant at URI. And, if you want to get involved in negotiations and help our research team during negotiations, email us at uri.gau@gmail.com!

To stay on top of what’s happening with GAU, don’t forget to check out the GAU’s website blog and our socials:

Add us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/urigau

Add us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/URIGAU

Add us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/urigau/

Yours in solidarity,

URI Graduate Assistants United

Negotiations Kick Off!

Dear Graduate Students,

Negotiations for the new Graduate Assistants contract have begun! This past week, representatives from the GAU’s Contract Negotiations Team met with representatives from URI to set up the ground rules for negotiations for the new GA contracts. The ground rules were agreed upon and formal negotiations are set to take place over the coming weeks! You can follow along here to keep up with the progress of negotiations and what you can do to help GAU negotiate our new contract.

The GAU’s Contract Negotiations team has been hard at work preparing for contract negotiations between the GAU and the University: meeting with our representative from NEARI, researching, hearing from our grad students, writing contract proposals, and working to serve the needs of our graduate students here at URI as we negotiate our new contract with the University. The GAU has previously bargained for raises, health insurance, dental and vision insurance, parking passes, better anti-discrimination protections, a more robust grievance procedure, and more. For the upcoming contract, you’ve voiced your priority concerns and we’ve listened! Our grad assistants want more competitive wages, reduced student fees, more support for housing and parking issues, and more. We’re committed to bargaining for the best contract possible for our fellow grad students.

In the coming weeks, the GAU will need your support, to bring visibility to the critical work and contributions that our graduate student population brings to the University of Rhode Island. This is a great time to get involved in the Contract Action Team, which will help provide support to GAU as negotiations progress. Being involved in our negotiations is a way to help the GAU have the best resources and assistance to have the strongest negotiations and best contract that we can. There are lots of ways that you can be involved, from quick actions like amplifying the work of our grads to bigger roles in organizing action. Whatever way you can choose to get involved, you’ll be helping the negotiations team and building our graduate students’ network of support as we work to protect and advocate for grad students at URI. Our union is stronger when we work together! So, email uri.gau@gmail.com to get involved!

To stay on top of what’s happening with GAU, don’t forget to check out GAU’s Bargaining Blog, right here, and our socials:

Add us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/urigau

Add us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/URIGAU

Add us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/urigau/

Yours in solidarity,

URI Graduate Assistants United

Let's Get Ready to Negotiate!

It’s almost time to negotiate our new contracts! As you may know, our current contract expires next August, so it will soon be time for us to meet with the Administration and negotiate the next contract for our Graduate Assistants!

To get started, we are asking our Graduate Assistants to USE YOUR VOICE and tell us WHAT MATTERS TO YOU in our next contract negotiations. Do you want better pay? Better parking? Improved leave? Less student fees?

Members, check your emails and fill out our Contract Negotiations Survey to make your voice heard!

Want to get involved with our Contract Negotiations Team? Let us know! Email uri.gau@gmail.com and let us know if you’d like to help as:

• Contract Captain - responsible for communicating with your peers, updating everyone on what's happening at negotiations, and helping drive turnout to Union actions;

• Researcher - responsible for researching data for our contract proposals: looking at salary data for administrators, other union contracts, or other resources to help get the data we need;

• Contract Action Team - commit to helping with action and initiatives like letter writing, social media campaigns, button making, and more while we negotiate.

• Or, if you want to be involved, but you’re not sure how yet, email us and let us know!

Let’s show up for each other and negotiate our best contract yet! SOLIDARITY FOREVER!