GAU Bargaining Blog: Update #5
As the semester gets underway, contract negotiations continue. At this point, the contract negotiations team is deep in the throes of bargaining with representatives of the university. Negotiations have moved past sharing proposals and firmly into negotiating what’s been brought to the table: both on language of the proposals where there is common ground and on the contents of proposals where there has yet to be any consensus on the content.
The overall goal in these meetings is to have the bargaining units (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. 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 are currently making progress on solidifying contract language and approaching tentative agreements on the process of pay level advancement, parking, overwork, and disciplinary procedures for GAs.
We’ve also introduced the idea of research incentives for graduate students, which we brought forward to the team from URI for consideration during these negotiations. Our initial proposal of the research incentives was met with a promising level of interest from the representatives of URI, who seem to have interest in continuing to discuss these incentives during negotiations.
Next, GAU will continue to work on pushing for results on bigger items, especially expanding and improving the current grievance process for grad students and pushing for improved health insurance. As always, we want to hear from you! If you have questions, comments, or concerns, about the bargaining process, your GA contract, or your rights and responsibilities as GAs at URI, send us an email at uri.gau@gmail.com!
In solidarity,
URI Graduate Assistants United