WHAT
IS A LABOR UNION?
Have We Always Had a Union at UF? In the late 1970s professional workers and public employees, including teachers and faculty, began to form labor unions alongside blue collar and other workers to recognize their growing inability to achieve success as individual political actors. While the first faculty unions were formed as early as the 1930s, collective bargaining rights were not typically granted until the 1970s in most universities and community colleges. GAU is one of the oldest graduate unions, officially recognized upon majority employee vote in 1981. In response to growing political power among public educators in the state, the Florida legislature cynically attempted in 2001 to "de-certify" all unions at the Big Ten four-year schools, including GAU. In response, GAU activists mounted the largest among successful academic union authorization card drives in American history. In 2003-2004 thousands of grad employees signed cards saying they wanted GAU to continue to represent them as a union. Based on overwhelming support, the Board of Trustees then recognized GAU's legal right to continue as the labor union for all professional grad workers at UF.
Graduate Assistants United is a real labor union, not a student council, student government, or roundtable of scholars. We are legally recognized by the State of Florida as the sole agent of collective bargaining for the purposes of determining wages, benefits, and other conditions of employment for all graduate workers at the University of Florida, Florida A & M University, and the University of South Florida. While other groups may represent your interest as a student, a scholar, or a member of an academic discipline, only GAU can create binding contracts with the University Board of Trustees. This contract, or Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the only thing that keeps administrators, departments, and budget cuts from altering or discontinuing your tuition waiver, health benefits (USF and UF), grievance procedures, academic freedom, and pay raises. Without the CBA, administrators could arbitrarily change any condition or term of your employment.
STILL DON'T THINK WE NEED A UNION? Think again. UF is largely run by graduate assistants, who do a majority of the research and over 50% [!] of the PRIMARY instruction in UF's undergraduate courses. Although they claim to share our interests, UF administrators routinely undermine graduate funding and programs. They fought for years to keep health benefits, gauranteed tuition waivers, and other necessities out of the pool of competitive package items for grads at UF. While relations with the adminstration have improved vastly over the last decade, this has only come because of the constant vigilance of grad workers like you. Get involved. Join GAU. And get others to do the same!!!
