Weekly Newsletter 2/5/24

Upcoming Events
2/5 Monday - Tabling at Plaza of the Americas 10am-2pm
2/6 Tuesday - Tabling at IFAS Millhopper (Fisheries) 1pm-5pm
BLITZ Kickoff Social - Rhines Hall Rm 125 5pm-7pm
2/7 Wednesday- Tabling at Plaza of the Americas 10am-2pm
- Organizing Meeting 5-7pm Zoom
2/8 Thursday - Tabling at Veterinary Medicine 1pm-5pm
- Bargaining session 1-3pm at Reitz G320 and Zoom
NEXT WEEK: 2/12-16 - BLITZ (sign up here)

GAU LOVES your support
We are kicking off February with a pre-BLITZ social this upcoming Tuesday. We are excited to come together as a community, show solidarity and eat delicious food. All members are welcome to join. We will be demonstrating our organizing tools, discord revamp and printing custom T-shirts! (Please bring a white T-shirt and spread the word)! Our blitz is quickly approaching and next week we hope you will join us as we canvas campus to save our union. 

Do you have 2 hours to spare next week? More? Even if you just learned about our union, we can use your help! GAU will give you all the tools you need (and a more experienced buddy) to join in on the fun. SIGN UP

Bargaining Updates
from Thursday Feb 1st
See YouTube for Full Recording
Article 5 - Employee Performance Evaluations 

• GAU is trying to create protections for students who are “deficient” according to their evaluations by amending article 5 to require a “personal improvement plan” or PIP.
  • In short: students deemed “deficient” by an advisor would be offered a PIP that includes concrete ways to improve their performance and they would be given at least 60 days to improve.
• GAU is also attempting to use this mechanism to provide some protections for GAs who may be non-renewed at the sole discretion of the university 
  • This “renewal” happens every time a student receives a new letter of appointment - may be every semester, 9 months, year, etc. 

Article 8 - Leaves of Absence 

• GAU proposed to amendments at this session

1. First semester GAs who have a baby by birth or surrogacy or have a child placed with them via adoption are eligible for the 8 week paid leave
   1. This is to “carve out” an exception to the rule that a GA MUST be in their second semester to be eligible for paid leave (for any reason)
2. In the case of unpaid leaves, previous proposals have not included a qualifier for medical emergencies - all unpaid leaves must be requested 10 days in advance. Our new proposal included a 24 hour verbal notice in these cases.

Article 20 - Other Employee Rights 

• UF last proposed an edit claiming that potential violations of health and safety must be “reasonable” to be investigated. GAU removed this from the counter-proposal as it is already clear in the contract that any request for investigation must be in good faith.

Graduate Housing - Maguire Village/UVS  (help and information needed)
The McNair Bostick Memorial wooden bench swing is missing! Despite several attempts to garner more information, it is still unclear if the bench was stolen or possibly thrown out or sold by UF housing. This is incredibly disrespectful to the graduate student community and his family. 
Furthermore:

• an entire BUS STOP is missing at Maguire Village
•  all picnic tables are gone
• swings have been removed from swingsets, and the borders have been ripped up. 
• Many of the stairwells have wood barriers installed over them
• There are locks on all gates
  • This has prevented a UF professor from holding class there

We need more information about the damage and intentional changes happening to the area. We also need advocacy from graduate students who these issues affect! Student government refused to hear the complaint that votes were not counted and that there is no graduate housing senator. Additionally, SG has no list of who lives in graduate housing, and this perpetuates the problem of ballots not being properly issued. More faces and voices advocating for graduate housing rights will mean more accountability for UF. If you have any information, or want to be involved in any way please email: [email protected] or join our discord and add the housing role to gain access to the housing committee channel and join in the conversation.

Organizing Updates
Nearly there, and just in time for BLITZ! Our current card count is 1465 so we only need 311 more to reach our goal of 40% (1776). We have had cards mailed in from all over the state and personally collected and delivered by GA volunteers and stewards in nearly every department. 

Of course this is only the beginning of our fight to save our union. This will give us another year (until March 2025) to get to the 60% membership benchmark that we need to keep our union’s certification. We are just over 30% membership currently after getting set back to 0% less than 1 year ago. To get to 60% in time we would need to gain ~30 members every week.Thats a big task but, every conversation helps! 

Talk to your fellow GA’s and let them know why YOU don’t want to lose GAU. Florida will continue to pass down legislation that puts members of our community at risk, our labor union is so vital to protecting everyone in our community from injustice. Remind your friends that the benefits of joining far outweigh the cost and the deadline is NOW!

GatorGradCare Wellness Screenings - Get a free $50 gift card!
​Check your email and schedule your GatorWell screening! With a quick screening and short survey you will get a $50 amazon gift card. Take advantage of this benefit and come see us while you're at it. We will have a table at each screening check-in location. Sign a card if you haven't already or come chat with us about our union.

Discord and open committees
We recently redesigned our discord (thanks to Brandon Silva, GAU treasurer and bargaining team member) with the focus of making it EASIER to access information, join committees and ask questions. Every single committee is facing major pushback due to Florida legislation, UF bureaucracy, lack of support or, in most cases, all three.  If you have a topic you care about and even a few hours to spare please join our discord and let us know! We have committees for healthcare, international GA concerns, government relations, housing, family and childcare, greivances, bargaining, communications, and organizing. GAU leadership and committee chairs would be delighted to share more information about any and all of these committees and their current focus. Even if you do not have spare time, we would love to have your voice in our discord community.

Connect With Us
Email us: [email protected]
Join our office hours: 8:30-11:30 Mon,Wed,Thurs and 12:45-2:45 Tues (Yon Hall Rm 224)
Find us at a tabling event: 2/5: Plaza of the Americas 10am-2pm, 2/6: IFAS Millhopper (Fisheries Unit) 1pm-5pm, 2/7: Plaza of the Americas 10am-2pm, 2/8: Veterinary Medicine (academic building) 1pm-5pm

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