------------------------------------------------------------ Graduate Assistants United eNewsletter Vol. 2, No. 6, December 20, 2002 http://www.ufgau.org ------------------------------------------------------------ You are being sent this newsletter because GAU represents you in employment matters as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Florida. ============================================================ IN THIS ISSUE: Pay Raise Grievance - SETTLED! Health Insurance! Contract Expires January 6th Minimum Stipend Grievance Update UI-UC Wins Certification Vote! Membership Drive Int'l Student Issues: - Presentation at BOT Meeting - Full-time Status - $50 Fee Research Participants Wanted GAU History ============================================================ *** PAY RAISE GRIEVANCE - SETTLED! The pay raise grievance affecting 1,295 graduate assistants has effectively been settled now (signatures are being overnight airmailed as this email goes to press). We were denied this grievance at Step 1 of the grievance process, and it was settled at Step 2. The University agrees to: "Provide a 2.5% pay raises effective beginning December 20, 2002 or the start of the spring semester contract whichever is earliest, for all graduate assistants whose total FTE equals or exceeds 0.25 FTE and who were employed October 1, 2002 and did not receive a 2.5% pay increase on October 1, 2002." Assuming the recipients of this pay raise stay on as graduate assistants for the next 3-1/2 years, the total dollar amount of this settlement is 1.2 million dollars, or an average of $950.17 per person. This settlement more than covers the cost of union dues (1% of base salary), and we encourage people to download a membership form if they have not done so already http://www.ufgau.org/join.shtml There are 23 graduate assistants whose appointments are below 0.25 FTE, and this settlement does not cover them nor does it preclude them from filing further grievances on this matter. Please reply to this email if you have questions or concerns. Be sure to thank our Grievance Officer, Craig Rinne, for all his hard work on this. *** HEALTH INSURANCE! GAU had a "Special Consultation" with President Young's representatives (Assistant Provost Victor Yellen and Graduate School Associate Dean Dr. Gerhardt). These special consultations are provided for in our collective bargaining agreement. The university, thanks in a large part to the efforts of GAU over the years, does have money budgeted for health insurance for graduate assistants next year. The university is no longer receiving a political "no" from the State, but there are still significant technical problems to overcome in the accounting process. The University would like to use the Student Health Insurance Plan as the insurance provider. GAU, while acknowledging the Student Health Insurance Plan could be quickly and easily implimented, does have concerns about the Student Health Insurance Plan as a long-term solution. First, we would only be able to negotiate price, we would be forced to accept the coverage provided in the plan. Second, and most importantly, we suspect the risk pool would be more adverse if we included voluntary participants from outside the covered population. But we are still evaluating this, and certainly welcome input from anybody who has health insurance expertise or knowledge of economics. The university would like to include those people on fellowship in the plan as well, which would be about 500-600 people. Post-docs have been re-classified as faculty and are now eligible for health insurance in the faculty plan. *** CONTRACT EXPIRES JANUARY 6th, 2003 By State law, the University Board of Trustees (BOT) will assume full control of the university on January 7th, 2003, and our collective bargaining agreement will expire on January 6th. Nobody knows for sure what is going to happen then. One possibility is that the State Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) will re-certify the UF-BOT as the successor employer, extend the expiration date of our current agreement, and we can begin negotiating another collective bargaining agreement with the BOT soon. There are a number of PERC and court filings in process right now, and we cannot predict the outcome of these. We will pass along definative information as we get it. Without a contract in force, GAU is almost powerless to represent you in problems such as the recent pay raise grievance that we just settled. Being without a contract is not good, especially in times of political transition and budget cuts. *** MINIMUM STIPEND GRIEVANCE UPDATE The arbitrator ruled against GAU in her ruling. There is no further recourse in this matter. Of course, we are disappointed with her ruling. But we are especially upset that she apparently lost or forgot our testimony that there were two contract language changes that were significant factors in this grievance. She ruled that "past practice" applied, because we did not protest in previous years. We would agree with her if there were no significant language changes - we disagree that the doctrine of past practice applies when there are significant language changes. However, we did learn several things that did help us when we had to (successfully) file and settle our recent pay raise grievance. The arbitrator's ruling is available online (3.2 meg file): http://www.ufgau.org/fg/2002-21-001.pdf *** UI-UC WINS CERTIFICATION VOTE! The graduate assistants at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, one of UF's peer universities, recently won their vote to certify their union. They won by over a 3-to-1 margin. They join the well over 40,000 graduate assistants across the country who belong to a union. Congratulations! *** MEMBERSHIP DRIVE GAU is re-structuring to decentralize to better serve our membership. Eventually, we hope to have at least one union representative (Steward) in every department. Increases in membership significantly increase our bargaining power for things like pay raises, health insurance, etc. Since the begining of the Fall semester, our membership has increased 64%. Be sure to sign your membership form when you are asked, and be part of the collective solution for better pay, benefits, and working conditions. *** INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ISSUES There has been alot going on with international student issues this year. GAU leadership will meet with other international student leaders after the start of the new year to evaluate what progress we have made and make further plans. - Angelo Fanelli, a graduate assistant in the Management department, recently addressed the UF Board of Trustees about international student issues. The text of his speech is available online http://www.ufgau.org/fg/fanelli.pdf - GAU, with the help of Jason Gainous, Bill Radunovich, and Ivey Hsieh, addressed the Graduate Council on December 19. The Graduate Council voted to endorse relaxing the number of credits a graduate student without an assistantship needs to maintain full-time status. The issue is now at the Provost, and they are hoping this issue gets resolved before March. This is another example of how GAU, working together with the Graduate Student Council (GSC), results in better outcomes for graduate students than either group working alone. - Oindrila Mukherjee phoned the international centers at all of UF's peer universities, and found out what they are doing with international student fees (UF recently instituted a $50/semester fee for int'l students): University of Michigan - Ann Arbor -- no fee Purdue -- no fee University of Washington -- $ 50 orientation fee University of California - Berkeley -- no fee UCLA -- no fee University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill -- no fee University of Illinois - Champaign -- $ 45 new student fee in the 1st semester University of Minnesota -- $ 50 per semester and $ 25 if enrolled in the summer The Ohio State -- no fee Penn State -- no fee UTexas - Austin -- $ 50 per semester (summer pro-rated) and $ 50 orientation fee University of Wisconsin - Madison -- no fee *** RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS WANTED The Bateman Team is a group of undergraduates who are doing marketing research, and need volunteers to participate in a focus group about your food tastes. They promised to feed all participants, so we agreed to publicize this in our enewsletter. If you are interested, please contact them directly at: prssa@grove.ufl.edu They will provide transportation if necessary. *** GAU HISTORY Did you know that: * UF-GAU was founded as the Graduate Student Union in September, 1971? * UF-GAU won the certification election by a 2 to 1 margin? * GAU won a Florida Supreme Court ruling, granting graduate assistants the right to unionize? * Tuition waivers are one of GAU's crown achievements? Erika Gubrium, Chief Steward, wrote a short paper outlining the history of GAU from 1971 - 1994. This paper is available online http://www.ufgau.org/fg/gauhistory.doc ----------------------------------------------------------------- You are being sent this email because Graduate Assistants United represents you in University employment matters. 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