You are being sent this newsletter because GAU represents you in employment matters as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Florida. If you have recently graduated or ceased being a Graduate assistant, you will automatically be removed from this mailing list at the start of the Spring semester. ============================================================ IN THIS ISSUE: New Contract—Ratification Vote Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Board of Trustees Meeting/ Support the Faculty Union Student Government/ Graduate Student Senator Seats Open 1. Vote on your 2005-2008 Collective Bargaining Agreement! Graduate Assistant United, your labor union protecting your rights as workers for the University of Florida, and the University of Florida Board of Trustees reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining contract on July 15, 2005. All graduate employees in the bargaining unit (that is, all TAs and RAs) are eligible to vote to accept or reject the new CBA. Grad employees can vote at the next GAU general membership meeting to be held Thursday, September 22 at 7pm (place TBA). If you vote “yes” to ratify, the new Agreement provisions will take effect immediately. If you vote “no,” negotiators must return to the bargaining table to renegotiate an agreement that is satisfactory to you. The GAU bargaining team and executive officers urge you to vote “yes” on this new CBA. A large vote return will convey to the Board of Trustees that we the graduate employees are seriously interested in our professional futures. We are pleased to announce that much of our previous Agreement – the collective work of more than 25 years of successful GAU bargaining – remains. A summary of the proposed changes in the Agreement is attached. The complete text of the proposed contract is available at the GAU main web page: http://www.ufgau.org/2005contract.htm. Highlights of the proposed agreement include: A. Pay Increases * All returning Graduate Assistants will receive a 3.6% pay increase, the highest pay increase for graduate workers in over a decade. B. Health Insurance Subsidy * A $500 subsidy (up from last year’s $400 subsidy, or a 25% increase) from UF towards a graduate worker’s health insurance. OTHER HIGHLIGHTS * Sexual orientation is included for the first time in the nondiscrimination provision of the contract. * A revised, 3-step grievance procedure will be in effect. The new first step of the grievance procedure is an informal process designed to effect a less contentious resolution of the issues in dispute at the unit level. * The right to open up new negotiations on health care and pay increases every year. 2. Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief GAU has been in touch with numerous local agencies to see how we can help the victims of the ongoing tragedy occurring in New Orleans. According to the Red Cross, the most important needs are for volunteers at the numerous shelters in the south, but there is also a need for non-perishable food items and can openers. Right now, most of the shelters in Florida are located along the panhandle. A list of the shelters in the state accepting evacuees can be found at http://www.tallytown.com/cgi-win/redcross/shelters_display.exe. To volunteer hours at any of these shelters, contact the local Red Cross chapter at 352-376-4669. Last week, UF administrators announced they would open classes to displaced college students at one of New Orleans’s many colleges. GAU will continue to call for the University community to reach out to aid the poor and less-privileged victims of this disaster; in this vein, we ask for input from you, the workers that compose UF, as to how your union can best help those most affected by this tragedy—particularly the poor, working-class people of New Orleans and the Gulf-Coast region. Please contact Todd Reynolds (todd@ufgau.org) if you would like to get involved in this field. 3. Board of Trustees Meeting this Friday This Friday at 9am in Emerson Alumni Hall, the Board of Trustees will be meeting to vote on the proposed collective bargaining agreement with GAU. However, just as important, the local faculty chapter president, Professor Connie Sheehan, will address the Board concerning their refusal to recognize UFF. Rather than begin negotiations with the faculty union, as all other state-wide universities have done, the Administration has committed vast resources and funds to challenge UFF recognition, even though the administration itself admits UFF recognition is inevitable. This is a colossal waste of University resources that could be better used on things like higher stipends for graduate students, or even comprehensive, free health care for all grad workers, in line with the benefits packages of UF’s peer institutions. The faculty union has asked that as many graduate workers as possible come to hear professor Sheehan address the Board of Trustees of Friday in a display of campus-wide solidarity. Please come to hear professor Sheehan’s talk, and stand together with all workers across campus to let the administration know that such a wasteful use of UF’s already-spread-thin resources is absolutely unacceptable. 4. Seats open for Grad Student Rep on SG Senate A Graduate Seat has opened up in Student Government (SG). Anyone interested can go by the Student Government offices on the 3rd floor of the Reitz Union to pick up an application. SG has a huge budget (about $11 million), and very little of that is spent on graduate student concerns. SG also appoints the chair of the Healthcare Committee, which, to date, has failed to separate Graduate health insurance from Scarborough or even to secure plans without age brackets (causing most graduate students to pay more, some a lot more). Voices in SG for graduate student issues in general and employment issues in particular could make a difference in everything from getting the International Student Fee repealed to getting the University to recognize UFF. Applications are due Friday at noon for consideration the following week, and Senate meets Tuesday nights at 7:30pm. If you have questions, please email GAU and/or any Graduate Senator . In Solidarity, Todd Reynolds GAU Co-President ----------------------------------------------------------------- You are being sent this email because Graduate Assistants United represents you in University employment matters. If you would like to be added to the list, please send an email to organizing@ufgau.org. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --