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Bargaining Session Notes 9/23/2024

9/23/2024

GAU initially brought 2 proposals to the table - 3 (Consultations) and 8 (Leaves of Absence)

For Article 3, UF has tried to remove GAU’s ability to meet with the UF president, claiming they’re “not interested” in it since GAU is permitted to meet with UF designees
- GAU reinserted language to meet with the UF president in line with language from FSU’s Collective Bargaining Agreement
For Article 8, GAU added a “carve out” for leaves of absence (paid and unpaid) for GAs who are experiencing a sudden need for leave due to extreme mental health concerns
The other issue on Article 8 is settling on an appropriate length of leave for GAs that experience a death of a close family member (i.e., bereavement leave)
- UF previously offered 2 days paid leave for bereavement in which the family member is domestic and 5 days for cases when the family member is international
- For this counterproposal, we proposed paid leave of 5 days for domestic and 10 days for international travel
- GAU does not agree that this is enough time to travel to and from any location, manage family affairs, and deal with the emotional toll taken
UF then offered three counterproposals for Article 10 (Stipends) in the form of a table

UF offered one proposal in which their main move was to increase the minimum stipend and did not change their previous offer on merit raises (A), one in which they made a bit of a move on both (B), and one where they doubled their previous merit raise offer and left their previous stipend increase alone
UF also removed the previously proposed language to put Article 10 into effect as a Memorandum of Understanding before the entire ratification of the new article - which we did for Article 12 (Health Insurance) last month and newly proposed language to automatically increase stipend amounts to ensure every 9 month GA on the minimum stipend is able to meet J-1 visa requirements (currently equivalent to about $27,200)

Since there was a significant amount of time left, the two parties met privately - during this time, GAU wrote another counter proposal for Article 10, which we subsequently presented

GAU reinserted language to put Article 10 into effect earlier than the entire full book ratification, but through a pull out ratification process as opposed to an MOU
GAU also reinserted language to automatically increase the 9-month stipend minimum in accordance with UF’s J-1 visa requirements
GAU conceded slightly on our last minimum stipend offer, proposing $28,000 for 9 month GAs and $37,333 for 12 month GAs
We also decreased our previous merit raise amounts to $1,500 for 9 month GAs and $2,000 for 12 month GAs

Overall, GAU will continue to fight for increases to the minimum as our top priority, as a majority of GAs are paid according to the minimum stipend amount, for GAs to make a living wage in Gainesville, and for international students to not have to supplement their stipends to be eligible to be a graduate student at UF

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Bargaining Session 9/16/2024

9/18/2024

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Today GAU presented articles 7 (workload) and 10 (stipends):

For article 10, we framed our argument in two ways:
- First, to be in line with the cost of living in Gainesville (and to be higher than minimum wage in the area, as we are skilled workers)
- And second, for the 9-month stipend to cover the costs of J-1 visa requirements (and to automatically rise to meet this threshold in the future)
  - The exact minimum stipends we asked for are $29,250 for 9-month GAs and $39,000 for 12-month GAs
  - We also asked for a $1,725 merit raise for 9-month GAs and a $2,300 raise for 12-month GAs
For article 7, we adjusted some previous language included in the article by both GAU and UF to:
- Help clarify the amount of work which should be done by GAs registered in credit hours that are related to their assistantship (i.e., teaching or research credits). We had previously said 3 additional hours of work is appropriate per credit hour, but we reduced this to 1 hour for each credit based on a document we found with clearer guidance
- We also removed the word “average” in relation to hours worked per week (this is in our current contract), as international students are held to a weekly amount, not an average weekly amount of hours worked (i.e., they have a hard 20 hour limit per week)
- We are also continuing to push for departments to review GA positions, and clarify the overlapping employment duties and academic work of their students and (separately) for there to be a proposed list of solutions in the case a GA is favored in their grievance over a workload dispute - for them to be paid more, their FTE to be changed, etc.

UF's response:

UF was tightlipped on their opinions of the articles presented today, but they were clear that there would be no chance to implement article 10 as an MOU (i.e., without ratification by the BOT and bargaining unit) and there is slim to no chance of ratifying article 10 outside of the full book contract
- GAU wants to ratify article 10 outside of the full book contract in order to get stipend increases out sooner, and although UF refuses to implement without a vote (i.e., ratification) for sound reason, their reason for not pulling out the article for ratification separate from the full book contract is unclear - seemingly, it is to keep it in play for more bargaining power in the future

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BARGAINING BLOG

Bargaining Session Notes 9/23/2024

Bargaining Session 9/16/2024

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