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Bargaining Session Notes 10/21/2024

10/21/2024

GAU presented a counter offer on Article 7 (workload). UF presented counter-offers on Articles 8, 16, and 9.

Article 7: Workload (GAU counter-offer):

GAU proposed adding clear definitions of work for cases where there is overlap between a GA’s academic work and paid workload.
GAU seeks to remove the word “average” from article 7: “No employee shall be assigned employment responsibilities during a semester that exceed an average of [X] hours..." The word “average” obfuscates potential grievances and potentially conflicts with federal law restricting the amount of hours that international students can work.
UF wants to argue that because GA’s with different skillsets may complete tasks slower or faster, it is not in the interest of the university to provide a clear definition on work hours.
GAU argues that despite differences in workers’ efficiency, at the end of the day, their work is work regardless. GAU seeks to add mechanisms to ensure GA’s are just working the amount of time they are being paid for.

Article 8: Paid Leave, and 16: Use of Facilities (UF counter)
UF re-asserted their previous offers from 9/30/24 regarding:

paid leave (they propose 2 days paid leave for bereavement in which the family member is domestic and 5 days for cases when the family member is international), and
use of facilities (they want to get rid of release time employees [RT]).

Article 9: Academic Freedom (UF counter):
On Article 9 UF agreed to some of GAU’s changes in language, but UF doesn’t want to create a sentence that protects a GA’s research from University-level regulations on what can be taught.

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Bargaining Session Notes 10/7/2024

10/21/2024

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Article 9: Academic Freedom
We debated language in this article regarding the definition of academic freedom, when GA’s are acting as individual versus when we are acting as UF employees, the responsibility of the university for protecting research, and the university’s ability to prohibit lines of research.

Article 16- Use of Facilities
GAU has made a concession on the FTE for Release Time employees (RT) that we requested in the past. We leave it at 4.5 FTE.

GAU has also removed the request for a parking space and has left in language from UF on reporting orientations to us “as practicable” - we recognize this is a necessity since these events pop up last minute.

Article 8- Paid Leave

Much of this discussion was around how to make this article more practical.
GAU removed the waiver for mental health care verification, and decreased our previous request on bereavement days from 5 (for a domestic relative) / 10 (for an international relative) to 4 / 8 days, respectively.

Article 10 - Stipends

GAU removed the language demanding partial ratification – or asking that a raise be ratified separately from the rest of the contract, which could take a while to bargain in its entirety.
GAU left its proposed minimum stipend amount at $28,000 for 9 month employees and $37,334 for 12 month employees.
Left in language regarding an automatic increase with J-1 visa-holding GA’s because UF hasn’t given a good explanation as to why to remove it aside from “not interested.”
GAU decreased merit raise amounts slightly - they are now proposed as $1,425 for 9 months and $1,900 for 12 months.

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Bargaining Session Notes 9/30/2024

10/21/2024

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UF brought several counterproposals today.

Aticle 3- Consultations:

UF has stricken out the president meeting with us again.

Article 7- Workload:

GAU wants to clarify language around the difference between work and academic work in 7.2. It's very hard to tell the difference between needing to work hard and being overworked. In order to file grievances, we must have a clear sense of what constitutes overwork.
UF said that the burden of evidence rests on GA to prove that their supervisor is expecting them to work beyond their hours. Essentially, to confirm they’re being overworked, GA needs to put themselves up for discipline to the point where they make their advisor upset enough to give them a note that says they’re not doing enough. This is unrealistic and unsafe for GA’s to do, especially international GA’s.
- UF acknowledges that a definition of work expectations is something they should provide, but don't want to provide it because they think the overwhelming majority of GA’s know what is expected of them.
GAU wants a distinction for overwork in the contract so that the GA does not need to shoot themself in the foot to prove it, and will return to this.

Article 8- Leaves of Absence

When it comes to bereavement, UF wants to return to the lower amount of paid leave from 9/23/24: They propose 2 days paid leave for bereavement in which the family member is domestic and 5 days for cases when the family member is international.
GAU maintains it is unreasonable to expect someone to travel in this time, and since we don’t get PTO or anything to extend this time, it’s very little.

Article 16 - Use of Facilities
This is another article we’re super far apart on.

UF wants to eliminate release-time employees (“RT”, GA’s who get released from their academic department work in order to work their hours for GAU). UF has not brought an article that doesn’t remove RT since the beginning of the bargaining session
- UF thinks RT only benefits GAU, and argues that the university is not supposed to be involved in reducing the administrative burden of the union.
GAU maintains that if GAU is helpful for GAs, and having someone to sweep through emails about potential grievances etc., is necessary for the union, then RT should be of interest.

Article 10- Stipends
UF brought a new counterproposal to GAU’s counterproposal at the end of 9/23/24 session.

UF proposed a minimum stipend of $20,400 for 9 month appointments / $27200 for 12 month appointments
- Rejected GAU’s language to automatically increase the 9-month stipend minimum in accordance with UF’s J-1 visa requirements
- UF proposed merit raises of $700 for 9 month and $933 for 12 months appointees.
- Focused on the “B” style on both minimum and raises (see UF’s proposed chart of 9/23/24).
GAU will return with counterproposals on automatic raises to minimum stipend, and raising the minimum stipend amount to be closer to the J-1 amount.

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BARGAINING BLOG

Bargaining Session Notes 10/21/2024

Bargaining Session Notes 10/7/2024

Bargaining Session Notes 9/30/2024

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