Weekly Newsletter - Healthcare and Housing Bargaining DEC 1

11/30  General Body Meeting - Cypress and Grove 6pm-8pm
-> food, drinks, solidarity!
-> voting on budget and several officer positions
12/01 BARGAINING - Reitz Union 9:15am-11:30am
-> Healthcare and Housing! Come show support! 
->Reitz Union Room 3320 or ZOOM meeting, debrief 
11/20 Monday - no events
11/21 Tuesday - Tabling at Reitz Union 11am-2pm
11/22 Wednesday - no events
11/23-11/24 - BREAK NO EVENTS

• No Yon Hall Office Hours this week!
  

Committee Help Needed

Our Healthcare and International committees need your help! We want our members to share their ideas! Do you have thoughts on GatorGradCare? Please join our Healthcare Committee by emailing chair Nathan Ardnt, [email protected]. Have concerns about issues affecting international students? Join our international committee by getting on our discord! 

Bargaining Updates
In the bargaining session last Friday, Nov 17th, our bargaining committee discussed Article 11 which addresses the tuition program. Our proposal to allow all GAs to request extra credit hours for their tuition waiver (up to 12 in spring and 6 in summer). The proposal would also allow for TAs on 9 month contracts to request a tuition waiver for credits over the summer. GAU is now ready to “tentatively agree” to the changes. This means that union members will eventually vote on these changes and with approval they will be sent to the board of trustees for ratification.
We also presented a proposal for Article 21 which covers discipline with the goal of strengthening the protections regarding disciplinary policy and action, especially in light of the stipulation placed into the merit raise we recently voted on. GAU constructed a proposal with clearer specification of disciplinary policy and action. The notice of discipline will also be more specifically defined and the proposal has measures for an improved Employee Assistance Program (EAP). In terms of specific disciplinary actions, the bargaining committee requested a limit to the minimum disciplinary punishment if a GA is found breaking the discriminatory bathroom law. 
Our bargaining committee also presented proposals to protect GA contracts in the event of the passage of new laws, court rulings and new university regulations or policies. These are covered in Article 23 - Totality of Agreement, Article 24 - Severability and a new article titled UF Regulations and Procedures. 
The GAU Bargaining Committee has been working on many different proposals as we are re-negotiating the entire collective bargaining agreement this year. You can watch each bargaining session on our youtube channel. Updates on the other proposals are in last week’s newsletter. As we get more updates we will post a new detailed list.

Upcoming Bargaining 
On December 1, we will be presenting some of our most important proposals–on healthcare and housing! We want to get y’all out-of-network coverage, better dental, vision and more. Please come to our bargaining session and show the University how much these changes would affect our lives! 

Be there: Reitz Union Rm 3320 or ZOOM, Dec 1st, 9:15 -11:30am.

Organizing Updates:
Every week, our organizing team has been tabling to get cards signed and increase membership! We now have around half of the number of cards we need to give our union another year to reach 60% membership. 

Checking out cards to members has been a success, so thank you all for helping us reach our goal! Our newest effort is text banking to get more GA’s to our tabling events. To lend a hand, come to an organizing meeting!

Another way you can help our card campaign:
If you are attending any end-of-semester or holiday events (think grading parties, club gatherings, department socials), let us get you some blank cards! Even taking 15 minutes at an event to get a few GA’s to sign cards makes a huge difference. 

Tips for Recruiting New Members:
We have found that having face-to-face conversations with GAs in our unit and answering their questions has gone a long way to increase our membership rates and we hope that our members can do the same! One topic many GAs are often concerned about is dues. Dues are 1% of our salary, for most GAs this is $10-15 a paycheck. Most of these dues go to our associated unions. All units within the United Faculty of Florida (GA unions, and faculty members) pay 1% dues, so GAs make up a very small portion of this budget. These dues pay for things like fighting legal battles related to the recent union busting legislation, statewide organizing efforts and a large network of support. 

We are connected to UFF along with the Florida Education Association, National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. The amazing part about having these larger associations backing our union is that we get benefits from every single one! We are also entitled to a free legal council, local discounts and some funds do get directed back to the GAU to support organizing efforts and payday parties. If you include all of these benefits, and the better contracts that we are always bargaining for, union membership practically pays for itself! Spread the word that union membership is worth the price, and comes with some great perks! https://www.ufgau.org/benefits.html


Email us: [email protected]
Join our office hours: None this week, M 11:30-1:30, T/W/R 8:30-11:30 (11/27-12/01)
Find us at a tabling event: Reitz 11am-2pm Tuesday 11/21, T/W/R 11/28-11/30
Join Discord: discord