2025-2028 Bargaining Blog: Session 10

Hi everyone, GAU had a negotiation session on Tuesday, September 2nd. This session was short and largely unproductive, but let’s get into why. 

We have three articles left before we can move into ratifying our new collective bargaining agreement. Those articles are non-discrimination (Article 8), health insurance (Article 16), and stipends and fee relief (Article 22). Today we brought to the table our counter proposal to the FSU-BOT counter to stipends. They had previously proposed a 1% increase to the minimum stipend. We came back with a proposed 10% increase, which would put us at $20,570 for our new minimum. For a point of reference, peer institutions like UF and USF are already sitting above the $20,000 threshold for their minimum stipends for GAs. Today, FSU-BOT brought their counter to the table, offering us a 1.25% increase in response to our 10%. 

To be blunt, we are disappointed. Our disappointment was exacerbated by FSU-BOT’s counter proposal to health insurance. They propose to maintain status quo, and not increase the health care premiums at all. While we appreciate FSU-BOT’s willingness to negotiate with us, we are disappointed with the small movements in negotiation. The current methods of negotiation are not maximizing either teams’ time or productivity. With that, we ended the session and brought all three articles back with us. We also communicated that we will need two weeks before our next session so that we can do some intensive research and garner a better understanding of how the university budgets affect their ability to compensate GAs. 

Needless to say, the FSU- BOT team was not happy with our decision. They attempted to talk us into counters, claiming issues with their timelines for health insurance and fee relief, and took the time to remind us that negotiation is a back and forth process. While we understand the points the FSU-BOT team made, it is in the best interest of all GAs, TAs, and RAs on campus that we delay the negotiations process minutely to utilize the extra time to understand the complexity of university budgets and where us as GAs fit into this equation. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at bargaining@fsugau.org or our Instagram, @fsugau. Committee meetings for the fall have now moved to Fridays on zoom at 3:30pm. We will see you in the next update! 

With Love and In Solidarity, 

Xanthippe Pack-Brown

FSU-GAU Bargaining Chair and Chief Negotiator