2026 Bargaining Blog: Session 6

On Friday, August 28, your union continued negotiations with the FSU Board of Trustees. At the end of the last session, we issued a proposal of raising the minimum stipend for GAs at 0.5 FTE to $20,000 ($10,000 for GAs at 0.25 FTE), and a $2,800 bonus for GAs at 0.5 FTE ($1,400 for GAs at 0.25 FTE). The Board began this session with their counter to that proposal: a one-time $500 bonus for GAs at 0.5 FTE ($250 for GAs at 0.25 FTE). After seeking some clarification for the budgetary rationale behind this offer, your bargaining team issued a new proposal to match the logic of the Board's own: a one-time $2,750 bonus for GAs at 0.5 FTE ($1,375 for GAs at 0.25 FTE). The Board continued their trend from their previous counter and raised it by another $50, bringing their offer to a one-time $550 bonus for GAs at 0.5 FTE ($275 for GAs at 0.25 FTE). Your union decided to deliberate further before responding to this offer, and concluded the meeting.

The Board's bargaining strategy has thus far proved comically juvenile. They began by offering nothing, and have since proceeded to inch that offer up little by little. At this point, the disrespect they have demonstrated to GAU and the GAs we represent extends beyond the insulting sums they have offered us. Their amateurish methods of negotiation clearly display their indifference to bargaining with us seriously. Ironically, they end up disrespecting themselves in the process as their bargaining methods are so elementary and devoid of any elegance that they would be laughed out of any deal whose other party didn't happen to be disenfranchised GAs.

Regardless of the Board's attempts to the contrary, your union has striven to bargain in good faith and will continue to fight for the best deal that we can secure for the GAs we represent. We have continually sought to understand the Board’s rationale in negotiations so that our offers can prove feasible for all parties involved. We have adjusted our asks according to what little information The Board has been willing to provide us about their financial status. We have attempted to concede what we can afford to the Board in our proposals to show our willingness to reach fair compromises. Still, the Board returns time and time again with offers that insult their intelligence as much as our own. Despite this, your union is dedicated to taking the high road in the pursuit of reaching an agreement that benefits the GAs we proudly represent.

That said, your bargaining team continues to need the support of union members in order to achieve this goal. Some of our strongest leverage against the Board is the pressure from the presence of GAs that FSU relies on. Showing up to bargaining sessions reminds the Board that FSU could not operate without the labor they extract from us. This session, the Board brought the most representatives to their side of the table since this bargaining season began, a move born from their intimidation at our consistently high turnout. Once again, I thank everyone who showed up to this session and contributed to our bargaining efforts. Over a dozen GAs attended this session in-person and on Zoom. We truly show our strength through this solidarity, and I encourage you all to keep showing up.

The Board is trying to wear us down, dragging negotiations out well beyond the start of the busy Fall term so that we accept their abysmally low offers, but we will show them that playing this game only reveals how our determination far outstrips their own.

In Solidarity,

Elijah Noonan

PhD Student

Department of English

Bargaining Co-Chair