At our most recent bargaining session on Friday, we are happy to report we’ve made some progress!
We presented Articles 15, 17, 21, and 24 for the first time to the University. These are all articles dealing with things that will make the union’s job easier to do, and allow us to winner bigger victories for YOU! For instance, since we’re getting a new President soon, FSU-GAU has asked that the President of the University meet with us at BOTH our biannual consultations, not just one. This is in order to foster a relationship with the new President and allow us to advocate for things we can’t win you at the bargaining table. We also returned a counter on Article 6 (workload). We are still asking that the contract define our job responsibilities specifically, as this will allow us to know how much preparation time, grading time, &c. should be expected of different appointments.
On the flip side, the University returned 3 Articles to us: 3, 4, and 14. And most significantly, in Article 14:
WE WON ORIENTATION TIME
This is a HUGE get for the union, since SO many of our problems stem from not being able to reach out to the GAs en masse and inform them of their rights from the START of their employment at FSU. Now we have GUARANTEED time at new GA orientation, every semester, and will be able to a) inform GAs that we exist and how to join, and b) what their rights are as employees!
There are still some specifics to hammer out in that Article, but basically, this should allow us to “TA” (Tentative Agreement) all THREE of those articles shortly.
Bargaining Committee
Our next in-person Bargaining Committee meeting will be held Monday, June 7th, 3-5PM, at Gaines Street Pies (the Gaines Street location). If you’re interested in helping with bargaining, swing on by! We are still looking for: copywriters, graphic designers, researchers, social media managers, &c. Not sure what you can do to help? Show up anyway and have a beer or non-alcoholic beverage with us! NB: We WILL still have a “call-in” option for this meeting. We love how much more accessible Zoom has made GAU, but also want to start seeing each other in real life again! So we’re testing out this “hybrid” model.