Goodest of mornings, my Precious Pumpkins,
Bargaining continues to focus on proration and academic year appointments. What does that mean? It means that we're working with administration as to HOW to get YOU paid over winter break and also before the semester starts through the day it ends. Read on for the details, but most importantly:
Bargaining Session #12 will be Friday, 10/23, 3:15-5:00PM. Zoom link below 👇👇
Last session we presented FSU administration with a thirteen-page plan spanning three separate articles of the CBA as to how to produce the funds that would pay for YOUR paychecks over the winter break and through the end of spring semester (yes, including grading days!), as well as a $1,000 bonus on TOP of that.
How did we do that? Well, it comes down to the difference between recurringmoney and non-recurring money. In short, every year FSU administration comes to us with offers that are a mixture of two separate pools of money. "Recurring" money is money that, if they give it to us this year, it will have to be allocated every year from here on out, in perpetuity. Raises to the minimum stipend are this kind of money, as well as increases to your health insurance premium coverage. On the other hand we have "non-recurring" money. This is stuff like one-time bonuses. Over the last few years, the amount of "recurring" money FSU has been willing to offer us has decreased, even as they've increased the amount of non-recurring money on the table. This is, obviously, less than ideal, but we're trying to take advantage of it as best we can.
Thus, our master plan as presented last Wednesday: give us winter-break paychecks this year as BONUSES. This would fall under "non-recurring" money. Then, NEXT year, lock us all into "academic year" appointments, which are the type that would pay us over winter break. This would be "recurring" money.
This is the same maneuver we pulled last year with the minimum stipend and the $650 bonuses. We accepted the $650 bonuses (non-recurring money) because the admin agreed to raise the minimum stipend by $600 the following year (recurring money).
Will this work this year? Who the heck knows! But we are trying EVERY angle, leaving no stone left unturned and no tactic left untried for YOU, our hardest working of GAs.
If you want to chip in and do your part, well you can! No down payment required! We are not looking for your money but your STORIES: can you talk about the hardships you've experienced because your stipend is so low? What a winter-break paycheck would mean to YOU? How being paid two weeks before the start of the semester would make you a better GA? Well then Send us your impact statements!!
And if you don't want to speak up, you can still support us!
Show up to bargaining (via Zoom! It's easier than ever!)
Peer-pressure your department colleagues to join too!
Share our posts on social media, on your department's discord, facebook, group me, wherever!
In Solidarity,
Vincenza Antonetta Berardo
Chief Negotiator, UFF-FSU-GAU
Ph.D. Candidate
Philosophy Department
Florida State University