GEO extends contract deadline

'U,' GEO scheduled to meet Thursday

As the clock ticked down the final minutes before their contract deadline last night, the Graduate Employees Organization signed an extension with the University's bargaining team, moving the expiration date to Thursday at midnight.

The contract extension means GEO members "won't walk out any time soon," GEO President Eric Dirnbach said.

GEO spokesperson Chip Smith, who previously commented that GEO would only sign an extension under "incredible circumstances," said last night's meeting warranted such a measure.

"We proposed a 9 percent annual (wage) increase and the University was happy we went down," Smith said. "They caucused immediately and came back in half an hour with a counterproposal."

This wage request revision is the second change GEO has made to its proposal since negotiations began last fall. They had originally asked for a 37 percent wage request in Graduate Student Instructors' salaries, but lowered that figure to 27 percent in December.

In addition to lowering their wage request last night, GEO also asked to waive registration fees for GSIs and for a reassessment of how instructional hours are calculated. University Chief Negotiator Dan Gamble said this reassessment was a major part of his team's counterproposal last night.

"GEO has been talking about a living wage using .4 full time equivalent as an example," Gamble said, adding that ".4" represents the fraction of hours a GSI works in comparison with a full-time faculty member.

Under the University's new counterproposal, the .3, .35 and .4 appointments would be eliminated and all GSIs with these appointments would be moved to the .5 category, Gamble said.

"The average .4 GSI would gain about $283 a month," Gamble said. "GEO has been telling us they need $1,400 for a living wage - this provides $1,416.25."

Gamble said there are approximately 1,200 GSIs with a .4 appointment. He said much of the money obtained to provide their appointment change came from funding through the Office of the Provost.

While Gamble said every .3, .35 or .4 appointment would be moved to the .5 category, Smith said the University's proposal hurts everyone with less than a .4 appointment.

Dirnbach also said he is worried about the hundreds of GSIs who have a .3 or a .35 appointment. Unlike Gamble, Dirnbach said he believes they will be assigned a .25 appointment, consequently lowering their monthly salary.

Dirnbach said the University's wage proposal prompted GEO to request that its contract be extended until Thursday at midnight.

"The fact that they came up with a proposal on fraction recalculation led us to extend the contract so we could revisit the issue," Dirnbach said. "I'm still disappointed, though, that they haven't moved up their wage increase."

Dirnbach said the University is still offering GEO a guaranteed 2.5 percent salary increase, or the equivalent of the annual faculty increase if that figure is greater. The University has not altered the stated 2.5 percentage since the bargaining began last semester.

Dirnbach said GEO would consider how the University's proposal affects GSIs with appointments between .3 and .4 and probably offer a wage counterproposal at Thursday's negotiation meeting.

"Everyone in the middle goes up or down," Dirnbach said. "We're trying to figure out how many will benefit from this and we'll take that in account when we bring the counterproposal on Thursday."

Gamble said he hopes GEO will not come up with a counterproposal Thursday, adding that the University's current proposal is already very generous.

The University also brought a policy about compensated training for international GSIs to the table last night. Under this new program, Gamble said, the University will provide all international GSIs with complete room and board, insurance and a $200 stipend during their three-week English language and teaching training session.

Dirnbach said his primary concern with this policy is its enforcement, explaining that since it is not a proposal, it will not be included in GEO's contract.

"GEO members are worried that they'll renig on this like they did three years ago when we signed something extra-contractually," Dirnbach said.

But Gamble said the program could be up and running as soon as this summer.

"We've very supportive at the University of our international students," Gamble said. "This is going to happen."

Dirnbach said while GSIs will not go on strike immediately, GEO will hold a membership meeting tomorrow to determine whether protest is necessary to resolve issues concerning the contract.

02-02-99