GEO members vote to send out strike ballots

Meeting was one of largest GEO events since 1975

As a Graduate Employees Organization banner whipped in the wind in front of the Michigan Union last night, close to 350 members of the University community filled the Union Ballroom to discuss GEO's current contract with the University.

The turnout at the meeting, which came following GEO's contract extension Monday, was one of the largest at a GEO event since the organization's inception in 1975, GEO spokesperson Chip Smith said.

As the meeting drew to a close at 7:55 p.m., the 273 GEO members present voted whether they would authorize GEO to send out a strike authorization ballot to the entire union membership.

Ninety-seven percent of the membership, 265 members, voted to send out the ballots. Only eight members abstained.

"The GEO steering committee will now send out ballots to our 1,000 or so members," said Sandra Eyster, GEO secretary-treasurer.

GEO President Eric Dirnbach said if a majority of GEO's membership votes to authorize a strike, the GEO steering committee will then have the power to recommend its membership to stop teaching if they think they are being treated unfairly.

According to GEO documents, the steering committee could recommend either a strike or a walkout if it deems those actions necessary.

Dan Gamble, the University's chief negotiator, said that while any academic interruptions would be unfair to students, he did not believe classes would be cancelled due to a strike or walkout.

"I think the regular faculty would step in and cover for the discussion sections," Gamble said. "This, of course, isn't the optimum solution and that's why it's unfair to undergraduates."

Smith said the membership's almost unanimous support to send out the strike authorization ballots showed how unacceptable the University's current wage proposal is.

"I think the membership tonight told us the offer the University thinks we'd like sucks," Smith said.

Smith said he was specifically dissatisfied with the University's fraction recalculation plan, which reassesses how much graduate students are paid.

"The plan is a trap," Smith said. "They wanted to divide and conquer us but we showed them tonight that they're not going to do this."

Among the crowd at the membership meeting last night were members of Graduate Employees Organization Committee, Wayne State University's graduate student union.

Glen Bessemer, a GEOC steering committee member, said he and his colleagues were present to show their appreciation for GEO's help in the past.

"We're negotiating our first contract now," Bessemer said. "They've given us a lot of support with that."

Alexander Thomson, also a GEOC steering committee member, complimented GEO on a job well done with last night's membership meeting.

02-03-99