Vote shows inclination to strike

Disappointed by a lack of movement in contract negotiations with the University, 77 percent of the Graduate Employees Organization's membership voted to authorize a strike or similar work action this weekend.

GEO Chief Negotiator Eric Odier-Fink said while the result of the vote is open to interpretation, a three-to-one vote is quite a definitive statement that the GEO membership is unhappy with its current contract.

But University Chief Negotiator Dan Gamble said he did not believe most GEO members were well informed about the University's proposals when they voted to authorize a strike. He suggested the GEO bargaining team might have presented the proposals negatively to the other members of the organization to garner support for strike authorization.

Gamble added that since the GEO bargaining team has responded negatively to the University's proposals, he would not be surprised if they explained them in the same manner to the GEO membership.

"I've heard from others that the way GEO explains the contract is to put our proposals in the worst possible light," Gamble said. "If they believe they would somehow get a better contract by doing that, I'm not sure that they're being fair to their membership."

But GEO spokesperson Chip Smith said the GEO bargaining team is more than fair with its 1,600 members, giving the upcoming GEO membership meeting as an example of the union's democratic practices. Smith said the GEO membership will have full power to decide which issues are most germane in the contract negotiations at the Wednesday meeting.

"We're not going to speculate for the membership," Smith said. "They are going to make their own decisions about which issues they're willing to walk out on, the issues that they need to see in the contract to be happy."

Odier-Fink said the membership will also have to make a difficult decision at the upcoming meeting - whether they want to take a job action and when.

"They will have to decide if they're willing to do something very bad in the short run - a walkout does not feel good - to make sure the undergraduates at the University are properly educated in the long run," Odier-Fink said.

Odier-Fink added that after the membership determines its most important issues and its job-action status, the GEO stewards will prepare a new package after the meeting and present it to the University at Thursday's negotiation session.

GEO will give the University a deadline to satisfy their requests, Odier-Fink said. If the University does not comply with GEO's desires, Odier-Fink said the membership will take job action if they vote to do so at Wednesday's meeting.

Gamble said he looks forward to seeing GEO drop some of its issues and altering its contract for Thursday's negotiation session. But he said he feels mediation might be necessary if the negotiations continue to drag along at the current pace.

"Things have been moving along very slowly and it doesn't look like either side is making movement," Gamble said. "We might have reached the time to get a third party in the negotiations - a state mediator."

But Odier-Fink said GEO is not at all interested in mediation with the University, claiming a mediator has been detrimental to GEO during the past two contract negotiations.

"In the past, the mediator has pretty much forced us to take the University's offer," Odier-Fink said. "In 1993 and 1996, he screwed us over and we're not going to let that happen again."

GEO's membership meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to take place from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Michigan League Ballroom.

02-22-99