GEO presents new package

Less than 24 hours after deciding to hold a walkout to begin March 10 and 11, the Graduate Employees Organization presented the University with a new package of negotiation proposals yesterday.

GEO Chief Negotiator Eric Odier-Fink said the package, which consists of only three issues, will be the only topics the organization discusses with the University from now on.

"Wages, fraction recalculation and compensated training for international graduate student instructors - these are the issues that our membership says they will strike over," Odier-Fink said. "We're removing all other issues from the table."

GEO spokesperson Chip Smith said the GEO leadership formulated the new package based on suggestions from the organization's membership.

University Chief Negotiator Dan Gamble said while he was happy to see GEO reduce the number of its proposals, he still feels many of its current requests are unacceptable. "I have never considered (GEO's current wage increase request of) 9 percent realistic," Gamble said. "Since the rate of inflation is less than 3 percent, I believe this number will have to move."

Gamble also criticized GEO's fraction recalculation proposal - designed to reassess the amount of hours GSIs work and pay them accordingly - claiming that the University finds it unacceptable.

Gamble said the University's fraction recalculation proposal is better since it focuses on a group of GSIs instead of reassessing the hours of all GSIs.

Currently, the University is proposing to give all GSIs with a .4 appointment - those who work approximately 40 percent of the hours of a full-time faculty member - the wages equivalent to a GSI working a .5 appointment, Gamble said.

But Annette Wilson, Architecture and Urban Planning fifth-year student and a film and video GSI, said the University's proposal will force current .4 GSIs to work the hours of a .5, which could include them teaching an extra section.

Wilson added that she and many other GSIs simply do not have the time to teach an extra section. But Gamble said this is not the point of the University's fraction recalculation proposal.

"Our goal is not to increase effort, but to increase wages for GSIs," Gamble said. "Our proposal takes a .4 GSI, gives them the same classes and responsibilities as now, but pays them at least $283 more in monthly salary."

Compensated training for international GSIs also accompanied the 9-percent wage increase request and fraction recalculation proposal in the new package GEO presented to the University yesterday. But Gamble said the University will not include this issue in GEO's contract since a program compensating international GSI training period already exists.

"There is no place to move for IGSIs," Gamble said. "A program is already installed on the Web for international students to look at. It's a given."

Gamble said the program includes a $200 stipend, insurance and room and board for all international GSIs who undergo the two- to three-week training session in August.

Gamble added that the University plans on responding to GEO's new package, specifically to its fraction recalculation proposal, on March 8, when bargaining sessions reconvene after spring break. In the meantime, Smith said the GEO leadership will work throughout the vacation period to prepare both for contract negotiations and the walkout.

Students who have GSIs who support GEO's decision to walkout will not have discussion sections March 10 and 11 if GEO proceeds with its job action. But Gamble said he encouraged GSIs not to participate in the walkout, stating it is not required for them do so.

02-26-99