On Thursday, July 11, GSEU met with SUNY and the State of New York to hold our fourth bargaining session to negotiate a new contract! This session we worked through seven articles, some of which expanded upon protections provided by current contract articles, and others which would include new protections not current afforded by the collective bargaining agreement:

Article 4: Discrimination: The Union provided a counter proposal to the State of New York and SUNY that would allow graduate workers to explicitly grieve a hostile work environment.

Article 21: Job Postings: The Union provided a counter proposal to the State of New York and SUNY that would make it easier for graduate students searching for GSEU-eligible positions to find them through platforms like Handshake or respective University HR websites.

Article 15: Meeting Space: The Union proposed a revision to a current article that would allow GSEU to have office space on SUNY campuses – this better allows GSEU to work with members and would guarantee privacy when talking about difficult or personal topics with your union representative.

Article 10: Health and Safety: The Union proposed a revision to a current article that would widely expand health and safety practices for all graduate workers, including having Universities and Colleges relocate members working in unsafe environments, as well as the creation of a Health and Safety committee that GSEU would have a seat on.

Article X: Employee Offices: The Union proposed a brand new article that would codify safe office spaces for all graduate workers.

Article X: Academic Freedom: The Union proposed a brand new article that would codify academic freedom protections for all members, which is particularly important for Teaching Assistants!
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Article X: Housing: The Union proposed a brand new article that would provide financial support for graduate workers in relocating to their respective Universities and Colleges prior to their first year, as well as asking that Universities and Colleges maintain affordable housing.

Looking ahead, we’ll be meeting with SUNY and the State of New York at the end of July to continue discussions! If you’re interested in participating more in GSEU’s bargaining with SUNY and the State of New York, fill out this form!

On Friday, April 12, GSEU met with SUNY and the State of New York to hold our third bargaining session to negotiate a new contract! The Union began the session by addressing the wide-spread, malicious problem of misclassification; this is when a University or College makes a per-hour student employee do the work of a TA or GA, but doesn’t give that employee the same benefits, health insurance, or salary of a TA or GA. Graduate workers that are doing the work of a teaching or graduate assistant should be compensated at the same rate as their peers!

Article 21: Job Postings: The State of New York and SUNY proposed a counter, to which the Union submitted a revised proposal that would make it easier and clearer for graduate students to seek out and apply for TA and GA positions.
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Article 4: Discrimination: The State of New York and SUNY proposed a counter where they reserved the right to allow bullying and harassment without Union intervention. The Union is currently working on a revised proposal that would expand current protections against discrimination for graduate workers.

Article 16: Grievance and Arbitration: While the State of New York and SUNY rejected our proposal entirely, the Union spent an hour highlighting why a stream-lined, more efficient grievance process is absolutely necessary for graduate workers.

Looking ahead, we’ll be meeting with SUNY and the State of New York at the end of April to continue discussions! If you’re interested in participating more in GSEU’s bargaining with SUNY and the State of New York, fill out this form.

On Friday, March 1, GSEU met with SUNY and the State of New York to hold our second bargaining session to negotiate a new contract! The State of New York and SUNY wasted the majority of the bargaining session discussing ground rules, rather than actively engaging with any of our proposals in earnest.

Article 21: Job Postings & Article 4: Discrimination: The State of New York and SUNY are still working on counters, even though they’ve had two weeks to prepare their response!

Article 16: Grievance and Arbitration: The State of New York and SUNY rejected our proposal entirely–highlighting that they believe that the current broken, ineffective grievance system is acceptable to them.

Article 7: Parking: The State of New York and SUNY are planning to come up with a counter once we begin talking about compensation, even though Parking is an immediate urgent concern for everyone.
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New Article: Prohibition of NDAs on Sexual Harassment: The State of New York and SUNY unfortunately countered this proposal, underscoring that they don’t believe in protecting future victims of sexual harassment if the law changes.

On Friday, February 16, GSEU met with SUNY and the State of New York to hold our first bargaining session to negotiate a new contract! This contract sets our base stipends, yearly raises, health insurance, benefits, fund monies, workplace protections, and more, so it's very important that we as graduate workers use our collective power to win the strongest contract possible. If you are a TA/GA and want a say in what this contract covers and a vote on contract ratification, you need to be a signed union member! Sign your card here!

Prior to proposing articles that the Bargaining Committee had already developed, we discussed Ground Rules that would guide our bargaining sessions. In these discussions, GSEU prioritized transparency and open communication with members!

GSEU put forward 5 proposals–4 of these proposals were modifications of current articles, and 1 would be a new addition to the contract:

Article 21: Job Postings: Our proposal aims to make this language current, letting SUNY campuses post open non-academic GA positions on campus websites

Article 16: Grievance and Arbitration: Our proposal streamlines the contract grievance process, making it easier for members to understand, and more efficient

Article 7: Parking: We know parking is extremely important, so our proposal aims to make parking free and to award all TAs and GAs access to faculty and staff-designated parking lots

Article 4: Discrimination: Our proposal updates contract language to make it more aligned with state law and would provide graduate workers with a new avenue of recourse for mistreatment in the workplace

New Article: Prohibition of NDAs on Sexual Harassment: This new proposal protects everyone’s health and safety, and simply reinforces what is currently New York state law
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Looking ahead, we’ll be meeting with SUNY and the State of New York in early March to continue discussions!

We've been looking for member input ahead of bargaining. If you haven't yet filled out your bargaining survey, please take a few moments to let your Bargaining Committee know what you'd like to prioritize in our new contract.