FYI: Graduate employees, University continue to negotiate earnings

Daily Illini
Drake Baer, Posted: 11/29/06

The University and the Graduate Employees Organization are in continuing negotiations over the issues of earnings and insurance for teaching assistants and graduate students.

[...] He said that the remaining issues to be resolved are also perhaps the most important. The proposal made by the University was a three-year contract with increases to stipends in each of three years and changes made to the insurance plan.

The proposed graduate employee minimum salary rate for teaching assistants and graduate assistants, on average, was a $12,586 annualized salary or a 2.5 percent increase, whichever is greater, each year. [...] "Graduate students are also getting a fee waiver, $12,500 added to the tuition fee waiver. It's a pretty good deal," Veazie said.

Others seem to disagree.

[...] Brian Dolber, graduate student, said that the University has come across "as a completely disrespectful institution that doesn't care about students or employees but only care about their bottom line."

The GEO is not ignoring what the University has put on the table, but they are keeping things in "financial perspective," Simeone added.

[...] "We don't want to talk about any wage deduction as a raise until it is a raise over the cost of inflation. Any raise under the rate of 3.6 percent isn't really a raise," Simeone said.

[...] Veazie said that the University is ready to settle on a fair contract for graduate students and that they are frustrated by the delay, referring to the four-week break between meetings.

The University's negotiating team has "repeatedly stalled and delayed" in regard to issues such as health care and wages, Dolber said.

This is not the absolute final configuration of the contract, but it's close to that, Veazie said. He said that if the union wants "a lot more," then the next step would be mediation.

"The next step for both parties is to listen. We're happy that the University wants to settle sooner rather than later, but we won't settle for anything that's unfair," Simeone said.

The next meeting will be held Dec. 13.

The full article can be found here