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Volunteer Night (and Day) This Week

February 6, 2010

As noted last week, we are reviving an old TAA tradition by bringing back Volunteer Night.

These events are a combination social gathering of grad student workers and union activism. The premise is simple: get TAA members together to have a little fun and hang out while working on some union projects that we can complete in our office.

This week, we are hosting two events:

On Thursday, February 11th, we will hold a Volunteer Night. Starting at 5:30 PM and running for an hour and a half or so, we will work on putting together a mailing to go to non-member grad student workers who are in our bargaining unit. We'll have some food and beverage, do a little collating, stapling, and folding, and get some important union work done while we hang out. If you're down for Thursday Volunteer Night, drop an RSVP email to Co-President Peter Rickman; he'll be hosting Thursday's Volunteer Night this week.

On Friday, February 12th, we will host a Volunteer Day. This is an experiment of sorts, our first Volunteer Day (as opposed to just at night). Starting at 9 AM and running all day, we will work on doing updates to our database to manage our information better -- and to better organize our union. People can sign up for a 2-hour shift (or whatever works for you) throughout the day. So if you're down for Friday Volunteer Day, drop an RSVP email with a time that works for you to Co-President Katie Lindstrom; she'll be hosting Friday's Volunteer Day along with Membership Secretary Joe Abisaid.

Both Volunteer Night and Volunteer Day this week will be at the TAA Office, 254 W. Gilman St. The office is at the corner of State and Gilman, up above American Apparel, with the entrance on Gilman St.

See you this week for a good time and union activism as we bring back an old tradition of the TAA.

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TAA On The Facebook

The TAA is on the Facebook. If you're on the Facebook, become a fan.

We'll use our Facebook fan page to send out quick news, information, and updates, to post pictures, and the like.

You should (a) become a fan yourself and then (b) suggest that your fellow grads do the same.

posted by Webmaster

UMass Postdocs Unionize

February 4, 2010

Another victory for the academic labor movement occurred this week in Massachusetts. At the three campuses of UMass, including the flagship research institution at Amherst, postdoctoral researchers won union recognition.

Teaching, research, and graduate assistants at UMass unionized years ago. Postdocs add a few hundred more academic workers to union ranks. In addition to UMass, postdocs are unionized in the University of California System, including at Berkeley and UCLA, as well as Rutgers. Teaching assistants in the UC System are also unionized, with research assistants likely organizing soon. Likewise, teaching assistants, research assistants at Rutgers are unionized.

The postdocs at UMass organized with the UAW as PRO/UAW, the Postdoctoral Researchers Organization. The UAW, originally begun as a union of autoworkers which now includes tens of thousands of professional workers including academics, represents teaching and research assistants in the University of California System and at the University of Washington. The postdocs, teaching, and research assistants at Rutgers are organized with AFT.

This victory for academics represents the latest win for workers who make universities work. Nationwide, nearly 50,000 teaching assistants, research assistants, and postdocs have formed unions to address the challenges academic workers face. In addition, adjuncts, lecturers, and tenured and tenure-track faculty have unionized at dozens of campuses, representing tens of thousands of more academic workers.

AFT, the national affiliate union of the TAA, represents the bulk of these academic workers. AFT has "jurisdiction," or the agreed-upon right to organize among national unions, in academic workers in most states, including Wisconsin. The UAW has won unionization campaigns in some public sector universities among grad assistants and postdocs. While private university graduate student workers lost the right to unionize in a 2004 decision by the Bush National Labor Relations Board, a growing number of public university grads, postdocs, and faculty have the right to unionize. The AFT mostly has jurisdiction with public universities while the UAW mostly has jurisdiction in private universities.

posted by Webmaster

Major GMM February 23rd

January 31, 2010

We have a major General Membership Meeting coming up on February 23rd, so it's time to put it on your calendar and plan on being there.

While we have a GMM on February 4th to handle some basic business carried over from our December GMM, the GMM on February 23rd is going to be big. Big in number of people there, and big in what we address.

The GMM on February 23rd will be about the direction our union is taking with contract negotiations and our approach to winning changes on how Segregated Fees impact grad student workers. We will make decisions at this meeting on both of these topics -- they are inextricably linked so it will be like one big discussion.

We are starting the 2009-2011 contract negotiations and our Bargaining Team has been hard at work, translating the input, feedback, ideas, and preferences of our membership into proposals and a bargaining platform. They will put forward the product of that work at this meeting for review and debate, along with that of our overall bargaining strategy. Also, we have consistently heard that the top issue for grads is the adverse impact of Segregated Fees. We will be running a comprehensive campaign in conjunction with our contract bargaining to take action on Seg Fees. At this meeting our ad hoc Seg Fees workgroup will put forward alternatives and recommendations on how to proceed with our campaign. Your voices and votes on where our union goes with these two topics will be critical to the future of our union and what we can accomplish together as grad student workers.

Union democracy in a local like ours has two components. We debate and make decisions collectively on the major policies of the union. We carry out those decisions collectively through our work in the union, be it through our committees, our Stewards' Council, or our elected leadership. We run our union in the full sense -- so we need you to be there as a participating member to make our union work.

With any questions about the General Membership Meeting on February 23rd, be in touch with our Co-Presidents, Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom.

posted by Webmaster

TAA Volunteer Night!

Reviving an old tradition, the TAA Volunteer Night is back!

We will be holding a volunteer night on February 11th at 5:30 PM at the TAA office. The volunteer night will go for a couple hours at most, with food and beverage for all.

At volunteer nights, members of the union get together to accomplish two things:

First, we have a great time with lots of grad student workers hanging out.

Second, we complete projects of the union that require lots of people working in a concentrated fashion.

At the upcoming volunteer nights, complete with food and beverage for all, we will (a) do some envelope-stuffing for a mailing to non-member grad student workers in our bargaining unit of TAs and PAs and (b) work on building our database of all grad student workers in our bargaining unit.

These are easy, low-intensity tasks that are really important for the work of union. And when we do them together as a group, it makes for light work for all -- allowing us to have a great time, hanging out together.

If you can make it there, please RSVP to our Co-Presidents Peter Rickman and Katie Lindstrom so that we can plan the right amount of food and beverage.

posted by Webmaster

Stewards' Council Kickoff!

We will be holding our Stewards' Council spring semester kickoff meeting on February 8th at 6:30 PM at the TAA office. You're invited to attend to get involved in the crucial work of our Stewards' Council this semester as we organize around out contract negotiations, Segregated Fees, and building our union.

Not a "steward"? No problem. "Steward" in the TAA is more like a term of art, not science. "Stewards" build and ensure the continued strength of our union across campus. In the past, "steward" has meant a singular person by department. But now, we are approaching this more ecumenically, with "stewards" being the activist-leaders for the union.

The kickoff is going to be a great event -- not quite a meeting, not quite a party. We're going to plug into the work of the union for the spring semester on our organizing projects. We're going to make decisions on particular pieces in the framework of our organizing plan. We're going to get to know one another better and have a good time doing it. And yes, we're going to have food and beverage for all.

The Kickoff itself will start at 6:30 PM. But at 6 PM, we'll do a run-through of what went down at our TAA Leadership Retreat from two weeks ago. We'll serve food at 6 PM as we cover the material from the retreat.

We want everyone who's been involved in the union, or is interested in getting involved, to be there. Make sure to let us know that you'll be there. RSVP to our Stewards' Council Co-Chairs Ari Eisenberg and Katie Weigel or be in touch with them if you have any questions.

posted by Webmaster

General Membership Meeting: February 4th

January 27, 2010

Our first General Membership Meeting of the spring semester will take place...

Thursday, February 4th
5:30 PM
2231 Humanities

The agenda for this meeting will begin by finishing up the open business from our December General Membership Meeting, including handling Constitutional changes on non-discrimination and voting on fall semester officer stipends.

This meeting will also include an announcement about the spring conference of the Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals and a report from our ad hoc Segregated Fee workgroup, created at the December GMM.

posted by Webmaster

 

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