Please review the statements from candidates for the 2018-2019 GEO Leadership position below. Voting starts on April 17. See election notice for polling times and description of positions.
Candidates for GEO 2018-2019 Co-Chairs:
Alyssa Goldstein
Fellow workers,
My name is Alyssa Goldstein, and I hope you will vote for me for GEO co-chair, along with Santiago as my fellow co-chair and Mary as mobilization coordinator. This past year, I have worked together with Santi and Mary to defend our current contract and win the best possible new contract. We have experience not just working for GEO, but in working together as a team.
Santi, Mary and I have been working steadfastly to ensure that we will win the best contract possible. We are currently in contract bargaining with the university, negotiating for higher wages, cheaper health insurance, increased child care reimbursements, expanded family and medical leave, stronger anti-discrimination and anti-harassment protections, increased protections for international students, reduced fees, and the inclusion of so-called “non-working” fellows in the bargaining unit, among other demands. Though the university has been dragging its feet throughout the entire bargaining process, we have already scored some important wins in the areas of health insurance, family and medical leave, child care reimbursements, and anti-harassment. We have also been supporting GEO members with large stakes in our membership’s various demands to run campaigns, organize actions, and give testimonials at the bargaining table.
Santi, Mary and I would like to see all GEO members to be leaders within their union. We envision GEO as a rank-and-file led organization where the staff’s role is to listen to, support, and empower the membership. We have worked to build diverse avenues of involvement so that every member has an opportunity to participate in union activities in ways that reflect their interests and strengths. I have devoted myself to creating trainings and materials that will help GEO members gain skills and confidence as rank-and-file organizers. Our commitment to build a strong, member-led, high-involvement union will also ensure that we can withstand the Trump administration’s union-busting attacks.
I plan on using the knowledge and experience I have acquired through many years of involvement with both GEO and our parent local, UAW Local 2322, to continue to support my fellow GEO members and defend our contract. I am the current GEO co-chair, a UAW Local 2322 executive board member, and two-time bargaining committee member. I also served as a Sociology department steward and UAW Local 2322 Joint Council member for three years. I am a fifth-year PhD student in the sociology department, and I have been active in GEO for all five of those years. I would be honored to continue my service to my union and my fellow graduate workers. I hope that you will vote for me and my slate.
In solidarity,
Alyssa Goldstein
Santiago Vidales
Hi everyone,
I am Santiago and I am asking you all to vote for myself and Alyssa for GEO Co-chairs as well as Mary for Mobilization Coordinator. As you know GEO is currently bargaining our contract, expanding our membership to protect grad workers on campus and continuing the long term mission of reaching out to every union member on campus. Given that GEO is facing unprecedented challenges due to union busting attacks at the national level but also negotiating a stronger contract, I am very excited to continue working with a great team of union activists that have a clear social justice project in mind. Alyssa, Mary and I will continue to provide the necessary leadership to navigate the complex political environment in which we live. We will not rest until we secure the strongest possible contract for all grad workers on campus. Raises, improved health insurance, including so-called non-working fellows within GEO and expanding nondiscrimination protections are a few of the demands we have made through bargaining and I know that none of us will compromise the demands that our membership has clearly expressed.
I am committed to the following points of action for the next leadership term-
- Negotiating the strongest possible contract
- Enforcing the contract to its fullest degree
- Growing the membership and centering the margins
- Intentionally developing future GEO leaders to remain a strong union
I ask that you vote for myself and for my slate. We know each well and work together efficiently, we have political clarity when it comes to demanding the needs of our members, we are committed to social justice, we will continue to be a member-centered organization and we will protect the legacy of more than 3 decades of campus labor activism. UMass works because GEO has advocated for all grad workers, I hope that I may continue doing this work and represent you all with the dignity and respect that we all deserve.
Peace,
Santi
Robert Williams
The Graduate Employee Organization has been led ably for the last several years by a group of dedicated and passionate leaders. Their hard work and tenacity in fighting for our interests, both in contract negotiations and in the day to day struggle to support our well-being, has been exemplary. I am extremely proud to have had the opportunity to work with these folks as Steward for the Afro-American Studies Department, and I have first-hand witnessed their tenacity. However, I believe we are entering a new era in the labor struggle. As teachers in Oklahoma and West Virginia, and Graduate Students at the Universities of Illinois, Oregon, Toronto, and elsewhere have demonstrated, there is massive potential for us to take a much more aggressive stance with regard to our working conditions.
As a candidate for Co-chair, my manifesto would be as follows:
- GEO Must Develop a Coherent Vision for UMASS in Partnership with Undergraduate Student Groups and other Campus Unions: If we can develop permanent working relationships with the Faculty and Service workers unions and the SGA to construct a coherent campus vision, the potential of what we could achieve is unparalleled. In almost every situation, are reacting to initiatives sent down from the Chancellor, Provost, and Deans’ offices. Thus we are always engaging from our back foot. If we were author a coherent vision for the University with our campus partners, we could have an extraordinary influence on the future of our University.
- The Needs of Marginalized Communities Must Lead Policy Priorities: The formation of the Black Caucus within GEO was a great step in the right direction, but we need to provide more support for students from marginalized communities, working class students, and first generation students. Marginalized communities within GEO must be at the forefront of guiding policy priorities. This serves all as if the needs of the most marginalized people in our community are served, then all of our needs will have been served.
- Work must be Compensated/Contracts must be Honored: As Graduate students we must demand pay for all work that is not directly contributory to our degrees. Teaching assistants, Teaching Associates, and Research Assistants are paid at the set rate and yet do vastly different amounts of work. RA’s, particularly in STEM fields, are often worked two to three times the number of hours they are contracted for without compensation. They conduct the bulk of the research that contributes to lucrative grants and patents the University depends upon, yet they have no claim to a share of that money, nor do they acquire an ownership stake in those patents. This is grossly unfair. I will insist that all work is compensated fairly.
- Graduate Student Funding must be Equitable across the University: As a member of the Afro-American Studies department, I know firsthand the hoops our Graduate Program Directors have had to leap through to try to provide adequate funding for our Graduate students, and I have seen the impact of budget cuts on marginalized programs in SBS and HFA. I will work to ensure that all Grad programs are funded adequately to their needs, and that Grad students receive 5 years of guaranteed funding for Ph.D’s/2 years of funding for Masters.
Thank you for your time. I humbly ask for your support.
Candidates for the 2018-2019 GEO Mobilization Coordinator:
Mary Dickman:
Dear fellow GEO members,
I am delighted to announce my candidacy for the position of GEO Mobilization Coordinator.
I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication and am currently a member of the bargaining committee, serving as an Organizing & Mobilization Coordinator. Alyssa, Santi, and I have been working together for the last year to secure a strong contract and we ask you to vote for our ticket: Alyssa and Santi as GEO Co-Chairs and myself for the GEO Mobilization Coordinator.
I joined the bargaining team in June 2017 and during this time I have helped to organize several well-attended actions and social events. The actions include the Halloween Rally for a Dignified Wage, Keep Us On Campus!: Education and Action Around the Tax Bill, and The Working People’s Day of Action. Actions are integral to winning a strong contract. Social events have included the GEO Kid-Friendly BBQ, the End of Summer BBQ Brunch, and the Labor of Love open mic event. While seemingly trivial, social events offer an opportunity for members to gather and strengthen our bonds of solidarity. This is especially important as the administration attempts to divide us; pitting domestic graduate students against international graduate students, undergraduate students against graduate students, and graduate students against faculty.
I bring a passion and commitment to social justice. Every worker has the right to safe and fair working conditions and I intend on fighting for those rights. I look forward to the opportunity to bring the experience and knowledge I have gained from my bargaining position to the Mobilization Coordinator position.
In Solidarity,
Mary C. Dickman
Candidates for the Delegate to the UAW Constitutional Convention:
Danielle Allessio
Statement to be delivered
Matthew Donlevy
Statement to be delivered
Alyssa Goldstein
Fellow workers,
My name is Alyssa Goldstein and I am asking that you vote for me for GEO delegate to the UAW constitutional convention. In addition to serving as GEO co-chair for the past year, I have also been active in the leadership of our local, UAW Local 2322. I served on the Local Joint Council, and currently am a member of the Local Executive Board. I have both represented the interests of graduate workers and sought to build bonds of solidarity with the other shops in our Local. I would like to build upon the work I’ve done in representing GEO’s interests and building solidarity across workplaces by attending the constitutional convention in Detroit, where representatives from UAW shops all over the country will gather. I believe that graduate student workers can be a powerful force for change within the UAW. I hope you will cast your vote for me to represent you at the constitutional convention.
In solidarity,
Alyssa Goldstein
