[This is not a real-time post. It is a copy of an email sent to GEO members on Wednesday 25 March 2020 and has been posted here for archival continuity.
Further updates to the website will be in real time, stay tuned]
Dear everyone,
Thank you for the truly overwhelming turnout yesterday for the first bargaining session with Admin this year. I believe there were 69 of us at one point, and it was pretty incredible to see the Admin side have to go through us introducing ourselves for over ten minutes.
More updates about the specifics of what we talked about will be coming shortly, we’re typing up our notes and processing what happened yesterday. The highlights: we demanded (1) housing needs of North Village and Lincoln – no evictions, (2) summer funding for all, (3) vacation payout, i.e. getting paid for all the work we did over Spring Break. Remember, this is just the beginning. Please continue to communicate to us your concerns and ideas about what you need and can fight for during these trying times. Bargaining 2020 is now Impact Bargaining: we are fighting for not (just) our contract, but our right to be safe, employed, and paid throughout the pandemic and beyond.
Urgent Community support for Unionized Workers at Safe Passage We are also very excited to share that workers at Safe Passage (which hosts the Hot Chocolate Run fundraiser annually) have formed a union and are now part of our Local UAW2322! Please sign this letter as soon as possible to register your unwavering support for their Union! Tell the Board of Directors of Safe Passage that or communities need Safe Passage and their critical services, but especially in this time of global crisis.
GEO Emails An important task for all of us: a lot of you have indicated that we clearly have a major issue with members not getting the emails from the GEO listserv. To help solve this problem and get people the crucial information they need about bargaining in these difficult times, I urge you as a recipient of this email to please reach out to the steward in your department and create together an alternative list so that emails from GEO can be forwarded and reach every single one of our members. Many people are already doing so. Please continue to expand the creative ways in which you communicate with your fellow workers.
It would be unbelievably helpful if within your dept you could identify members not receiving emails and send a list to geo@umass.edu. Identifying members just means showing your friends an example email and asking if they got it. Only members are allowed on this list. Please go to the extra trouble of verifying their membership by asking them to check their most recent paystub on HR direct (if member, “Amh GEO dues” are deducted). We do not have the capacity in the union office right now to manually verify everyone.
We’re having a drink right now, if you want to hang out virtually, please join us with your favourite beverage on Zoom.
In solidarity,
Jyoti, GEO Co-Chair
