Happy GA Appreciation Week to all,

Some of our members and their new 'Is Your GA Fair Trade?' mugs!

This week at bargaining, thanks to a great deal of off-the-clock work by our bargaining team, the FSU administration and GAU bargaining team were able to get all our numbers on the same page and bargaining back on track.  Your GAU bargaining team presented two separate proposals on Article 23, stipend increases, and Article 16, health insurance premium increases, as well as agreed to sign Article 19. The administration presented back two proposals of their on Article 23, as well as one on Article 16. As of the end of bargaining they were still considering our rebuttal on Article 16, which would raise employer contributions to health insurance to 80%, up from 76.77% it is currently. Although GAUs position remains that FSU lags sorely behind every other comparable university (and some universities which are much worse than our own!) on this important issue of employer contributions to health insurance, our number one priority is to put more money in your pockets wherever we can. If that means accepting a lower increase in health insurance coverage than we’d like, at least it’s an increase. FSU has already agreed to cover the $82 increase of health insurance premiums this year; we’re now bargaining for anything more that we can get. On stipends, the university remains firm that there is no recurring money for salary increases or minimum stipend increases this year. GAU refuses to accept this. The FSU administration offered a one-time bonus of $600, an increase of $100 from three sessions ago (and an increase of an average of $350 from the last two sessions, when the FSU bargaining team began using an entirely different set of numbers for their calculations). They offered no increase to the stipend and no increase in wages. We countered with many different options that would save FSU millions of dollars in the short term compared to their “one time bonus” plan, such as changing the effective start-date to January 1st, lowering our ask for the minimum stipend from $18,100 to $16,000, and changing our % salary raise request to a flat dollar amount in a move towards a more progressive raise structure. FSU administration rejected all of these offers. Our next bargaining session is Wednesday, October 30th, 2-5PM in room 6244 in the Human Resources Offices of Doak Campbell Stadium, University Center A. We have a second session scheduled after that for Friday, November 1st, 9-11AM at the Training Center. Things are getting spooky at bargaining! Never has your union had to bargain so long into the semester with the administration. Never has the administration offered NO salary raises or increases to the minimum stipend. Never has your union needed your support more than it does now. Your raises are on the line. In solidarity Vincenza Antonetta Berardo

Chief Negotiator, UFF-FSU-GAU

Ph.D. Candidate Philosophy Department Florida State University