It was a scene straight out of an “Afterschool Special” about the 1960s — angry students with signs chanting on the steps of the student union, preparing to march — but Tuesday’s Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation rally in the EMU Amphitheater wasn’t about “peace and love.” It was about “faith.”
The rally opened at 1 p.m. with George Michael’s “Faith” blaring on a portable stereo and members of Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation Local 3544 proclaiming what they called a lack of good faith was recently demonstrated by University representatives in the GTFF’s nearly four-month-old contract negotiations.
In November, the GTFF began negotiating with the University to secure better pay and benefits for the University’s 1,200 graduate employees. Negotiations hit a snag Jan. 19, when the University halted discussion over the addition of new language governing harassment and discrimination in the new contract, according to GTFF negotiating team member Ashley Overbeck.
The GTFF wants to add nondiscrimination language to cover transgender and transsexual employees in its contract, and classify “arbitrary and capricious action by faculty” as harassment. Richard Linton, vice president for research and graduate studies, who is leading negotiations for the University, said those groups are already covered by existing nondiscrimination language.
“We, as an institution, feel that those issues are under protection already,” Linton said. “It’s unfortunate that the University is being positioned in a way that makes them appear insensitive.”
Overbeck called that language insufficient. She pointed out that under current rules, union members who think they’ve been discriminated against based on their gender status cannot file a grievance with the union.
“A pamphlet doesn’t cut it,” Overbeck said. “They might as well have offered to put up fliers around campus.”
After the rally, GTFF members marched down 13th Avenue to Prince Lucien Campbell Hall, where the negotiating teams met again. According to Linton, the two sides were “making some progress.” Both parties are closer together on wage issues and the “nuts and bolts” of the contracts are settled, he said.
The current GTFF contract expires March 31. Overbeck had predicted negotiations would be completed by early March, but in light of the recent problems, both sides now expect the negotiations to go the distance.
GTFF president Michelle Diggles said she hopes for a speedy end to the negotiations.
“But considering that they took all the non-economic issues off the table, it makes me leery that the University is looking for a speedy resolution,” she said.
Diggles said the GTFF would negotiate past the expiration of their contract, but would not rule out the possibility of a strike.
“That’s the University’s gamble,” she said.