Major GMM February 23rd

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.