The third round of negotiations will be held in the Westminster House on Monday, March 17, from 3-5 pm. This session will see the first round of real negotiations (as opposed to simply exchanging proposals, as the sides have done at previous meetings). Keep an eye on this post to see what specific issues we will be negotiating over.
We understand that the 17th is the Monday of finals week, but your contract is probably more important to you than a grade anyway, so we hope you’ll show up. This session may be the most interesting so far, since we hope to engage the Adminstration in a real back-and-forth over some important issues. We are especially looking forward to seeing how the University justifies some of its proposals, such as the elimination without replacement of the $250-per-term fee differential (i.e. a $750-per-year pay cut).
We hope to see you there. As always, feel free to come and go as you please, and bring some work to do if you want. Your simple presence is imposing enough.
I hope to attend at least part of the bargaining on Monday. It all sounds very interesting and I am sorry that I was unable to attend the previous two sessions. As an international graduate student in the BPP dept I am particularly concerned about:
* abolition of leave for elections in home country.
* emergency leave and maternity or parental leave.
* wages should at least keep up with inflation especially with the economy being as unstable as it is at present.
* even if you can’t negotiate an increase in OSU’s contribution to the health plant then an improvement on the current plan could be to decrease the $200 deductible to $50 or something affordable. I find this to be rather expensive considering I am relatively healthy I can’t really afford to apy up to 200 per year on check-ups, vaccinations and routine tests.
* The current $250 per term fee relief barely covers half of the fees anyway so the abolition of this will be far from satisfactory. If I ever move into a more expensive place of my own I don’t know how I will afford this.
* When I joined my department, 1 week before classes began in the fall I was unaware of the requirement for training prior to TA-ing (a requirement for my PhD in BPP) therefore I missed the one opportunity per year for this training and I have to put off TA-ing until later in my course. More information available prior to arrival would have been helpful.
Thank you for all the work you are doing for us and I look forward to attending on Monday.
– Clare Elliott