June 26th Bargaining Update

Productivity is king

This morning marked our second bargaining session! Despite limited time, we made movement at the table and signed our first two Tentative Agreements (Severability and Recognition)! We received seven other counter proposals from Admin and were able to quickly propose counters to two of those during the session. You can view the exact language on updated tentative agreements and counter proposals in our bargaining tracker. We will continue to exchange proposals at our third session this Monday, July 3rd. 

While we were able to use our short time productively, we continued to pressure Admin to schedule more frequent and longer bargaining sessions. We scheduled four additional sessions from August-October including two full days, but we need Admin to commit to more full days to make negotiations as expedient as possible. As bargaining committee member Jack Hamill argued, “It’s great that we made some progress, but we could have made even more progress with more time.” 

“Completely Objectionable” 

Among the counter-proposals introduced, Admin is proposing to weaken our ability to use the grievance procedure to enforce the non-discrimination article, making discrimination based on a wide range of classes—including race, gender, religion, national origin, immigration status, age, caste, parental or pregnancy status, or disability—non-grievable under the procedure we are fighting for. This indicates they believe that current procedures such as Title IX and ADA are sufficient, flying in the face of countless stories of widespread dissatisfaction and systemic failure to protect graduate workers. In addition, their counter proposals dramatically shortened the amount of time we have to report a grievance. As our lead spokesperson put it, the vast majority of this language they introduced is “completely objectionable.”

Come to CAT to strategize!

In response to Northwestern’s proposed non-discrimination article, we need to send a clear message to admin: We want real non-discrimination protection, backed by a grievance procedure that ensures a safe and inclusive campus for all. We need to show Northwestern that the current systems continually fail to meaningfully protect graduate workers. We cannot do this without YOUR help! If you are upset about Admin’s proposal, Come to the CAT meeting today (6/28) at 5pm, and next Wednesday (7/5) at 5pm to organize your coworkers to win the contract that we deserve. We will strategize actions to make it clear that their non-discrimination language is unacceptable. Join us on zoom here or in person at TGS Commons (at 2122 Sheridan Rd).