Two of the AFT's newest graduate employee locals recently brought in their first contracts, giving their members the wage increases, benefits and voice so many fought so long to achieve. On April 18, the Temple University Graduate Students' Association ratified a four-year agreement, beginning in the fall of 2002, that provides immediate dramatic salary improvements. First, all 500 graduate employees that TUGSA represents will get a retroactive bonus for the past teaching year, based on whether they taught one or both semesters. Then they'll get increases ranging from 12.7 percent in the arts and humanities to 22 percent in the hard sciences, added to a base of $11,000. The minima will increase by 2.75 percent in each subsequent year. Their new health benefits allow them to opt for a basic, 100 percent coverage plan or a nine-month plan with low co-pays, dental, prescription and vision coverage for which the university pays 100 percent premiums. Participants can pay for 12-month coverage. And in a first for any Temple union, the plan also allows members to enroll domestic partners. TUGSA staff organizer Rob Callahan notes that the union's cohesiveness and militancy played a role in securing the settlement. More details on the contract can be found at http://www.tugsa.org/agreement.html

The Graduate Employees Union at Michigan State University also used well-timed job actions to secure its tentative agreement on April 26. The day before, hundreds of GEU members staged a daylong walkout, which students and faculty honored by not crossing the union picket lines. The next day, when department chairs began compiling information on which of the graduate employees participated in the walkout, GEU hastily called a press conference and almost simultaneously, the university settled with the union. The settlement includes a no-reprisal clause.

The GEU, which represents 1,200 graduate employees, secured a three-year agreement that provides a 3.5 percent retroactive stipend increase for this past year, 2 percent for each of the next two years and 3 percent for the last year. The agreement also enhances the healthcare plan and provides employer contributions to the premiums of spouses, domestic partners and dependents. Other features are agency shop, strong grievance language and strong workload protections, one of members' biggest issues, says GEU president Jessica Goodkind. "Many of our members are overworked and not paid for their hours," she reports. The contract lays out a system for measuring work and adjusting workload or pay, if called for. The union is conducting a mail-ballot ratification, with ballots to be counted May 7. More details on the contract can be found at www.msu.edu/~geu. [Barbara McKenna]

[May 3, 2002]