January 26, 2007
Dear GEO member,
Over the past several years, GEO has been working to make the organization more inclusive and democratic. As part of this process, we as your departmental stewards have suggested changes to our constitution. At the January 25th Membership Meeting, these changes were approved to go out to a membership-wide vote. That is why we are writing to you now.
The GEO constitution is the document that guides the functioning of the Union. It is complex and outdated – it needs to be modernized and the structure of the Union simplified. The proposed structure places more focus on the wider and more democratic stewards council, and it clarifies the role of each officer. In addition, the proposed changes will make it easier for all members to be involved in determining the goals of GEO and executing the tasks at each step of the way. We've included a chart which shows the new structure.
Another change that will be of particular interest to you pertains to the calculation of dues. GEO receives substantial support, legal counsel, and bargaining assistance from our parent union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The dues we pay to the AFT have increased over the past several years, while we have not raised our own dues since 1993.
The AFT is essential to our operation as a Union. To meet immediate costs, the membership has proposed a bylaw to increase dues nominally over the next three years. If you approve the bylaw, you will see an increase in dues equal to 0.08% of your salary in the first year. For a 0.5 appointment, this increase translates into an increase of about $6 (for other appointment fractions, see the enclosed table). The total increase over the three years will be 0.13% of your salary. For the future, the proposed constitutional amendment to the dues structure would ensure that GEO dues increase proportionally to our AFT dues. Increases in our AFT dues have historically been small, and we have representation within the AFT bodies that set dues.
There are answers to frequently asked questions and more specific information about both the constitutional amendments and dues bylaw enclosed and on our website, http://www.umgeo.org/. We believe that implementing these changes will make us a stronger and more effective union as we enter negotiations next fall and into the future.
As your stewards, we hope you will join us in voting to amend our constitution and our dues bylaw.
In Solidarity, on behalf of the GEO Stewards Council,
Marta Murray-Close (Economics), Natalie Cotton (Business School), Manan Desai (English), Jonathan DeVore (Anthropology)