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I’m a member of the Graduate Employees’ Organization at the University of Michigan, and I’m out here today protesting Bank of America because it represents one of the culprits of the Great Recession.

Despite receiving billions of dollars in tax bailout money, Bank of America just announced it’s going to lay off 30,000 employees in August, it funds anti-worker lobbyists like ALEC, it paid zero taxes in 2009, and it is the #1 foreclosure profiteer.

Bank of America has become bad for America and we are going to fight to hold them accountable.

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On 24 April 2012, the GEO Parents’ Caucus reached a tentative agreement with university administrators on issues related to the child care subsidy. As part of contract negotiations last year between GEO and UM, a committee was created of GEO members and UM administrators to evaluate the childcare subsidy policy for graduate employee parents. $150,000 was allotted to implement recommendations made by this committee. We began negotiations in September and reached agreement in April. Click here to view the language of the agreement.

The joint GEO-UM committee will use the funds to create a pilot program which provides a secondary child care subsidy to some families who do not qualify for the current subsidy program, which requires spouses of GEO members to work or study at least 20 hours per week. The pilot program provides comparable funds to graduate employees whose spouses work between 12-19 hours per week. The 12 hour limit opens up the child care subsidy program to a wider range of families, including some international graduate employees who would have been otherwise excluded due to their spouses’ visa statuses.

The funding of the program is structured so that the $150,000 will be distributed across the remaining two years of our contract. Written into the tentative agreement are conditions that ensure that unused funds from the program will be available for negotiation during our next collective bargaining cycle.

This win would not have been possible without the dedication and support of GEO membership! We had power in negotiations because GEO members, parents and non-parents alike stood in solidarity with those of us at the table!

Please inform your colleagues who have children about this secondary child care subsidy so they know they now have expanded access. And get involved with GEO to help make further gains for graduate employees at the University of Michigan.

On behalf of the GEO Parents’ Caucus,
Melissa Sanders, PhD, Psychology
Katie Brion, History of Art
Jacki Antonovich, History

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Watch the segment by clicking on the image below:

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Send an email to:  amatish@umich.edu, rayj@umich.edu, mhr@umich.edu, and hanlon@umich.edu,

And cc:  umgeo@umich.edu

Subject:  Support family friendliness at UM

I am a member of GEO, and I am writing to you to let you know how excited I am about the progress made so far on expanding access to the child care subsidy! I am glad to see that UM administrators and GEO members can come together and work collaboratively on such an important issue. I look forward to hearing about the final recommendation for expanding access to the child care subsidy to families in need.

Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]

Additional information:

Movement at the table!

-we have been passing counters back and forth at the table and are making progress

Our current proposal:

-secondary subsidy covers students whose spouses work/study 10-19 hours
-amount awarded covers roughly 50% of child care costs
-eligibility language more inclusive
-requires OFA to encourage families in unique circumstances to contact OFA about child care

Stay tuned! We will receive a counter from UM on 4/12!

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Text:

Spring 2012

Hi I’m a graduate employee at the University of Michigan and I’m a member of GEO.

I’m Katie and I’m a member of GEO.

I’m a member of GEO.

I am GEO.

I am GEO.

I am GEO.

GEO members talk about protecting collective bargaining rights in Michigan.

Politicians and the corporate CEOs who sponsor them are on the warpath against workers’ rights in Michigan.

More than 80 bills are now pending in Michigan’s Legislature, all concocted to strip basic protections from Michigan’s working people.

The GSRA organizing campaign was one casualty of this offensive.

And that’s not right.

That’s not right.

There are even some politicians who want to go even further and eliminate collective bargaining all together.

But we not going to let it happen.

We’re going to fight back.

We are working to get an initiative passed on the ballot this November to protect our jobs,

To protect our benefits

To protect the working people of Michigan,

And all of the 99%.

We need to protect our rights,

Our voice,

We need to protect our right to collectively bargain.

But we’ll only win if our members get involved.

So join us.

Join us.

Get involved.

Sign the petition,

And sign up to collect signatures.

Send us an email to umgeo@umich.edu to sign up to help.

If you’re a grad employee at UM, GEO is your union.

Get in touch so together we can protect our union.  Thank you.

Email us to get involved. umgeo@umich.edu

www.umgeo.org
www.protectourjobs.com

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