COGS News
September 2004
Member Activism Keeps the Movement Alive
As COGS heads into a new bargaining year, the need for activism is as great as ever. The poor condition of the Iowa budget is well known to all state employees. As graduate RAs and TAs, we need to be aware that cuts proposed as a remedy to the state’s fiscal problems threaten to push more of the cost of education on us. We at COGS believe that as a public institution, the University has a responsibility to its graduate students to provide the best possible working and learning environment. In order for us to protect the rights and benefits necessary to maintain quality RA and TA working conditions, graduate employees once again need to come together and make our voices heard.
Since 1996 UE Local 896-COGS has been at the forefront of academic-labor activism at the University of Iowa. Strengthened by a democratic, rank-and-file structure, COGS members have won victories and protected the rights of TAs and RAs by using both formal means of negotiation and direct action.
In COGS’ early days, members fanned out all over Iowa City and the UI campus, talking to TAs and RAs about building a strong organization-run by TAs and RAs-for the purpose of improving salaries, benefits, and working conditions. In April 1996, their efforts paid off and TAs and RAs voted by an verwhelming margin to establish UE-COGS.
The following fall, the first COGS-elected bargaining committee started negotiations for grad employees first contract. Realizing the UI was not intent on bargaining a fair contract, COGS members held the first ever Grade-In. COGS members sat-in and stood-in at the IMU to deliver the UI a report card. Not surprisingly, the UI received poor marks for salaries, health insurance and human rights, among other issues.
Forced to recognize that COGS was more than just a bargaining committee and was in fact a force of hundreds of TAs and RAs, the University finally started real bargaining. As a result of having a persistent, well-trained bargaining committee backed up by an energetic and active membership, COGS won quality, affordable health insurance in the form of UI Grad Care, salary increases putting pay on par with the better paid Big Ten schools, a grievance procedure, protections against overwork, and several other concrete improvements.
When bargaining commenced in the Fall of 1998, nearly 100 COGS members joined the bargaining committee in delivering the union’s proposals to the UI. Highlighting these proposals were demands that the UI better assist employees with dependents, especially children. The 1998 Grade-In gave the UI incomplete marks for its failure to provide adequate support for child care and its lack of any contribution towards health insurance coverage for dependents.
As bargaining moved forward, COGS members regularly accompanied each bargaining session with informational picket lines and rallies. Finally, the University met the Union’s demands and agreed to pay 70% of the cost for dependent health insurance. Member activism also led to the inclusion of a new Memorandum of Understanding on Non-Discrimination/Human Rights.
Since then, COGS has continued fighting for the best interests of grad employees. The first signs of the current state budget crisis emerged in the Fall of 2000. With the threat of losing hard won salary levels and benefits, over 100 members joined the bargaining committee to give the UI our proposals for a third contract. The position of the members was made very clear that first day of bargaining: No Concessions. At a Grade-In held later that Fall, COGS released its first ever report on educational contact hours showing that UI TAs and RAs are responsible for 58 percent of classroom contact hours with undergraduates.
“The UI Works Because We Do!” was grad employees’ message to the University. Eventually, the UI was forced to maintain insurance benefit levels - and the largest salary increases yet were secured. Two years later, despite the university still wanting concessions, COGS members pressed for and won minimum tuition scholarships while maintaining all other benefits intact.
This year, COGS will be fighting to further improve on grad employees' salary and benefit packages. Many more examples of COGS members’activism not mentioned here have led to gains that we have won and protected over the years. An active membership is the lifeblood of this Union! While the financial contribution you make to COGS helps make these victories possible, it is only hands-on membership that will ensure our future. Keep our membership strong and get involved by becoming a steward in your department; or volunteer for an office or house visit to recruit new members; or serve on one of COGS issue committees. This edition of COGnition is full of opportunities to learn about and serve the union that serves you.
--Patrick Oray President
Don't Let Overwork Happen to You
Graduate students know that time is valuable. Last year several TAs in the History Department found themselves working hours in excess of their half-time appointments. Turning to their union stewards, immediate action was taken to correct this problem.
With the backing of clear contract language, the employees and the union stewards filed a grievance resulting in nearly $1,000 of back pay for the overwork. In addition, the department is making changes to the appointment structure to avoid overwork in the future.
Even with this victory overwork continues to be a problem in some departments. If you are working above your appointment hours on a regular basis and see no relief coming, then you should take action right away. Contact the union so that together we can address your DEO to have your workload decreased or to have your pay increased.
Make sure that you contact your steward right away with any issues, such as overwork, so that the problem can be addressed in a timely manner.
Remember, whenever you are meeting with your DEO about a union contract issue, like hours of work, bring a steward or union representative with you. If you don't know who that is--email us!
If you want to learn more about the rights that your contract protects, email us at cogs@cogs.org.
--Ryan Downing, UE Field Organizer
What the Contract Says About Overwork
Article VII, Hours of Work, of the contract provides our protection against overwork. Specifically, Section 3 of the Article lays out the process for making a challenge to overwork: If at any time over the course of an appointment, a graduate employee reasonably believes that his/her duties routinely require hours which will cumulatively exceed the hours of effort required by the appointment percentage over its full term, he/she may raise the matter with the Departmental Executive Officer. If no satisfactory resolution is achieved, the matter may be raised at Level 2 of the grievance procedure. In the event that an employee's claim is sustained informally or at any step of the grievance procedure, the Employer shall increase such employee's salary proportionately to the extra hours of effort required, or at the Employer's option if there is enough remaining time in the appointment, shall make an adjustment for the remainder of the appointment so that hours of effort are decreased proportionally.
Steward Report: Several greviances in the works
A few recent grievances are worth your attention:
#49: A TA in Music was informed by the department that she would have to take certain classes or her assistantship would be terminated, despite the fact that her appointment letter contained no such provision. Thanks to the prompt action of Greg Bales, Blue Area Chief Steward, she gets to keep her job. Nice going, Greg!
#48: The University failed to implement the COGS negotiated minimum tuition scholarship for every student entitled to it. There were a number of reasons for the failure. After a grievance was filed, actions were taken to resolve the situation within several days. In addition, the University promised to continue, “efforts to be fully compliant with the contract in this regard.”
#45: A TA in Chemistry was terminated based on a performance review after only a semester of teaching. The issues here are about due process and the department’s sole reliance on an unreliable method of performance review. The grievance is moving forward to arbitration. Thanks here goes to Imran Pirwani, Red Area Chief Steward, for all his hard work and determination.
On another note, I’m sure you all understand that membership losses due to graduation lead to a constant need for organizing. One method we have yet to maximize is member driven organizing: individual members explaining what COGS is, and what it does, to nonmembers. Here’s what you can say to a non-member who says that they trust the University to keep their interests as a top priority, that they’ll look after themselves, thank you very much, and that COGS does nothing for them they can’t do on their own:
“Even if you’re ready tobelieve that the University will always do right by you despite the situation,you don’t ever have to take the risk that you’re wrong. This is because COGS exists. COGS exists so we won’t have to find out for sure. Members don’t pay to have this protection for themselves; they pay for everyone to have it. Without members, the ability of COGS to look out for individuals is diminished. If it turns out that the University doesn’t always keep the interests of graduate students in its list of top priorities, there won’t be anything we can do about it. You have to remember that most problems graduate students have are not caused by malice. No onehas made it a personal mission to make their interests suffer (well, ok, maybe a few). These problems are caused by normal economic pressure and the natural tendency of bureaucracies to discount individual interests and favor institutional ones. COGS exists to give individuals the chance to matter to the institution.”
If you are experiencing any of these noted problems, or have another grievance, please contact the COGS office immediately.
--Christopher Burgess Campus Chief Steward
Understanding the Iowa Public Employee Bargaining Law A strong, active membership is the driving force
The strength and activism of COGS’ membership is the driving force behind our ability to protect our gains and make improvements in bargaining. Still, public sector bargaining in Iowa is controlled by certain rules and parameters set by state law.
Chapter 20 of the Code of Iowa gives us our right to collectively bargain. Our negotiations with the University will commence in late October at a public meeting in which the Union will give the University its proposals for a new contract. Two weeks after that meeting, the Union will receive the University's proposal for a new contract, also in a public meeting. After these meetings the two sides will go into closed sessions to bargain. Once impasse is reached, a mediator provided by the State Public Employment Relations Board will be brought in.
By law, we must complete a voluntary agreement with the UI by March 15. If a voluntary agreement is not possible, then we have the right to forward the disputed issue(s) to fact-finding (if fact-finding is not waived by both sides) and then to arbitration. Arbitration is an administrative law procedure in which an independent third party (an arbitrator) makes a decision that is final and binding on both the Union and the employer. Both the fact-finder and the arbitrator can only rule on “Mandatory” topics of bargaining. Chapter 20 spells out what is and is not a mandatory topic of bargaining. Just because a topic is mandatory does not mean that it is automatically made a part of the agreement. Conversely, just because a topic is non-mandatory does not mean that it cannot be put in a contract. In order to win anything -- mandatory or nonmandatory -- a strong, active membership must state its case publicly, while a dedicated and educated bargaining committee presses the employer for changes.
--Ryan Downing UE Field Organizer
CSSA & COGS Join Forces
The Chinese Student & Scholar Association (CSSA) is looking for native English speakers who are interested in helping Chinese graduate students improve their English and learn more about COGS.
This is a good chance to get to know some nice and interesting people, as well as gain a better understanding of a different culture.
Participants will meet once a month to practice oral English. These will be one-on-one sessions, with the time and place to be determined by each of you. If you are unable to form a partnership, CSSA will also hold group ESL conversation hours at the COGS office. For more information, contact Xiaoqian Jiang, CSSA VP and Web Administrator at xjia@cs.uiowa.edu.
