GSWU

06/04/2012

We have an update from the BMS regarding the charges. The BMS has issued a ruling: The BMS did *not* rule whether or not the University committed an actual Unfair Labor Practice, but did rule that any possible ULP would not have impacted the outcome of the election.

05/02/2012

On Tuesday, May 8th at 9AM outside 3M’s Shareholder meeting at River Center Complex, there will be a 99% Spring action calling on 3M to refrain from making political contributions.

They'll be calling on the 3M CEO and other shareholders to get their money out of politics: http://actions.the99spring.com/actions/events/show/6642

This spring, 100,000 Americans, inspired by those occupying Wall Street, Madison and Cairo, will train to take our country back from the 1%. Join the 99% Spring TODAY.

04/12/2012

Breaking News: Gov. Walker Facing Republican Progressive In Recall Primary, May Be Eliminated Early: In a huge twist, Wisconsin Democrats...

04/12/2012

Six other universities in the greater Pittsburgh area have contacted the United Steelworkers to help them form unions for their adjunct instructors in the past several months, according to USW representative Jeff Cech. The USW will...

04/12/2012

A government that can be bought? Or a democracy that is truly of the people? We're training 100,000 people in one week to make their choice. Join us.

04/12/2012

An important historical perspective on the so-called "Right to Work" movement.

Minnesota DNR employee and AFSCME 718 member, Connie Andrews, worries that so-called 'right-to-work' will mean reverting to a time when women did not get the...

04/12/2012

The 99% Spring Movement is an important, grassroots coalition that the UAW is proudly participating in. Click on the link to find out about trainings near you.

Click LIKE & SHARE if the time to take action is NOW:

04/12/2012

After almost two years of bargaining, unionized postdoctoral researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst overwhelmingly ratified a contract Thursday that sets a minimum salary of $38,500,...

04/12/2012

Fellow Graduate Assistants,

As you have likely noticed, the Department of Human Resources sent an email yesterday commenting on the unfair election practices charge GSWU/UAW filed with the Bureau of Mediation Services. We filed the charge because University administrators broke the law in telling graduate assistants that they could not discuss forming a union in their workplace. The Bureau of Mediation Services will inform us regarding the next steps in the process, and we will update you on next steps in the process. Until the charges have been addressed, the Bureau ruled that the status quo order has been reinstated.

The University has also broken the law by threatening to withhold expected pay increases as a result of the status quo order. The status quo order requires the University to implement expected wage increases and to continue processes used to determine wage increases.

We urge the University to cease misrepresenting the application of the status quo order and to respect the legal processes that protect the rights of Graduate Assistants to freely organize and form their union.

GSWU/UAW

04/04/2012

Martin Luther King, Jr., Civil Rights & Organized Labor: The Fight Against Right to Work Laws, Then and Now

Film & Panel Discussion

Wednesday, April 4th
6pm-8pm
Bell Museum
10 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN

AFSCME Local 3800 is hosting a film screening and panel discussion to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the anniversary of his assassination. “At the River I Stand” (1993) will be shown Wednesday, April 4 at 6:00 p.m. at the Bell Museum, located at thfilm se corner of University Ave. and 17th Ave. SE in Minneapolis on the University of Minnesota campus. The film documents Dr. King’s last two months alive and his work with the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis in 1968. This powerful documentary illuminates the connections between economic and civil rights through these public employees’ fight for dignity and justice.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion with: Rose Brewer, professor of African-American and African Studies, University of Minnesota; Aaron Sojourner, labor economist, Carlson School of Management; Eliot Seide, executive director, AFSCME Council 5; Peter Rachleff, professor of Labor History, Macalester College; and Joe Burns, author of Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power & Transform America.

03/26/2012

The election results are in.

We are sorry to announce that the union was not certified, by a vote of 1,857 to 1,142.

Many many graduate assistants at the University of Minnesota wanted a union, and continue to want a union. We stand in solidarity with them and look forward to the continued fight to build a more just and equitable workplace here and elsewhere.

Thank you once again to all of the volunteers who worked so hard.

03/26/2012

Last Monday, as part of a larger spread that included a number of letters about the GSWU election, the MN Daily published a letter signed by GAPSA executives addressing the ways in which that body is different from a GA union. That letter generated a lot of discussion, on the MN Daily’s website, her...