Why work with light? Why now? In the spring semester of 2020, the UMass administration rejected proposals submitted by GEO during negotiations on the impact of COVID-19 to ensure job security, summer funding, and protection for international students during the pandemic. They rejected the automatic payment for lost vacation, which is required in the existing GEO contract. We now have to hold an expensive arbitration hearing on breach of contract, which also costs employees and members time. More than 500 gradarbeiter participated in a holiday campaign. It was a strong message, but in the end, it didn`t put enough pressure on the university. If we want to win, we must step up our efforts. Our current proposals to ensure the health and safety of Res Life graduate workers and APPU members and to fight for racial justice by reducing the dangerous police presence on campus have gone unanswered. Yesterday, despite passionate calls from Anneta Argyres, president of the Professional Staff Union, and Eve Weinbaum, president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors, the board voted to cut the UMass system budget by $170,000,000. We are fighting an uphill battle over the plan to reopen UMass and our next contract. We have two options. We can take action that forces the board to abandon its austerity agenda and protect our jobs and lives; Or we can give up and accept whatever they offer us.
This battle will not be won at the negotiating table. We will not let the management appear with a perfect argument. Either we are now fighting with work-to-rule, or we are abandoning the ground we gained in our last contract. What is outside the scope of our contract and unpaid work? The expectation of being «professionals in training» can often erase our identities as UMass workers/employees and can reinforce this exploitative idea that we should always do everything we can to prove ourselves, do extra unpaid work and training to prove we are qualified, and feed off the same types of narratives. which are used as a weapon against all educators: that it degrades the nobility of the profession to expect fair remuneration and performance. Here is a non-exhaustive list of examples of unpaid work: What are the «rules» of our contract and my position? SECTION 2 OF OUR CONTRACT (www.geouaw.org/geo-contract/) governs the responsibilities of the position. The administration fought hard to include a line suggesting that additional responsibilities can be added to each of these roles, with phrases such as «including, but not limited to.» It is a question of making actions such as the one we are currently carrying out less effective. But your supervisor should always give you specific instructions in advance. If you have any questions regarding this document, please contact your department head or GEO staff at geo@umass.edu. Section 20 of the contract requires your supervisor to provide a job description. It must be «developed by the department head» and include «a summary of tasks and responsibilities» and «a list of all required meetings and training programs.» The contract provides for this to be transmitted with the GFAF; Don`t try to do a job you don`t have a description for, even after the appointment starts (August 21), make sure you have a job description before continuing.
The job description you have may be vague, but the section also requires that «where appropriate, [graduate staff] be provided with a more detailed description of the duties and responsibilities of the position.» «Reasonable» doesn`t just depend on your supervisor, insist you have enough information to do your job, and August 21 as a supervisor for such a detailed description if you don`t have one. Section 21 recognizes that graduates «have reasonable discretion in exercising their professional judgment. deciding how best to carry out their duties», provided that this is done «in accordance with the instructions of the person`s supervisor, as well as fiscal and temporal restrictions». As a general rule, the administration expects us to interpret fiscal and temporal restrictions in their favour. They keep our budgets and salaries low and don`t offer enough GEO-compatible positions to avoid time constraints. Right now, they plan to make the situation worse with reductions in ARD positions and the next $170 million reduction. We have a professional responsibility to provide a good education, which means taking the time we really need based on our professional judgment. Sometimes the phrase «slow down the rulebook» is used in a slightly different sense from «strike work»: the former involves the application of letter rules, which are usually set aside or interpreted less literally, to increase efficiency; They refrain from activities that are routine but not prescribed by the rule or job description, but the terms may be used interchangeably.
Work-to-rule rules can be misinterpreted as malicious, even if it is only to eliminate goodwill, such as employees insisting on taking all legally justified breaks or rejecting a request for unpaid overtime. [4] This document will be addressed as we raise and answer new questions. Please direct your questions about Rule Work and what you encounter during your Rule work to the Work-Wing Co-Chairs: Nefeli Zervoudaki (nefeli@geouaw.org) and David W. Pritchard (david@geouaw.org). Work-to-rule is a collective action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract and follow safety or other rules to cause a slowdown instead of serving their goals. Such a measure is considered less disruptive than a strike or lockout; And only compliance with the rules is less likely to be disciplined. Notable examples are nurses who refused to answer the phone and police officers who refused to give quotes. Refusal to work overtime, to go to work or to register for other tasks requiring workers` consent are other manifestations of the application of work-to-rule as industrial action.
Work by domination has been given the following legal definition: «Work after domination has a well-known meaning, namely: «Give the rules a meaning that no reasonable man could give them, and work on them.» «Sometimes the term `rulebook slowdown` is used in a slightly different sense than `work-to-rule`: the former involves the application of rules to letters that are usually set aside or interpreted less literally to increase efficiency; The latter refrain from activities that are common but not required by the rule or job description, but the terms may be used interchangeably. Or in connection with a work protest where employees do only the minimum work required by a workplace rules by strictly following safety or other regulations to cause a slowdown. If you have any questions about your work, you can contact your department head. Not sure who your steward is? Find out on the GEO website. My supervisor asked me to do unpaid work. How can I respond to this? The GEO strike committee has developed an email template that you can use to respond to your manager, which is available here. Since it`s before the fall dates start, you can set it as an auto-reply message and enjoy your summer. What is zeal? Work-to-rule is an action in the workplace where employees do exactly what is stated in the written rules, procedures and contract – but no more – to pressure the employer to accept a fair contract (in this case, UMass administration/management). This can slow down operations or annoy our managers, but it is a widespread and effective union strategy.
Through the work-to-rule strike, we show management how important our work is and how much revision we do, including work before we start ordering. Work-to-rule is not a refusal to perform work that we have agreed to in our contract; It is a refusal to do more than that. While no professional action is risk-free, work is protected by rules because we follow the rules, unlike a strike that breaks them. This may disturb professors, but they are also workers affected by poor decisions by administrators. Your MSP union will distribute a statement of solidarity to its members for them to sign.