Bargaining Session: 5/16/2025

We began today’s session by hearing a counterproposal from the USF Board of Trustees (BOT) for Article 2. We previously proposed that “all paperwork necessary for the GA to begin their appointment must be filed no later than 30 days prior to the start of their appointment as listed on the original offer letter”; this remains a sticking point for the BOT. Similarly, we discussed the difficulties may GAs have experienced surrounding the discrepancies between the requested start-dates and end-dates of GA contracts, where GAs are sometimes not required to work the first week or so of the appointment and then face pressure to continue working after the conclusion of their contract dates to finish final exam or essay grading at the end of the semester. A member of the BOT bargaining team stated that GAs are “paid a lump sum to do a job”, and for that reason, despite the fact that our contracts end before final grades are due, we should keep working after our contracts end until grades are finished to “fulfil our obligation to the university”.

We debated these points for some time, during which time your GAU Bargaining Team was able to reach some understanding on the reason why this is problematic before moving on to the BOT’s counterproposal for Article 3. We discussed the BOT’s proposed changes to Article 3, after which the BOT took a caucus to discuss privately.

When the BOT came back from their caucus, we proposed our changes to Articles 4 and 5. The BOT only had a few questions on these changes before we tabled them to be discussed at the next session. Finally, the BOT made their proposals for Articles 6, 7, and 8, which we asked a few questions on before concluding the session.

Our next session will be held on May 30 in CGS 140. We hope to see you there!