Stewards Council Meeting 070114

In Attendance: Dan Kueh, David Zwart, Jason Trowbridge, Jessica Lynam, Jamie McCandless, Amanda Bellino, Keith Russo, Tim Duby, Josh Muia, Erdal Terkivatan, and Marcie Noble.

Meeting began at 3pm.

1. Minutes and Agenda. Remind me to put out the minutes.

2-Bargain Team Update.

Jason Trowbridge reported on the last meeting with the administration. We received back some articles, and there was much discussion about the posting article. The administration had all five of their members, and we only had three, minus Alyssa. It ended up being a fairly productive meeting, because we now have a real notion of their point of view, that we were apprentice professors, potentially successful students, and out aid is considered patronage. They also argued that there are two competitive labor rulings on student union, the NLRB has said that students do not have the right to unionize. MERC has said that we do have the right to unionize. The B-Team felt as though their attitude was quite condescending, as though they really don’t need to bargain with us.

There was discussion among the stewards about appropriate responses to this attitude. Chris Pomeroy raised the objection that this line of argumentation should have been expected because it is the job of the administrations team to get the best contract for their side.

David Zwart gave the dates and times for the next bargaining teams. This Thursday, January 18th, 2-5pm in Siebert 3160, next Thursday 10am-2pm in the in the Brown and Gold room in Bernhard Center. All members are invited to attend as non participatory observers. Jason Trowbridge also indicated the Bargaining Team’s need for another stenographer.

3-David Zwart also reported on the union outing at a hockey game, a K-Wings game. It a fun time. He noted that tomorrow is another type of activity at 6:30am, for the Martin Luther King, Jr. community Day of Service. Please talk to Chris today of you have not already been talked to. There is also the march to MLK, Jr. Park, with a rally and speeches in the afternoon

.Keith Russo expressed concern over devaluing Martin Luther King Jr. legacy for union concerns, and offered a motion to not ware any buttons or any affiliations, anything because people are concerns with our co-opting the event for ourselves. Julie Roos objected that every organization is going to identity themselves in some way, at some point. There was no second and Keith Russo withdrew the motion

4-International Students Event: Amanda Bellino reported that the International students event would be Friday Jan 19th- 6pm at the 10th floor Sprau. The event was being organized by TAU to reach out to that part of the membership, to discuss their issues that might not be what national students want, and to try to create common ground and get them into TAU.

5-General Membership Meeting: David Zwart announced that the General Membership Meeting will be held Friday Jan, 26 at 5:30pm in 157 Bernhard. We will ask students to sign in on computers, and simply let them know that we need to be unified, and that is mostly what will happen.

6- David Zwart commented on our organizing efforts. He stressed that there are some departments that we still do not have, but we are working on it. We need to convince people that they can get involved in other ways. We need propaganda. He addressed individual committees.

Research Committee-there are some questions we need to have answered, what is Title I research status, what happens if we loose it? How many students do we teach and at what level? How does our compensation and rights compare to those universities to which the university compares itself? Jason Trowbridge requested that Research Committee answers should be posted to the wiki.

David Zwar then suggested that at adjournment the stewards break into their respective committees. This was agreed to without a motion.

Motion to adjourn.

Meeting adjourned at 4pm.

The next Stewards Council Meeting will be January 21st, 3pm.