Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO)?
- How is GEO different from the Purdue Graduate Student Government (PGSG)?
- Who does GEO represent?
- Why should I become a member?
- How can I become a member?
- What can I do for GEO?
- I’ve heard that Indiana has laws prohibiting us from unionizing. Is this true?
- How does GEO plan to tackle large-scale workplace and support issues until we gain the right to collective bargaining?
- The GEO may be okay, but why is it affiliated with United Steelworkers (USW)?
- Why should we challenge PU when it is facing budget problems?
- Won’t I have to pay dues?
- Will joining a union alienate me from my faculty mentors?
- I was under the impression that Purdue University considers TAs and RAs to be students, not employees, and that officially we receive a stipend for our work instead of a salary. Is this really the case?
- Will GEO raise the salaries of poorly-paid employees by cutting the pay from others?
- Can international students get involved in GEO?
- Are there other universities with Graduate Employees’ Organizations?
- How can I contact GEO?
What is the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO)?
The GEO is an organization that, through the use of collective action, organizes Purdue University graduate students to advocate for themselves as employees. Our main objective is to earn a seat at the table when administration determines graduate employee salaries, benefits, and working conditions. GEO is affiliated with the United Steelworkers (USW) through their Associate Member Program, and operates as an “open-source” union, which seeks to earn a seat at the table through collective action and volunteered recognition, rather than collective bargaining.
How is GEO different from the Purdue Graduate Student Government (PGSG)?
The PGSG is a student government organized under the auspices of the university administration and represents us primarily in our role as students. GEO hopes to be a union of and for graduate employees. Our aim is to work in cooperation with PGSG, and we believe that both institutions are vital for Purdue University’s graduate student body.
Who does GEO represent?
GEO is open to all graduate employees in all disciplines, including international students. In addition, we welcome graduate students who are not currently serving as employees. Graduate students not employed with the University, post-docs, and faculty may participate as associate members.
Why should I become a member?
There is strength in numbers. Through a strong and active membership the GEO can make significant improvements for graduate employees. More than thirty (30) institutions have successfully unionized, including Big Ten institutions Michigan State University, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Due to strong and active membership, these institutions have successfully gained an increase in salaries, better healthcare packages, including dental and vision, and have implemented strong protections against overwork, and workplace discrimination. An increase in membership can increase our negotiating strength. Each additional member reinforces the message to administration that graduate employees should be taken seriously.
How can I become a member?
Any graduate student employed by Purdue University is eligible for membership within the organization. Purdue University staff, faculty, post-doctorates, and graduate students not employed by the University are eligible for associate membership. They may not vote or hold offices within the GEO. Please take a moment to fill out our membership form.
What can I do for GEO?
The GEO, your organization, is what you make it. Help make it strong! Strong membership participation is how other institutions have successfully gained increases in salaries, better healthcare packages, and have implemented strong protection against overwork and workplace discrimination. The GEO at Purdue University can achieve the same successes only through active membership. Become an active member today! Please take a moment to fill out our volunteer form.
I’ve heard that Indiana has laws prohibiting us from unionizing. Is this true?How does GEO plan to tackle large-scale workplace and support issues until we gain the right to collective bargaining?
Under the current Indiana Public Sector Labor Law no other public employee, except for teachers, has collective bargaining rights. Public employees, including graduate employees, are eligible to receive collective bargaining rights through an executive order from a sitting governor. Such an executive order was implemented in 1990, administering collective bargaining rights to a large number of public employees. The 1990 order did not include graduate employees, but there would be nothing to prevent a future governor from doing so. Unfortunately, executive orders can be easily withdrawn, and the 1990 order was withdrawn by a later governor, thereby stripping public sector employees of their bargaining rights. Nonetheless, an executive order provides stronger bargaining rights than does voluntary recognition. Democratic candidate Jill Long Thompson has committed to introducing an executive order, should she win the Governor's seat in the fall of 2008. Since Jill Long Thompson is sympathetic to graduate employee issues, as she was a TA herself, it should be an obtainable goal to include graduate employees in any future labor related executive orders.
How does GEO plan to tackle large-scale workplace and support issues until we gain the right to collective bargaining?
Thus far, GEO’s work has privileged neither top-down nor bottom-up philosophies of change, but has instead understood that considerations of both are necessary if we are to improve the working conditions of graduate employees. While we maintain the long-term goal of dialoguing with university administration to resolve issues that require shifts in policy, we also recognize that the graduate employee community is itself an invaluable resource, and that we are capable of finding short-term solutions through organizing and collective action. For a schedule of upcoming events, please see our Calendar.
The GEO may be okay, but why is it affiliated with United Steelworkers (USW)?
The GEO is affiliated with the United Steelworkers (USW) through their Associate Member Program, Fight Back America. Fight Back America is an 8,000 member organization from 40 different states, whose members include environmentalists, human rights and grassroots activists, educators, lawyers, elected officials, blue and white collar workers, and retired workers. Fight Back America’s campaign is to build power through community action by improving people’s lives, fighting for good jobs, a fair workplace, access to good healthcare, a clean environment, and strengthening ties between all working people and our natural allies, including students, environmentalists, and human rights activists. As professionals working in higher education, graduate employees have much in common with the other members of our state and national affiliates. As workers, we face similar workplace issues as our blue collar brethren. In addition, we acknowledge that economic justice cannot be separated from the fight for social justice, civil rights and human rights within and beyond the boarders of our campus. We recognize that events beyond our campus often directly affect our working and living conditions. We understand that while we fight to earn workers' rights at Purdue University, we must also work toward the spread of unionism, solidarity, and social justice both locally, nationally, and internationally. Because of these facts, we have chosen to affiliate with a union that has successfully organized workers all over the world, and has fought for social justice for all types of workers since 1936.
Why should we challenge PU when it is facing budget problems?
Although GEO recognizes that public institutions have limited resources, it is important to note that graduate employees at all institutions, even the wealthiest, are offered salaries and healthcare packages similar to ours. Only through unionization have students at the wealthiest school been able to improve their conditions above those of poorer public schools like Purdue. This suggests that poor conditions of graduate employees are not due to limited resources but to a trend at American universities of using low-wage labor (graduate students, adjuncts, temporary professors) to reduce their reliance on more costly tenure-track appointments. In other words, our willingness to work for almost nothing strips us of our own future jobs. Moreover, Purdue chooses how to allocate its resources, and we have the right to advocate for ourselves when those decisions are made. As instructors of undergraduate students, we play a major role in Purdue’s primary project: education. Overworked and underpaid instructors and research assistants do not benefit the institutions educational reputation. PU-West Lafayette’s operating budget for 2007-2008 was $1.5 billion. From this sum, it paid its administrators generously (President Cordova’s base salary is $425,000) and set its athletic budget at almost $48 million. The average ten month salary for Teaching Assistants for the fall of 2006 was $14,244, and $15,926 for Research Assistants. A significant raise for graduate student employees would affect only a margin of the university’s budget. In addition, Purdue currently spends less than 3% on graduate employee medical insurance (for the 2007-2008 school year, $3.4 million was spent on graduate employee healthcare costs).
Won’t I have to pay dues?
Yes. Like any other organization on campus, dues are needed to fund events. For the 2008-2009 school year, our dues are set at $10 dollars. You may send a check written out to the Graduate Employees Organization to the following address: Graduate Employees Organization, Purdue University, Stewart Center, box # 708, 128 Memorial Mall, West Lafayette, IN 4790, or present a check in person to our Treasurer.
Will joining a union alienate me from my faculty mentors?
There are over 30 campuses in the United States where graduate employees have successfully unionized. There is no evidence that collective bargaining has damaged relationships between graduate employees and their advisors. In fact, a survey by Gordon Hewitt found that graduate student unions tend to create a positive environment on campus. Hewitt surveyed almost 300 faculty members at five universities that have successfully unionized, and found that ninety per cent agreed collective bargaining did not inhibit their ability to advise their graduate students. Ninety-two per cent said that unions did not make it more difficult to instruct graduate students. An overwhelming majority of the surveyed professors agreed that graduate students should be considered employees rather than merely apprentices.
I was under the impression that Purdue University considers TAs and RAs to be students, not employees, and that officially we receive a stipend for our work instead of a salary. Is this really the case?
Not according to Purdue University's Graduate Student Employment Manual. It states that:
The University makes assistantships and fellowships available as forms of financial aid to support graduate study. Employment is incident to graduate study. Graduate students who are employed by the University provide services (teaching, research, administrative/professional) that further the missions of the University while providing students with valuable professional experience and financial remuneration in the form of tuition remission and a salary. These students are considered employees and are subject to the policies and procedures outlined in this manual.1 (5)
The problem with this becomes clear in the footnote at the bottom of the page which reads: “While the University considers graduate students who provide services to be employees for most purposes, graduate student employees are not subject to certain federal laws governing the employer- employee relationship.” Which “certain federal laws” and what they determine specifically is not made clear. GEO is committed to clearing up exactly what the University means by rendering its language empty apropos the employee-employer relationship; this is a first step in achieving our goal of asserting the true role student employees play as employees of this institution.
Will GEO raise the salaries of poorly-paid employees by cutting the pay from others?
No. GEO seeks to improve everyone’s conditions. We do not advocate cutting anyone’s pay to fund increases for others.
Can international students get involved in GEO?
Yes! Every international graduate student, regardless of national origin or type of visa, has the right to join a union. GEO is committed to meeting the needs of international students, and we welcome participation from our international student community to foster this process.
Are there other universities with Graduate Employees’ Organizations?
Yes. There are over 30 campuses with unions bargaining contracts for graduate student employees, including Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Iowa, the University of California, University of Massachusetts, SUNY, and others. Graduate employee unions have been around since the 1970s. You can find out more on what some of these other graduate employee unions have won by visiting our Affiliations page.
How can I contact GEO?
To contact us, you can send an email to our officers at purdue.geo@gmail.com. We currently do not have an office on campus. For a list of official contacts, visit our Contact Us page.
