Recently the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO), the Graduate Employee union on campus has garnered attention due to their highly-publicized photos depicting Chancellor Robert Holub as a rat in a tuxedo. After last year's Mike Gargano fiasco, these fliers may seem to some as a new attack against an administrative official, but the reality is more complex. GEO Vice-President graciously sat down with me to discuss some of the issues that are troubling their organization.

The rat is a traditional union symbol for management which was used by GEO to grab the public's attention. The poster had been revamped because some members drew comparisons between the rat drawing and a picture of Al Jolson in black-face. The new version sports a more sinister face with a cutout of Jack Abramoff's fedora. Mr. Sutton says that the comparison with Al Jolson was unintentional.

Asked if he thinks that the portraying Chancellor Holub as the rat would impair GEO's relationship with the administration, Sutton said that "[Holub] has already moved away from [GEO], and has showed that he is not interested in...opinions outside of the collective bargaining process."

To be clear, the bargaining process of GEO is not centered on the Chancellor, though his assistance would be helpful. Their real goal is to lobby the Governor Deval Patrick and the State Legislature not to cut funding for public institutions. "I think that the problem in this state is that we have so many good private institutions that many members of the legislature don't see a need to spend money on public institutions."

GEO's campaign is the precursor to larger contract negotiations with the school administration and the state. "Historically, the contract is a 3 year contract, but last year the state rammed down our throat a 1 year contract because of uncertainty with the economy. Now we are forced to negotiate a contract in more dire economic straits," says Sutton. Last year's contract negotiations happened near the end of the year after long deliberation. GEO had received a 2.5 percent pay increase, and an additional pool to raise the lower stipends.

The inflation level and cost of living are higher than the wage increases that the University offers.

The unions at UMass collaborated on a study and agreed that a 2.5 percent increase does not keep up with inflation levels or the cost of living and that a 4 percent wage increase is required. They claim that UMass graduate worker compensation is lower than many peer institutions that the University compares itself to, such as Rutgers and UConn. Governor Patrick pushed a 1 year contract towards GEO on the basis of the unpredictability of Economy, with the hope that it may improve this year.

When the negotiations began for a new contract this summer, the University again offered a 1 year contract with a 2.5 wage increase, and without stipend increases. According to Sutton, the University "stonewalled" the Union because they were under a moratorium from the state on negotiation financial issues. Recently the University took back their offer of a 2.5 percent wage increase and offered a three year contract with a 0 percent wage increase for the first year, 1.5 percent in the second and 2.5 in the third, with stipend increases only in the third year. Additionally the university is raising fees, which becomes essentially a pay cut. Even though Graduate student are exempt from fees, the curriculum fees are still payed by the faculty that chooses to hire the graduate student. This leads in a smaller demand for graduate student hires, and an increase in non-unionized post-doctorate employees.

Sutton recognizes the economic situation that the state is in, but believes it should not apply to public higher education funding. 

He believes that the current direction that the University is taking is moving towards privatization which he believes has a negative effect on a public institution.

Depending on funding from individuals and businesses would take priority off of fields that are not usually profitable, such as liberal arts. Since the states funding generally comes from the same pool, Sutton was asked whether cutting state social programs to facilitate greater funding for public higher education, Sutton relented. He believes that the state should change their tax structure away from the model of supply side economics. GEO would like the state to seriously considered having a progressive tax that would not burden lower classes but tax capital gains. "When the economy is bad it will only get worse if people are laid off as is the custom in current practices that have gotten us into this mess. The state is losing money because their tax revenues are decreasing due to people not having jobs," says Sutton.

At the beginning of last semester, State Representative Scott Brown said that the legislature is unwilling to fund UMass because of previous history of funding getting lost in the payment of redundant administrators and not reaching the departmental levels, and until the pathways are cleared up, they would be reluctant to send more money our way. The elimination of redundancy seems to be the key issue in Chancellor Holub's new proposals for our school. Yet GEO is asking the Chancellor to hold off on the layoffs and budget cuts until the Obama's stimulus, which have earmarked money for public education, begins to take effect.

Until then Sutton hopes that GEO will continue to lobby the legislature and hopes that the the Chancellor and the students take up their cause.

Dmitriy can be reached This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it