human cost = financial cost

I think it is safe to say that bargaining yesterday with the University was at the very least disappointing or at the very most insulting. So much of it was utterly frustrating and unexpectedly cold. I'm not sure if it was the fear caused by so many GTFs in the room (thanks for coming out! the Union is only strong when we all stand together), the uncomfortable heat and stuffiness, a calculated bargaining tactic, or their lack of comprehension. My biggest frustration in the process is the University's continual approach of ignoring our arguments. When they come with concerns about our proposals, we consider them and make specific responses to them. Sometimes we attempt to accommodate them, and yes sometimes we outright reject them as unsubstantiated. But when they come back to us on our proposals, they never actually refer to our arguments with specific counterarguments or logic. We just get vague, "the University has done all it can do."

No other point spells out our frustration more than their response on Health Insurance. As many of you know we have an acute need to raise the cap on yearly individual costs. Last session we gave a 45 minute presentation on the importance of our insurance and the need to make improvements in the light of higher costs. The presentation included a tearfully moving all-too-personal narrative from one of our members about his painful experience and how his child's coverage was cut off during their greatest need. Yesterday they never mentioned the human cost of not raising the cap and gave no arguments against the urgency of raising the cap NOW. Instead we heard arguments about the financial shock at the high costs of renewing the current plan and the financial burden the University could not take on if they raised the cap, a cost of about 300K. So while the University has a 450 million dollar operating budget per year and is about to build a new 250 million dollar arena, they can't help the GTFs who will have to choose between going into financial ruin or not seeking medical care (with life-altering consequences) because they can't afford it. While the University may be comfortable with ignoring human costs in favor of financial costs, the GTFF doesn't have the stomach for it.