USF Graduate Assistants United (GAU), a union that represents more than 2,000 graduate assistants at the University of South Florida, held a virtual press conference on Monday exposing the “bad behavior” of the USF administration in their alleged failure to take the health and financial security of their graduate assistants seriously during recent contract negotiations.
“People are hurting right now,” USF GAU organizer, Samantha Shepard, said during the presser. “Instead of taking that into account, USF administration is using the pandemic as an excuse to exacerbate the hurt that some of their most vulnerable workers—graduate assistants at USF—are experiencing right now.”
USF GAU members said on Monday that the university has moved to increase healthcare costs for GAs during the height of a pandemic. Co-President, Elizabeth Kiebel, said there have already been 182 positive coronavirus cases linked to the USF campus, according to recent figures. Florida is currently ranked second nationwide in the number of coronavirus cases.
The union also accused USF of gaslighting GAs, referring to condescending messaging they’ve received from USF’s “union-busting” legal team. In one specific example, Shepard quoted USF lawyer, John Dickinson, who they say was wholly neglectful of GAU members’ concerns during a recent bargaining session on July 28, 2020. This bargaining session was recorded and later posted to YouTube.
“I will say this. I’m accustomed to organized labor wanting to personalize negotiations to attack the university…or, leadership, you know, to make it personal, rather than financial.” Dickinson can be heard saying in the video. “I’ll tell you, I know how much the university cares about y’all, and the leadership cares about you.”
During the presser, USF GAU Co-President, Kelly Osterman, said the union began bargaining for a new labor contract last fall, but was refused a meeting with the USF administration until January. At this time, and in their follow-up round of negotiations in May, Osterman said the administration “refused to talk money” with the union. USF stonewalled all of their proposals, according to Osterman—even non-monetary proposals and concessions brought to the table by USF GAU.
In mid-July, the union proposed their financial package of “modest requests” to USF, according to Osterman.
“Everything was completely shot down,” Shepard tweeted in the aftermath of the July meeting. “In fact, a thinly-veiled threat was made to cut our pay. @USouthFlorida does not care about graduate assistants.”
According to Osterman on Monday, the USF administration has proposed to suspend negotiations for a year, freeze salaries for a year, and raise the amount GAs are required to pay into their health insurance.
When reached for comment by Creative Loafing, a USF spokesperson confirmed over email that there has been an increase in healthcare premiums. However, they deny having control over this increase and say they have proposed to cover 94% of GAs’ healthcare premiums—extending beyond the maximum amount USF is contractually responsible for.
USF graduate assistants receiving “poverty wages”
In addition to concerns about rising healthcare costs, GAU union members spoke on Monday to the “poverty wages” that USF GAs are afforded. According to Osterman in a follow-up email to CL on Tuesday, the average GA makes $18,200 per year, which is 73% of the living wage.
This struggle is not one faced by USF President, Steven Currall, who makes a base annual salary of $575,000, nor football coach Jeff Scott, who makes upwards of $12.5 million over the course of five years, according to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
USF also paid $1 million for a new logo last year that the university quickly decided to abandon.
One speaker at the USF GAU press conference shared how they had, to their embarrassment, resorted to donating plasma multiple times—resulting in dizziness, vomiting, and bruising—to supplement their meager income as a GA. Another speaker said they had to get additional part-time work.
One shareable graphic USF GAU created for social media states, “If I get COVID, my choices are to drop out, or be bankrupt, because I’d get more money through unemployment!” In another, the union echoed messaging of the local Black Lives Matter movement, reading, “Defund the police, not the GAs!”
“I pay thousands of dollars every year to attend USF…and the fact that this money goes to line the pockets of administration executives like [former USF President] Judy Grenshaft, who doesn’t even work at the university anymore, instead of going to the people who are actually teaching me is appalling,” said USF undergraduate student and local activist, Shivam Shukla, during the Monday presser.
In an emailed statement to CL, USF’s spokesperson said, “The University of South Florida is committed to bargaining in good faith with Graduate Assistants United and all unions representing USF employees.”
They said USF has committed to extending the USF GAU contract for another year, “ensuring that minimum stipends will not decrease.”
“GAU’s current proposal totals more than $2.34 million dollars and at this time of economic uncertainty due to the global pandemic, it would not be responsible for the University to make long-term fiscal commitments. We look forward to our next bargaining session with GAU,” the email stated.
In a follow-up email to Creative Loafing on Tuesday, USF GAU Co-President Osterman expressed frustration regarding the framing of the union’s compensation package information—as provided by the USF spokesperson—which includes tuition waivers. Tuition waivers are not applicable to GAs who are not taking coursework (e.g. some PhD candidates), yet their inclusion in the compensation package nonetheless reduces wages for GAs, regardless.
“Graduate school is essentially an apprenticeship. We are working full-time (or more) [emphasis theirs] for USF’s benefit and receiving on-the-job training while doing so. We deserve to be compensated fully for our labor, just like any other apprenticeship, and that compensation should be sufficient not just to survive, but to be able to save a modest amount to plan for the future (or a rainy day),” Osterman told CL in the Tuesday email.
“But as it stands, for many GAs, our compensation is not even enough to cover the basic costs of living without taking out loans or selling their body parts. [emphasis theirs],” referring to the plasma donation referenced by a USF GAU member on Monday.
USF GAU asks that the Tampa Bay community contact USF President Steven Currall and the Board of Trustees, demanding they #FindTheMoney to invest in the public health and safety of their GAs before the start of the fall semester.
UPDATED: 08/05/20 11 p.m. Updated to note that the average GA makes $18,200 per year, which is 73% of the living wage.
Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you up to the minute news on how Coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.
Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 6, 2020.
