Gazette article on the march...

Part I: The March on Lombardi

Part II

Part III: The Rat

Part IV

Part V: March through Whitmore

A-19 invite

CBS 3: UMass Grad Students Protest Wages

UMass Grad Students Protest Wages

Story Published: Apr 19, 2007 at 7:32 PM EDT

By Anne Ebeling

Members of UMass Amherst's Graduate Employee Organization, or GEO, are tired of waiting. Made up of more than 2,500 teaching assistants, teaching associates and research assistants the organization has been bargaining with the university for fourteen weeks, without a contract resolution.

Nate Johnson, GEO's Grievance Coordinator, said, "If UMass is going to continue to attract quality graduate students, quality students, they're going to have to provide a living wage."

Graduate student, Lindsey Homann, said, "The struggle is just getting word back from administration. They stall and they wait and they wait and they won't give us proposals and we want to bargain in good faith, we wan to get this done and we want to get things settled so education on this campus can move forward."

They took their message straight to the top, marching across campus to the home of Chancellor John Lombardi. "We know that the fees are going up, the board of trustees voted to raise fee 3.2% and if we don't get a comparable wage increase, that's a pay cut to us and so that's why we're here and that's why we're marching on Lombardi," Johnson said.

While they got no answer at the chancellor's home, they got their voices heard. Johnson said, "We teach about half the classes at UMass and if you're a parent of an undergraduate thinking about UMass, you need to think about how the graduate students that are teaching your children are going to be compensated."

The University of Massachusetts declined to comment, saying it doesn't discuss contract negotiations.

WWLP Channel 22: Umass Grad Students Bring Protest to University Chancellor's Home

Umass Grad Students Bring Protest to University Chancellor's Home
AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP)

They had signs, megaphones and a beef with the administration.

Umass grad students marched right to the doors of the on-campus home of the university's chancellor John Lombardi.

The grad student union has been negotiating with the university for pay raises and other enhanced benefits for 14 weeks with no agreement.

But they say while they're waiting for cost-of-living wage increases, the chancellor's salary has shot up to more than 347-thousand dollars annually.

According to grad student Stephen Mahood, “If they're getting their raises then they should be giving us an economic bargaining package right now. “

Grad student Eric Winslow says, “It shows a casual disregard for us who make this university run and it shows a different set of beliefs.”

On arrival at the chancellor's home, there was chanting and cheering...but the chancellor apparently wasn't there to hear it. So students continued on to protest at the office of the chancellor on campus.

A spokesperson for the university says the university doesn't negotiate contracts in public and won't discuss details. And they had no comment on the size of the chancellor's salary.

Written by 22News Reporter
Dan Elias

WPRI: UMass grad students employees take dispute to chancellor

UMass grad students employees take dispute to chancellor
WPRI Channel 12 Fox Eyewitness News, Providence, RI

4/19/07 AMHERST, Mass. Grad student employees at U-Mass-Amherst are taking their labor dispute straight to the chancellor.
The Graduate Employee Organization is organizing a march this morning to the campus home of Chancellor John Lombardi.

The union has been negotiating with the university for pay raises and other enhanced benefits for 14 weeks with no agreement.

The union says while the have been denied cost-of-living wage increases, the chancellor's salary has shot up to more than 347-thousand dollars annually.

The union represents more than 24-hundred graduate student employees at the Amherst campus.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.