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Graduate Student Instructors to Vote on Collective Bargaining Record-Setting Amount for University Fundraising on the West Coast By Marie Felde, Office of the Chancellor Posted April 21, 1999 Graduate student instructors will vote this month in a collective bargaining election that has the potential to fundamentally change the working relationship between the campus and its teaching assistants. The election will decide whether GSIs want to be exclusively represented in collective bargaining by AGSE/UAW, or prefer to continue with the current status that allows them to be represented by the person or organization of their choice. The election will be held on campus April 27, 28 and 29. In all, about 1,500 GSIs are eligible to vote at Berkeley. The election will be determined by a majority of those voting, but all GSIs, whether they vote or not, will be affected by the outcome. Similar elections are being held at other UC campuses as well. The elections follow a decision this spring by the Public Employee Relations Board that teaching assistants working for the University of California have the right to collective bargaining. While the campus administration does not believe exclusive representation is in the best educational interests of the university or the teaching assistants, its main effort has been to encourage all GSIs to recognize the importance of the decision and to vote. "Whatever the outcome," said Chancellor Berdahl, "it is in the best interest of all of us that this momentus election accurately reflect the desires of the majority of our graduate student instructors."   [HOME]   [SEARCH]   [ARCHIVE] April 21 - 27, 1999 (Volume 27, Number 31) Copyright 1999, The Regents of the University of California. Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley. Comments? E-mail berkeleyan@pa.urel.berkeley.edu.