The University of Minnesota’s local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, union held a rally Friday morning in support of their bargaining team, who were preparing to begin negotiations with University administrators for improving working and living conditions.
AFSCME announced in March that it would begin the negotiation process with the University. Alongside negotiations, AFSCME and the University’s Graduate Labor Union (GLU) shared a list of demands for President Rebecca Cunningham, requesting commitments to protecting protesters and international students, better working conditions and one-on-one meetings with Cunningham.
Max Vast, the president of the University’s AFSCME chapter, said one goal is to increase minimum wage from $21.63 an hour to $30. GLU, who works closely with AFSCME, was recently able to negotiate a $27 minimum wage.
“Our folks know these jobs, they know the University, we know how it runs, we know how to do work here,” Vast said. ”We really care about the work, and so we want that work to be valued and that knowledge to be valued.”
Vast said University administrators have denied the unions’ request for a meeting with Cunningham. According to an email obtained by the Minnesota Daily written by Chief Human Resources Officer Ken Horstman to the unions, negotiations will only be held at the bargaining table, meaning they would not be able to have a direct meeting with Cunningham.
“Our stance is that these issues are FAR more pressing than the bargaining schedule,” Vast said in an email statement. “GLU-UE recently wrapped up TWO YEARS of bargaining and AFSCME is regularly in bargaining for 6+ months. We need solutions to these issues much faster than that – people’s lives and livelihoods are literally on the line.”
During the rally, AFSCME member Rachel Katkar announced that international students who had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System terminated have begun to see their accounts reinstated.
According to Katkar, the reinstatements were due to class action lawsuits from students against the U. S.’ Department of Homeland Security.
Katkar said that from what she has seen, official reasoning for SEVIS terminations has been extremely limited, but they seem to be targeted at students who are politically active or have faced past legal issues.
“It seems like, overall, that they are targeting people who have participated in protests involving Palestine,” Katkar said. “They are also targeting people who have had any legal issue they’ve faced in the past.”
Although AFSCME has faced conflict from the University for their demands, Nikki Wakal, a member of the AFSCME bargaining committee, said that they will not let themselves be intimidated by what the future may have in store for them.
“We are showing the University that we are strong, we are together, and we will not back down,” Wakal said.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated AFSCME wanted to raise minimum wage from $27 to $30 an hour. AFSCME’s actual current minimum wage is $21.63 an hour, as it was GLU who had a minimum wage of $27.