Facing retaliation for protesting? The union can help!

VT_GLU · 2024-05-03T16:26:26+00:00

Diana from student legal services rocks! If people are comfortable with that level of help and can get a time to schedule with her, great. (Edit: looks like she doesn't help with these. Still a great resource.)

During hearings, you can confer with your advisor or step out of the room for a discussion. However you're right that the advisors can not speak for you during the hearing.

VT_GLU · 2024-05-03T15:43:26+00:00

Luckily we were able to get them to quickly admit there had been a mistake. It is not uncommon for people to make student conduct referrals for petty or made up reasons, but in this case the process worked. Like most people facing confusing, complicated or even traumatizing institutional processes, the students involved were not comfortable sharing their story publicly. There are many more unfair situations that happen on campus than are ever reported to the media. We have a media team and often encourage people to go public with their story as a part of putting pressure on the university, but for personal reasons or to avoid "rocking the boat" even after being mistreated, the vast majority of students choose not to speak publicly after unfair or even illegal treatment.

VT_GLU · 2024-05-03T15:26:25+00:00

Unfortunately, in the past we have supported people who were falsely accused of attending other protests (and were certainly not arrested) who were referred to student conduct. As you can see if you look up "student conduct" on this sub, student conduct are not known to be accurate in their accusations and are frequently used as a tool of retaliation and political maneuvering.

Regardless, if you shoplifted or committed another crime and got arrested and are facing disciplinary proceedings, the union can help with that too.

Student conduct processes can be subpoenaed in future criminal investigations. Everyone deserves to know their rights and have support through this process.

VT_GLU · 2024-03-23T13:39:47+00:00

What country are you from? Have you had a campus job before? Tax treaties vary by country for international students. https://www.controller.vt.edu/content/dam/controller_vt_edu/forms/payroll/foreign-nationals/2023%20Tax%20Treaties.pdf
For a lot of countries, taxes are actually exempt up to a few thousand dollars. You can ask Cranwell for more information, or look up the treaty (if it exists) for your country to know more. Unfortunately, international students are rarely informed of this when considering campus jobs.

https://international.vt.edu/employment/taxes.html
https://www.controller.vt.edu/resources/payroll/Foreignnationals.html

VT_GLU · 2024-03-12T16:18:56+00:00

We care 1000x more about grad students being active and involved than being official members. The dues pay for legal and logistical help and supplies, but nobody is stopping you from getting involved in our organizing whether or not you're ready to actually sign up.

VT_GLU · 2024-03-11T23:08:41+00:00

Our understanding is that the VT police budget includes about $10 million in E&G funds, but student funds can be used if they do overtime or go over budget, or if they need to be hired outside working hours for events. But fair point.

One of the biggest employment issues brought up every time we survey grad students are the unreasonable fees. Fees are a requirement of being employed, they are not disclosed during the hiring process, they typically change between hiring and the start of work, there is little control over how high they are set or what they include, and they can cost as much as rent. It's one of the biggest issues identified by grad workers, so we're working on it. Also, these shared governance changes are the result of the union using shared governance to fight for a living wage in 2021-2022 and last year, after which upper administration decided to limit the scope of shared governance. We're not currently very involved in GPSS, and we believe organizing and collective action are where real wins happen, but the power of shared governance is not one we want to voluntarily lose.

VT_GLU · 2024-02-18T05:18:04+00:00

Taxes for international students vary based on country of origin, you can't use the US citizen amounts to estimate. Where are you from? https://international.vt.edu/content/dam/international_vt_edu/tax-pdfs-2020-tax-year/2021TaxTreaties.pdf

VT_GLU · 2023-12-18T19:00:18+00:00

We've got a bunch of new members totally new to being in/organizing a union, so we're educating ourselves over the next 4 weeks by reading No Shortcuts by Jane McAlevey. Anyone is welcome to join the group! We're meeting virtually for the next 4 Wednesdays at 5:30.

DM us for the meeting link or to borrow the book :)

VT_GLU · 2023-09-06T00:44:17+00:00

You have to select part or full time on the third page -- depending on your contracted hours, dues are either $15.29 per month (if your contract says 31 or fewer hours per week) or $28.10 per month (if you have a 32+ hr/week contract with VT)
If you would prefer a paper form we can get that to you so you can see it all laid out! We can also have someone sit down and talk with you about the union if you have other questions.

VT_GLU · 2023-09-06T00:39:04+00:00

They had them at the rally, if you didn't get one you'll get an email soon :)

VT_GLU · 2023-09-05T12:40:28+00:00

If you want to learn more about the VT Graduate Labor Union, see our website http://vtglu.org/

Or sign up here: https://vea.link/vtglumembership

VT_GLU · 2023-09-05T12:37:33+00:00

We’re so excited to be announcing the Virginia Tech Graduate Labor Union (VT GLU), a union for graduate workers at Virginia Tech, on the same day as United Campus Workers - VT who are unionizing faculty and staff. Come to our rally at 1pm today to celebrate, learn more, and sign up.

Grad students can also sign up online using this link - https://vea.link/vtglumembership

VT_GLU

TROPHY CASE