Greetings,

Quick, grab your TA or GA appointment letter for next year--check the salary. As you may have heard, many departments are sending letters with the WRONG salary information: our contract calls for an 8% raise this coming year, and unless we agree collectively to change that we should expect to get no less.

So what can we do? If you haven't already returned the waiver attached to your letter, do so--but add a note to the effect that you expect the university to process your raise, pending any negotiations with the union. Talk to your colleagues, make sure we're informed about our rights.

Of course, there's a bigger picture here. In honor of our trips to physics and chemistry this week, I'll spell this out in terms of a simple formula:

F=ma.

You remember this one from basic physics: Force = mass x acceleration. (You know, the reason those speeding Hummers will obliterate you on the road.) Well, it's not so different for our union: our Force is our capacity to stand up to unfair treatment, to have a voice in university affairs, to negotiate rather than take what's handed to us. And it's true:

Force = membership x activism.

You can write advocacy letters and come out to the rallies when it's time. But all that activity is only as powerful as our membership makes it--and every new member makes us stronger! And so, the summer organizing campaign continues!! This week:

1) Meet in front of the Busch Campus Center @ 3pm on Thursday, June 25. We'll be signing up new members in physics and chemistry until 5!
2) Instead of our regular Happy Hour, let's meet up a bit later with our friends at the Graduate Student Association (GSA). Stop by Old Bay (61 Church St, New Brunswick) any time after 8:30.

FREE DRINKS!!
Organizers, your first drink is on me!
Also, anyone wearing your union T-shirt (I know they're out there!), you get a round on me!
Oh boy, I'm feeling generous... if you don't have a T-shirt, find me (you can bet I'll be wearing one!) and I'll institute the First-Five High-Five rule: the first five people to give me a high five for the union get a free drink!

Direct all questions to me at elric.kline@gmail.com.

See you there!
~Elric

Elric M. Kline
TA/GA Steering Committee
A joint committee of Rutgers AAUP/AFT and the GSA