Committees

Standing committees are committees created and voted on by the membership at a General Membership Meeting (GMM), and support the needs of the union. Each committee holds regular meetings and provides monthly progress reports at GMMs. Information on all current committees is given below.

Committee membership is open to all members of good standing, so if you’d like to get involved, contact the committee chair!

1. Communications Committee
2. Finance Committee
3. Political Affairs Committee
4. Data and Membership Committee
5. Membership Building Standing Committee
6. Community Defense Committee
7. Fees and Pay Raise Organizing Committee

Communications Committee

Purpose: The Communications Committee is intended to assist the Communications Secretary with their duties of communicating the struggles of graduate workers to the communities inside and outside the university.

Responsibilities:

• Maintain the GLU-UE website.
• Create content for and manage GLU-UE social media accounts.
• Create flyers and media for digital or physical use
• Collaborate with the Political Affairs Committee to provide press releases or interviews to various media outlets.
• Assist with other duties related to Communications as assigned by the Communications Secretary

Finance Committee

Purpose: The Finance Committee is intended to ensure the financial health of the local and defend the local’s funds from abuse or mismanagement.

Responsibilities:

• Assist the Financial Secretary with their duties.
• Receive and account for all money paid to the Local, pay bills authorized by the Local, and make purchases on behalf of the Local.
• Draft financial reports and budgets.
• Pay per capita dues to UE Regional and UE National.
• Manage dues deductions of members.

Political Affairs Committee

Purpose: The Political Affairs Committee is intended to educate and build relationships with legislators on behalf of GLU.

Responsibilities:

• Advance the political interests of UE 1105 at the local, state and national level by communicating and building relationships with legislators and other political operatives. 
• Coordinate with other unions and related organizations to advance the goals of GLU-UE and the greater labor movement.
• Push legislators to expand labor’s right to organize and lobby against legislative attacks on a worker’s ability to organize in their workplace
• Collaborate with the Communications Committee to provide press releases or interviews to various media outlets.

Data and Membership Committee

Purpose: The Data and Membership Committee is intended to assist the General Secretary and the Financial Secretary with their duties of centrally managing membership records, contact information, employment status, and all other information being recorded in pursuit of the goals of GLU-UE.

Responsibilities:

• Manage semesterly uploads of employment status as provided by the University of Minnesota.
• Regularly update membership lists based upon those who have signed up for membership in GLU-UE.
• Maintain records of members in good standing based upon dues payment.
• Provide Broadstripes training resources to members of GLU-UE.
• Maintain Broadstripes records, including troubleshooting existing data or issues that may arise within Broadstripes, and updating records as appropriate.
• Support the Financial Secretary in their duties to contact members not in good standing about dues payment.
• Regularly update organizing tools derived from Broadstripes data, such as the Facility Map.

Membership Building Standing Committee

Purpose: This committee assists the Vice President of Membership with their duties of recruiting and engaging eligible members in the union.

Responsibilities:

• Make contact with nonmembers in order to understand their struggles and urge them to join the union. 
• Provide regular updates on the status of membership recruitment efforts to General Membership.
• Assist with other duties related to Membership Building as assigned by the Vice President of Membership.

Community Defense Committee

Purpose: This committee is intended to organize workers to resist ICE terror, attacks on higher education, and other fascist threats against immigrants, workers, and vulnerable populations under the Trump Administration, and pressure UMN administration to take tangible actions to protect the campus community.

Responsibilities:

• Be the primary vehicle for GLU-UE’s ICE response and other community defense organizing on campus, and organize members around concerted collective action to pressure UMN administration to take tangible actions to protect workers and students.
• Identify opportunities for GLU-UE’s involvement in larger community defense organizing efforts in the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota, and recommend such opportunities as appropriate to the Executive Board and General Membership for endorsement.
• Work with the executive board to build relationships with other unions, student organizations, and community groups on campus in order to coordinate efforts and present a united front in defense of our community.

Fees and Pay Raise Organizing Committee

Purpose: This committee is intended to gather information on and organize workers around the issues of GLU-UE’s exclusion from the 4% Spring Salary Memo (SSM) Raise in contradiction of our contract and fee relief payments being distributed via payroll and unnecessarily subject to taxation.

Responsibilities:

• Seek out information regarding the practices for setting the SSM and prepare a report for membership about these practices.
• Coordinate organizing efforts around pay increases and inform members about them.
• Organize members to pressure the UMN administration to follow GLU-UE’s CBA and the MOU’s signed during bargaining regarding student fees, and for the University to cease to weaponize tax law against workers.