Grad workers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say the university is essentially ensuring that grad workers continue to take “an oath of poverty”.

The Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) is proposing an 18 percent wage increase over three years to ensure they can afford housing, support their families and live with dignity and respect. The grad student employee union says Athletic Director Ryan Bamford by contrast got a raise to $300,000 a year with retention bonuses of ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five thousand dollars over four years.

GEO says U Mass should tell its negotiators to bargain in good faith and ensure that “oaths of poverty” are no longer the U Mass standard.

The grad student union is telling the U Mass administration that “We will no longer take your abuse and disregard. We demand that you bargain fairly, timely, respectfully and with our dignity in mind. We cannot accept these poverty salaries…”

GEO members are rallying Tuesday in a Halloween rally on campus for a dignified wage.