GTFF Silliness

Thought I'd share this with you all, since so many of you we're part of it. It's for the E-Council Retreat.

Where We Come From

The GTFF was founded by a small, but plucky, group of grads in 1976. Were there similarities between this small group of warriors and those brave men and women who fought the British two hundred years before? Of course there were. Both groups stood up to the powers that were and demanded their rights, and both groups struggled through a tough winter at Valley Forge.

Then, not unlike American history, not much happened for a long time. Oh, those that were there probably thought they were doing important work, but in retrospect…meh. Let’s not forget, the ‘80s were about cocaine and greed, so we really shouldn’t expect too much from them. Bottom line, the entire decade was not good for unions, or anybody really, and it is best forgotten.

None of us were there, but I bet we’d all like to imagine that the early ‘90s were a hot time for the GTFF. Northwest music was coming into its own, decent coffee and beer were being brewed, and who wouldn’t have wanted to sport a GTFF flannel? Unfortunately, we have no evidence that it was, indeed, a hot time at the GTFF. There was a blood drive in 1991, but there does seem to be any sense that it was a “who the fuck cares about anything, so let’s give away all our blood” drive, which would have been in keeping with the times. The GTFF voted on whether to change the name of the union, but the initiative was defeated.

The mid-‘90s did see some action at 870 E. 13th. Swept up in the “Organizing Model” craze the GTFF leadership overthrew the staff-led tyranny and revitalized the union. In addition to establishing a health care plan that is very similar to the one we have now, the leaders worked to create the steward structure we have now, and membership climbed up past 50%.


Where We Are Now

The 21st century has known a GTFF in the ascent. Since 2000 (yes, yes, I know), the GTFF has held the line on health care increases for our members, despite annual increases of 15% per year nationwide. We’ve raised the minimum wage 22%, lowered fees by $203 per year, and increased the membership number to 75%. Just as importantly, the GTFF has looked outside of itself and taken a leadership role both at the state level, through our state federation, and nationally, through the Alliance of Graduate Employees.
At the state level, we have been working hard to change the regressive per cap structure used by AFT-OR. We are also trying hard to just be involved more. We’ve chosen to be inside agitators, rather than outside agitators.

We have established the GTFF as the premier graduate employee union in the nation (this claim subject to dispute by every other grad union in the country). We’ve done it through a lot of hard work, lightened by a very evidence sense of fun. We have a reputation for being just a little bit wacky, a little bit odd-ball, and a lot bit fun. Those that came before us built a solid platform, we now have to figure out where the GTFF is going.