Resolution – FBI Raids on Trade Union, Anti-War, and Solidarity Activists

Whereas, on September 24th, 2010 in coordinated raids, FBI agents entered seven homes of union workers and anti-war activists in Chicago and Minneapolis, confiscating computers, documents, cell phones, and personal belongings. They handed out subpoenas to testify before a federal Grand Jury to 14 activists; and

Whereas, 10 of the 14 subpoenaed are union members. One target of the raid was the home of Joe Iosbaker, chief steward and executive board member of SEIU Local 73 in Chicago, where he has led struggles at the University of Illinois for employee rights and pay equity. He has also been instrumental in providing solidarity for the GEO at UIC; and

Whereas, since September 24th, at least 23 subpoenas, in total, have been issued to activists. Nine of those subpoenaed were ordered to testify on January 25th, 2011. All nine refused to testify in front of the Grand Jury; and

Whereas, the FBI has a long history of violating peoples’ human and civil rights. During the 1960s the FBI COINTELPRO spied on and harassed civil rights and anti-war activists, including the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr .; and

Whereas, the nationally coordinated raids and fishing expedition is an assault on the First Amendment rights of every unionist, anti-war campaigner, and solidarity activist. This time the FBI is using the pretext of investigating “terrorism” in an attempt to intimidate activists; and

Whereas, the Graduate Employees Organization believes that the freedom of expression is fundamental to the health of our democracy and our work as academic employees:

Therefore be it resolved, that the Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Illinois at Chicago stands in solidarity with numerous labor, anti-war, and civil liberties organizations in condemning the recent raids on union, antiwar and solidarity activists and demand the following:

1. That the U.S. government stop using the national security laws to intimidate people from using their 1st Amendment rights;
2. That all improperly confiscated materials are returned immediately, including computers, cell phones, papers, documents, and personal belongings;
3. For President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately end the Grand Jury proceedings and FBI raids against trade union, anti-war and international solidarity activists;
4. Immediate investigation into the circumstances, motivation and propriety of the judicial and police intimidation of union members, anti-war and international solidarity activists;
5. We further call on the United States Senate to investigate post-9/11 federal surveillance of labor, peace and other legitimate organizations and movements, and the use of expansive anti-terror laws to intimidate and criminalize peaceful dissent.

#ChicagoIL #Labor #GraduateEmployeesOrganization #PoliticalRepression

Chicago, IL – Voting was completed for the 1500 clerical workers at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, April 16. The committee of co-workers elected last summer to negotiate a new contract had called for the vote. On the ballot was one thing: Should the committee be authorized to call a strike if a new contract could not be gained at the bargaining table?

The answer from the union members was quite clear. 84% said yes – a fair contract or strike.

Regina Russell, a member of the committee and a customer service representative from the UIC Medical Center (UICMC), said before the vote, “Workers in my department, Patient Access, are ready to strike.” Russell explained that the number of patients they register and whose insurance they must verify every hour was doubled last year. UICMC reported $5 million in profit in the first quarter of this year. “We registered 500,000 patients last year. How much of that profit do we account for?”

The situation in Patient Access was the same wherever workers worked collectively or in large numbers, such as the Daley Library, Patient Accounts, Health Information Management or the clinics. Those workers voted in large numbers and support for the strike authorization was almost unanimous.

Many workers were upset because management offered no raises in the contract, but got really angry when management eliminated the anniversary raises as well. These are 2% increases for most clerical workers have always been a part of civil service employment. Jennifer Edwards, a committee member, noted that, “The price of gas has risen, our health premiums have increased, everything has gone up. Management gave themselves a 2% raise at the start of the year, but then came to the table to say there was nothing for us.”

Workers overcome fear

A significant reason for those workers who voted “no” was the fear of the economic crisis. “We just have to be thankful we have a job,” said a number of workers. Sirlena Perry, a retired worker and longtime leader of the union who came to help staff the table for the vote, responded to this. “That’s just what management wants us to think. We can’t let the bosses do our thinking for us.”

Workers also had to overcome intimidation by management on the days of the vote. Polling places had been set up in common areas in University Hall, Daley Library and the Student Services Building. Campus police were called and ordered the union staff and members to leave the buildings. Many workers missed their chance to cast their ballot as a result. In November, the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) had staged a job action in the same common area in University Hall. With 80 people in that action, they filled the area for the entire day with their ‘work-in.’ The police allowed that protest to take place.

Urging workers to be strong, Perry told them, “We have made so many gains through the union, including when we won the struggle against the racist pay differentials ten years ago.” Perry was referring to the practice that the University engaged in from 1965 until 1998 of paying the mostly Black and Latino workforce in Chicago $1 or $2 an hour less than the mainly white workers in their downstate campus in Urbana. Local 73’s greatest victory at UIC was forcing equal pay rates for all campuses. “That was a huge fight, like the one we are facing now, and the lesson is clear – we can win if we fight,” she explained.

The other main issue in the negotiations is job security. UIC has replaced hundreds, perhaps over 1000 clerical workers in recent years with non-civil service, non-union staff. There has been a steady stream of layoffs largely as a result of this practice. Mainly these Academic Professional positions have occurred at the Medical Center and the College of Medicine. These are the wealthiest parts of the University, as the numbers of patients has increased almost 300% since 1991 and the growth in research grants has placed UIC as one of the top research institutions in the country. Plus there has been an explosion of enormous donations from wealthy physicians who have made fortunes through the system of for-profit medicine. The union’s demand that the employer make a commitment to end the erosion of union positions is the first priority in these negotiations.

Union Solidarity

Workers were also buoyed by the support they received from the members of Local 73 in two other contracts at UIC. Randy Evans, who works in Environmental Services at the Hospital, came in before his shift and began to help with turning out the vote. Also a member of the bargaining committee for 800 service and maintenance workers, Evans said, “Our negotiations are going nowhere also. We’re getting the same message, ‘Do more with fewer workers and no raises.’” Speaking for the service and maintenance workers, as well as the 400 technical workers in the hospital laboratories, Evans said that they are right behind the clerical workers.

The clerical workers are set to return to meet with management in federal mediation on April 28. Workers will rally outside those negotiations at lunchtime.

Maria Alvarez, a member of the committee and a worker in the Physical Therapy clinic, said, “We are going to win, just like the graduate employees did.” She was referring to the victory scored by the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) at UIC the previous week. After GEO announced their preparations for a strike, management engaged in a last ditch, 13-hour mediation session. As the student newspaper reported, management “blinked” and made concessions in pay and job security to avoid that strike.

Willie English, a former employee and now staff for SEIU Local 73, joined the final rally to support the GEO, and later commented, “They had only 1400 workers. Local 73 has 1500 clerks, and altogether 2700 members at UIC. We can have confidence that we will win, because in our unity of our numbers, we have strength.”

#ChicagoIL #UniversityOfIllinoisChicagoUIC #GraduateEmployeesOrganization #ServiceEmployeesInternationalUnionSEIULocal73

On April 5, the members of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) prepared for a strike. Their bargaining committee went in for a last-ditch session with a federal mediator and the team from management. After 13 hours at the table, GEO scored a significant victory, emerging with a tentative agreement that protects tuition waivers and increases job security. They also won two years of raises to their minimum stipends and an increase in the university’s contribution for health insurance.

Fight Back! News caught up with Gina Gemmel, communications officer for the GEO.

Fight Back!: Why was the GEO preparing to strike?

Gina Gemmel: We were preparing to strike because the UIC administration had not guaranteed tuition waivers for graduate employees. The proposal we had received from them would have allowed individual departments to set tuition waiver policy, which would open up the possibility of departments granting only partial waivers or waivers only to certain types of students. We wanted to ensure that every graduate employee currently receiving a waiver would continue to receive one so they would be able to finish their degrees at UIC.

We were also concerned about skyrocketing tuition differential fees. These fees vary in amount, in some cases reaching up to $11,000 per year. We knew that a big, visible action like a strike was one of the best ways to make the university hear our voices.

Fight Back!: What had been done to prepare for the strike?

Gemmel: Throughout the year, the GEO has held events to both send a message to the administration about the issues we care about and to get our membership involved in the fight. Two of our biggest events were a work-in on the ground floor of University Hall in December and a rally with SEIU members and other members of the UIC community in January.

In order to prepare concretely for the strike, the GEO spent time visiting grad students in departments all over campus to explain the issues and listen to their thoughts on a potential strike. We prepared logistically with picket line schedules and by training GEO members to be picket line captains. Finally, we made our intention to strike if we were not able to settle our contract in mediation known to the campus community through our “Ready to Strike” posters and buttons, with which our membership flooded the UIC campus.

Fight Back!: What are the key parts of the agreement?

Gemmel: The key parts of the agreement are the guarantee of our tuition waivers and language that will allow for more transparency in tuition differential policy. We now have a guarantee that graduate employees will not be surprised by any reductions or cuts to their existing tuition waiver benefits, without which, in most cases, students would not be able to afford graduate study. We have also received a guarantee in our contract that the university will discuss tuition differential fees with the GEO, answering questions that have previously been ignored, such as where the money from these fees goes and who exactly determines their implementation and increases.

Other important agreements included guarantees that graduate employees would be paid on time, greater job security through stronger language regarding appointment and re-appointment criteria, a 2% increase to the minimum stipend in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2010 academic years, and an increase in the university contribution to health care costs from $100 to $250 per year.

Fight Back!: What are the lessons for the other workers on campus?

Gemmel: The biggest lesson from our year-long fight for a fair contract is that the most powerful tool we have to make sure workers are protected is collective action. The most movement we saw at the bargaining table happened in the mediation session after the university received our intent to strike notice, and of course, we were able to get our contract settled after our massive rally outside the site of mediation last Monday. When the university knows that we can collectively act to disrupt normal operations, they are compelled to listen.

The GEO’s slogan is “UIC works because we do,” and this slogan can really be applied to workers all over campus. When we show the administration how essential we are to the success of UIC, they must listen.

#ChicagoIL