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 #UniversityOfIllinoisChicagoUIC #GraduateEmployeesOrganization

Chicago, IL – 300 graduate employees, faculty, students and campus workers rallied on the campus of the University of Illinois-Chicago today, April 5, to demand a contract for the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO). While the bargaining committee walked into the building to meet with management in federal mediation, the protesters chanted, “Who are we? GEO. Are we gonna back down? Hell, no!”

The GEO had been preparing for a strike for the past month. Today, they announced that their membership had called for an April 6 strike if mediation failed to produce an agreement. The membership vote passed with 84% support. As of 9:00 p.m., mediation was continuing.

Their sister local at the university’s campus in Urbana won an historic contract in November, guaranteeing tuition waivers, in addition to three years of raises and other advances. That victory came as the result of a two-day strike.

#ChicagoIL #StudentMovement #GraduateEmployeesOrganization

Tell UIC “Stop Stalling! We Want A Fair Contract Now!”

Network to Fight for Economic Justice (NFEJ)

The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), a union at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), is demanding a fair contract. While graduate employees teach many of today’s university classes, many live at or near the poverty level and chalk up great debts pursuing an education. UIC administrators are dithering about granting waivers for tuition and a controversial fee they call “tuition differentials”. Graduate employees are being asked to give a big chunk of their paycheck back to UIC by paying for tuition and hidden fees.

GEO at UIC, an affiliate of the Network to Fight for Economic Justice (NFEJ), is asking members and supporters to send emails demanding “Stop Stalling! We Want A Fair Contract Now!” to the UIC bosses at http://xrl.us/bgfowe.

Jes Cook, GEO Organizing Chair said, “We are at the one year mark in negotiations, and Monday will be our third federal mediation session. Last week, the administration told the campus community that our work is valued. Well, the time has come to show it. Give us job security and guarantee our tuition waivers. Settle this contract now.”

Joe Iosbaker, chief steward of SEIU Local 73 at UIC and a member of the NFEJ, said, “We support the GEO, and we are in the same boat as we prepare to take a strike vote next week. The bosses leave us only two choices: suffer or fight. Like the GEO, we will fight.”

The GEO is part of American Federation of Teachers Local 6297, representing 1400 teachers at UIC. Please visit GEO's website at http://www.uic-geo.net/ for more information and updates.

The final mediation session is Monday, April 5th, 2010. The GEO invites you to rally at 8am, Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted, Chicago.

For more info contact the NFEJ at http://wesayfightback.com/wordpress/

#ChicagoIL #StudentMovement #NetworkToFightForEconomicJustice #GraduateEmployeesOrganization

Universidad de Illinois (Chicago) – Los Empleados de Posgrado de la Universidad de Illinois votaron contundentemente anoche para autorizar una huelga. El contrato para 1400 de los empleados de posgrado y asistentes de catedra se vencio en agosto del año pasado. La Organizacion de Empleados de Posgrado (GEO por sus siglas en Ingles) ha estado en negociaciones desde abril del 2009, pero la actitud de la administracion sigue dirigida al “retraso del contrato” de acuerdo a la pagina de internet del GEO en Enero de este año. Esto ha sido asi por la duracion de todo el proceso de negociacion y por supuesto, la universidad ha usado la crisis presupuestaria del estado como pretexto de inaccion.

Un comunicado de prensa anunciando los resultados del voto, cita al Presidente del GEO Charles Moss “Mejoras en la seguridad de trabajo, tal como garantizar exenciones en matriculas que los empleados de posgrado ya reciben, y mantener tasas sobre control, no le costara ni un centavo a la universidad, pero haria que los empleados de posgrado se sientan mucho mas seguros de sus trabajos.

Miembros del GEO han visto “diferenciales de matricula” (tasas de diferencia entre programas de pregrado y posgrado) de varios departamentos en los ultimos años, incluyendo programas de Humanidades y Ciencias, en donde el Decano McBride quiere aumentarlas a 875 dolares por semestre, teniendo en cuenta que la mayoria de los estudiantes de posgrado ganan solo 14,000 dolares al año, esto equivale a la reduccion del 12.5% en sus salarios. La oferta de la Administracion no propone aumentos en el contrato.

El Sindicato tambien esta buscando mejoras en Campus Care, que es el programa de salud de donde ellos son elegibles. Los estudiantes de posgrado pagan 1000 dolares al año a Campus Care por cobertura que se les niega a menudo, incluyendo cobertura dental y servicios de emergencia.

Segun Jes Cook, Presidenta Organizadora del GEO, el voto fue “casi unanime”. La reunion tuvo “...uno de las mejores participaciones que el sindicato ha tenido para cualquier cosa que haya hecho. Hubieron muchas caras nuevas y una gran variedad de departamentos,” informo Cook.

El voto para darle al liderazgo de GEO la autoridad para presentar un aviso de “Intento de Huelga” a la comision de Educacion de Relaciones Laborales de Illinois, fue aprobada por el 96% de los miembros del sindicato.

En las palabras de Charles Moss, que es Asistente de Enseñanza de Pre-Calculo, los miembros demandan que “Nos Traten Justamente.” “Queremos garantias en nuestra exenciones de matriculas y queremos que mantengan el nivel de las tasas. Cuando la propuesta fue rechazada por la administracion, enfurecio a mucha gente.”

“Muchos miembros del sindicato se preguntan el porque no hemos estado en huelga.”

#ChicagoIL #UniversityOfIllinoisChicagoUIC #GraduateEmployeesOrganization #GEO

Chicago, IL – University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) graduate employees voted overwhelmingly Feb. 15 to authorize a strike. The contract for the 1400 graduate and teaching assistants at UIC expired in August. The GEO has been in negotiations since April of 2009, but management’s attitude at the table has been “all about delay, delay, delay…” according to a GEO blog site in January. This has been true for the entire length of the bargaining process, and of course, the university has been using the state budget crisis as further excuse for inaction.

A press release announcing the results of the vote quoted GEO president Charles Moss: “Improvements in job security, such as guaranteeing tuition waivers that grads already receive and getting skyrocketing fees under control, won’t cost the university a dime, but would make graduate employees much more secure in their jobs.”

GEO members have seen ‘tuition differentials’ from numerous departments in recent years, including in Liberal Arts, where Dean McBride wants to raise it to $875 a semester. Given that most grads make only $14,000 annually, this would be the equivalent of a 12.5% cut in pay. Management’s offer has no raises in it.

The union is also looking for improvement in Campus Care, the health program they are eligible for. Grads pay $1000 a year for coverage, which is often denied for dental or emergency services.

According to Jes Cook, Organizing Chair of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), the vote was “almost unanimous.” The meeting had “…one of the best turnouts for anything the union has done. There were a lot of new faces, and so many departments,” reported Cook.

The vote to give the GEO leadership the authority to file an Intent to Strike notice with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations board won 96% support among the members.

In the words of Charles Moss, who is a pre-calculus teaching assistant, the members are saying, “Treat us fairly. We wanted guarantees of our tuition waivers and to hold the line on fees. When our proposal about that was struck, it really angered a lot of people.”

“A lot of members are confused why we haven’t already been on strike,” Moss continued

#ChicagoIL #UniversityOfIllinoisChicagoUIC #GraduateEmployeesOrganization #GEO

Chicago, IL – Over 200 workers, faculty and students at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) marched here, Jan. 21, to demand full funding for higher education and an end to threatened furloughs and layoffs. The rally was held outside the meeting of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. It was called by a coalition of unions, including SEIU and the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), as well UIC Concerned Faculty, an ad hoc group, and student activists.

At the start of the semester, University of Illinois (UI) President Stanley Ikenberry announced furlough days and layoffs of administrators, faculty and staff. This is a result of the state failing to provide funds already allocated. Illinois has a state budget crisis that is second only to California. Since July 1, the state has provided the university with only $17 million of $436 million.

For weeks, departments have been meeting to respond. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has been pushed to announce that they will not be able to recruit new graduate students for the fall of 2010. Ikenberry has also announced that he will be forced to raise tuition by 10% next year as well.

The main fire of the protest was aimed at the state legislature. In fact, President Ikenberry and Board of Trustees Chair Chris Kennedy (son of Senator Robert Kennedy), came out to thank the picketers, spending about ten minutes shaking hands with everyone on the picket line.

But the coalition United In Campaign Against Budget Cuts (UIC ABC), had plenty of criticisms of UI and UIC management, as well. Judith Gardiner, a professor of English at UIC for 40 years, criticized top administration for having made their decisions on cutbacks before students or employees had any input. Speaking to the rally on behalf of UIC Concerned Faculty, she called for alternatives to the furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs to protect students and faculty and staff who are not at the top of the pay scales.

In preparing for the protest and to respond to the crisis, SEIU Local 73 held meetings with 200 members over the last two weeks. Regina Russell, a leader in the Patient Access department, a call center in the Medical Center, said that her management reported an all time record in work performance this past year. “We registered and verified insurance for half a million patients. With 60 employees, that’s about 50 a piece every working day. It’s more than double what we were doing a few years ago. Even then, the hospital was banking profit. Why should we have to take layoffs and no pay raises?”

GEO Organizing Chair Jes Cook, and Willie English, a service representative for Local 73 and former UIC employee, spoke to the rally, denouncing the failure of UIC to negotiate fair contracts. Both GEO and the clerical unit of Local 73 have been meeting with Labor Relations for months with no progress to report. GEO represents 1400 workers; Local 73 has three units currently without contracts, totaling 2500 employees.

Raucous chanting and speeches lasted for over two hours, including almost an hour in a freezing rain, displaying a spirit that promises to keep this fight alive.

#ChicagoIL #CapitalismAndEconomy #StudentMovement #SEIU #GraduateEmployeesOrganization #UICConcernedFaculty

Urbana Champaign, IL – After two days of mass picketing that shut down hundreds of classes at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, the strike by the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) has scored an amazing victory. On the morning of Nov. 17, management tentatively agreed to keep tuition waivers intact and retreat from threatened furlough days. In response, pickets were suspended and a GEO general membership meeting was scheduled for the evening. There, the 450 members present unanimously recommended to the strike committee that it accept the agreement and suspend the strike.

The center of the campus was a carnival atmosphere both days of the strike, as crowds of more than 700 grads and supporters shouted out their slogans: “Who are we? GEO? Are we gonna back down? Hell, no!” Not even the rain could dampen the enthusiasm of the strikers.

The strike was a blow to an administration that has been pounded with negative publicity this year as a result of a 'clout scandal' in which both the president and the chancellor were forced to resign. The scandal involved the children of the wealthy and politically connected gaining admission despite low grades and test scores.

The threat against the tuition waivers was the issue that seemed to capture the mood of the graduate workers. Illinois has the second worst state budget crisis in the country, after California. The politicians and officials have come up with one attack after another to balance the budget crisis on the backs of those least able to afford it. Going after tuition waivers backfired, as even the American Association of University Professors weighed in to warn the university that they were undermining their attraction to high quality grads. But it was the fighting spirit and creativity of the GEO that made this strike happen.

The terms of victory were more than just defending the tuition waivers and included two weeks of unpaid parental leave, more money from the school's contribution to health care premiums, and 10% in raises over three years. The victory serves as a bench mark and an inspiration especially for union workers employed by the state.

The union included in their press statement support for their “sisters and brothers in the Graduate Employees' Organization at the University of Illinois Chicago campus,” and for other higher education workers. They concluded, “Public higher education must be accessible to all, regardless of economic standing.”

The strike was also only the fourth strike nationwide of more than 1000 persons in 2009. Most of 'Big Labor,' with its billions of dollars of assets and six figure executive salaries refuses to fight. Examples like the GEO, the Republic Windows and Doors workers and the SK Hand Tool Workers all show that unions can beat back attacks if they dare to struggle.

#UrbanaChampaignIL #StudentMovement #strike #UniversityOfIllinois #GEO #GraduateEmployeesOrganization

Urbana Champaign, IL – At 8:00 a.m., Nov. 16, hundreds of teaching assistants rallied in a cold, driving rain on the campus of the University of Illinois. The members of the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) set up pickets in front of all doors of the four main lecture buildings on campus. Natalie Havlin, co-chair of the GEO steward's council, said 1000 people joined in the spirited circles.

Despite the weather, the fired up crowds drummed and chanted, “T-U-I-T-I-O-N! Waive it and we'll teach again!” The union had been pushed to strike by attacks on their tuition waivers, which make it possible for working-class students to afford higher education. Their demands also included a minimum salary, set at the university’s own estimate of a living wage.

One department head warned grads against participating in the strike. In the face of this intimidation, all 17 employees there voted to join the pickets.

The strike is set to continue on Nov. 17 while the two sides return to the bargaining table. Rich Potter, communication committee member, spoke passionately to a rally on the steps of the administration building at the end of the day. “Refusing to negotiate language to guarantee tuition waivers is an attack on access to higher education for all.” He called on the crowd to return the next morning just as strong and they roared their approval.

Amber Cooper, of the Network to Fight For Economic Justice and University of Illinois Chicago Alumni states that the GEO has asked for the following support:

1. Send statements of solidarity to Miriam Larson
2. Send people to join those on strike on the picket lines at buildings around the UIUC campus
3. Call and email the U of I Board of Trustees and tell them how you feel.
4. Join the GEO facebook fan page for updates

#UrbanaChampaignIL #StudentMovement #strike #UniversityOfIllinois #NetworkToFightForEconomicJustice #GEO #GraduateEmployeesOrganization

Over the course of a three-day vote, an overwhelming 92% of participating GEO members chose to authorize a strike against the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. With the vote, GEO members have given the strike committee of the GEO a clear mandate to call a strike at any time. The Graduate Employees' Organization, American Federation of Teachers/Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 6300, AFL-CIO, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a labor union representing all teaching and graduate assistants on the UIUC campus. With over 2600 graduate employees represented in the bargaining unit, the GEO is one of the largest higher education union locals in the United States.

The GEO has been negotiating with UIUC administrators for over six months. The GEO seeks a contract that will set the minimum salary for a 50% nine-month appointment at the university's estimate of a living wage for a graduate student in Urbana-Champaign and protect tuition waivers for teaching and graduate assistants. While the GEO presented the administration with a full contract proposal on the first day of negotiations, the UIUC administration declined to offer a counterproposal until Aug. 11, just four days before the GEO's previous contract expired.

The UIUC administration's initial contract proposal sought to freeze GEO wages for three years, reserve the right to furlough and lay off graduate employees in good standing and to count 'in-kind' compensation such as housing or meal vouchers toward the minimum salary mandated in the contract.

The GEO understands that the state of Illinois is in dire economic straits, but as university administrators pointed out in their fiscal year 2010 budget request, this is the result of long-standing deficiencies in state level budget prioritization and not a sudden result of the recent economic recession.

Instead of championing the university's historic land grant mission, UIUC administrators have embraced the national tendency toward the corporatization of the public higher education system. Their consequent failure to secure adequate state funding leaves the social science, humanities and fine arts especially vulnerable. Worse, it jeopardizes access to higher education for many who have the capacity and desire, but not the financial resources to attend the university. If increased state funding is also necessary to providing at least a living wage for all campus employees, then the GEO expects the UIUC administration to forcefully make that case to the Higher Education Appropriations Committee, other state legislators and the governor.

Instead of advocating on the behalf of students and workers, administrators were granting costly favors to state politicians. The former Chancellor diverted $450,000 of discretionary funds to provide jobs and scholarships for politically well-connected but undeserving student applicants.

Hundreds of GEO members have participated in three major rallies. GEO members have also lobbied the Illinois House of Representatives Higher Education Appropriations Committee, spoken with state legislators from Champaign, actively informed campus community members about the issues and maintained a constant presence in Urbana-Champaign print, radio and television media. The Illinois Student Senate has passed two resolutions in support of the GEO and the decision to authorize a strike and GEO supporters in the faculty senate are working to pass a similar resolution. GEO members and allies will hold a rally at the University of Illinois Board of Trustees Meeting in Springfield, IL on Nov. 12.

As with any labor negotiation, however, the most effective pressure has been the threat of a strike. Only after GEO members at a general membership meeting voted unanimously to file an 'intent to strike' notice did the university administration offer their first compromise proposals. Accordingly, the Coordinating Committee and Steward’s Council of the GEO voted unanimously to hold a strike authorization vote from Nov. 4-6.

By voting to authorize a strike, GEO members have taken a vital step in holding the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign administration accountable to its stated commitment to excellence in research and undergraduate education.

#UrbanaChampaignIL #GraduateEmployeesOrganization #GEO