The workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73. The voting will take place from Monday, March 31 through Thursday, April 3.

Fight Back! interviewed Joe Iosbaker, a clerical worker at UIC who chairs the joint committee.

“In negotiations with management, their chief negotiator Steve Katz said, ‘None of your members are underpaid.’ In other words, management is saying, ‘just be glad you have a job and stop expecting raises.’

“Now management is threatening us that the politicians in Springfield want to cut 12.5% of the university’s budget for next year. They say it's because the state will lose that much revenue when the temporary income tax increase ends on Jan. 1, 2015. Management wants us to give up any hope of a fair contract.

“The three bargaining committees met and agreed to fight on both fronts. Our message to Springfield: No pension cuts! No budget cuts! Make the rich pay their share of taxes! We adopted a resolution to send a message to the politicians.

“And our message to management: We’re prepared to fight, and even strike if we have to. Salaries for top management have exploded while we have struggled to keep up with the cost of living, with no hope of getting ahead.

“We are asking all union members to come out to vote Yes! to authorize our committees to call a 3 day strike.”

Below is the resolution adopted unanimously by the joint meeting of bargaining committees (Clerical and Administrative, Service and Maintenance, and Technical units) of the Service Employees International Union Local 73 at the University of Illinois at Chicago:

Tax the Rich!

Resolution adopted unanimously by the joint meeting of bargaining committees (Clerical and Administrative, Service and Maintenance, and Technical units) of the Service Employees International Union Local 73 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, representing 3000 workers.

The State of Illinois has an unfair tax system. Wealthy people don’t pay their share. In Illinois, the rich pay less in taxes that 42 other states.

Many major corporations located in Illinois pay little or no taxes. Take for example the Boeing Company. They are the second largest arms manufacturer, and get most of their contracts from the federal government. From 2003 through 2012, Boeing had $35 billion in profits, but paid zero in state taxes.

Now the politicians in Illinois want to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the higher education budget, and billions from other programs that benefit working class people.

We shouldn’t pay for this crisis! The politicians have been raiding our pension funds for 30 years because they don’t tax the rich enough. Illinois state workers have met our obligation by paying into our pension fund from each paycheck. Our pensions are under attack already. Now we’re being threatened with this 12.5% budget cut.

No pension cuts! No budget cuts! Make the rich pay their share of taxes!

#ChicagoIL #TaxTheRich #UniversityOfChicago #SEIULocal73 #JoeIosbaker #Capitalism #workersRights #laborStrike

But in December, he was given a two-week suspension without pay. The charges against Randy stemmed from his defense of a coworker in his duties as a union steward.

What led management to suspend Randy?

Several of the departments in the hospital, including Environmental Services, Central Sterile Supply, Patient Transport, Dining Services and Material Management, have a terrible history of violations of the union contract, such as failing to meet the deadlines for providing information, failing to respond to requests for meetings and allowing grievances to go unanswered.

Randy won’t tolerate the union contract being treated this way, and is forceful in demanding the respect of these managers. This is the first reason that management has attacked him.

Randy is their scapegoat

Why is this suspension happening now? In November 2011, there was a murder that occurred in the Medical Center. A man killed his ex-wife after management put them both on the same shift, together with her new boyfriend. All three employees involved worked in Environmental Services and the incident exposed the failures of the management methods in that department.

These methods include: -- Disrespect of employees: BSWs should be recognized for their contribution to keeping the hospital free of germs. Instead they get yelled at and told to work harder. -- Overwork: As the medical center has multiplied the number of patients it sees, the work load on every building service worker has increased. -- Denial of benefit time usage: Management doesn’t want employees to use benefit time for vacation and sick leave. -- Divide and conquer: In order to keep workers from uniting against them, older workers are pitted against new; men against women; and nationality against nationality. —Discipline equals punishment: Workers get written up all the time. They work in fear of being moved to a new assignment or work area; of the loss of pay if suspended; and the ultimate threat of loss of their job.

Shadow of the plantation

There’s another underlying reason for the attack on Evans: racism. UIC is an employer whose labor relations were built on white supremacy. When UIC was built in the 1960s, the administration created a racist, two tier pay system. Mostly white workers in Urbana were paid one rate; mostly Black workers in Chicago were paid $1 or $2 an hour less. This system stayed in place until Local 73 grew strong enough to win the Urbana pay grades for all (see Fight Back article http://www.fightbacknews.org/2001fall/chiworkerswin.htm )

What management gives with a tea spoon, they take away with a shovel

When the workers – Black, Latino and white – won that victory in 2001, it didn’t bring an end to the system of racist discrimination at UIC. At the time of the victory over the pay disparity, there were almost 400 BSWs at UIC. Today there are only 250. This was management’s revenge for the workers victory in 2001: downsizing. Today, each worker is doing the work that had been done by two.

Taken together, this labor system is what led to the toxic climate in which the murder took place last year. Rather than dealing with this underlying tension, management is sweeping it under the rug. Are workers angry? Of course they are! Working hard in the face of disrespect, while top bosses get rich off their labor, makes people angry.

The murder last year put the spotlight on hospital administration. Now management is taking the attention off them and putting it on Steward Evans.

Local 73: The only defense workers have

With management like this, workers need union stewards like Evans, a person who is not afraid to speak up.

Local 73 is defending Evans. The union has grieved the suspension, will file an unfair labor practice charge against UIC for targeting a steward for union activity and continue to fight managers who behave like this.

This is not a threat: this is a promise. Human Resources at UIC needs to learn the difference.

#ChicagoIllinois #ChicagoIL #UniversityOfChicago #SEIULocal73 #RandyEvans #JoeIsobaker

Chicago, IL – University of Chicago Hospital workers have come out strong to demand a fair contract from their wealthy employer. Over three days near the end of July, the 1400 members of Teamsters Local 743 voted down a contract offer from management. The resounding “No” vote – 93.5% against – was because the company’s offer didn’t address employees concerns about job security, healthcare costs and compensation.

The hospital reported a substantial increase in operating income and net assets in 2008. Despite this, they cut hundreds of jobs earlier this year, adding to job security fears that already existed because of contracting-out.

According to union representative J Burger, bargaining for these workers – the largest union contract at the hospital – was progressing until early July. The elected committee was shocked when the employer brought their ‘final offer’ to the table.

Kendra Mitchell, a Nursing Supportive Assistant, explained her issue with contracting-out. “Agency nursing assistants are used instead of NSAs. But they can’t do glucose scans, for example, meaning we have extra work to do.”

Richard Berg, president of Local 743 and former environmental services worker at the hospital for 17 years, explained what is behind this conflict: “The UC Medical Center is doing fine, but they’re using the excuse of the crisis in the economy to squeeze the members of Local 743. Dean [James] Madera has a seven figure salary. Our members just want a contract that is mutually beneficial.”

Members of Local 743’s bargaining committee and the representatives were joined at a press conference in front of the hospital on Aug. 3 by members of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 73, the trades people at the University of Chicago.

#ChicagoIL #News #UniversityOfChicago #Teamsters #TeamstersLocal743

Chicago, IL – Sherri Taylor-Kennedy was insulted and angry at her employer. “When I got here I was informed that my position had been eliminated. I had 30 minutes to gather my belongings and be escorted off the premises.” She spoke out at a protest rally Feb. 10 to 200 co-workers and supporters at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC).

Ms. Taylor-Kennedy has worked here for 14 years as a secretary. Management has announced 450 layoffs already, and hundreds more to come. These job cuts are happening even though the hospital hasn't lost any money, nor are there fewer patients. They are getting rid of workers because their stock-based endowment lost 40% of its value. They want to make up for their bad investments by cutting people.

Richard Berg, president of Teamsters Local 743, was highly critical that these cuts were made despite no financial losses in the operation of the hospital. “They're not General Motors or Ford, where sales are down. This is sheer arrogance,” he declared to cheers from the crowd.

Local 743 was joined by Service Employees International Union Local 73, the Students Organized and United for Labor and Southside Together Organized for Power (STOP), a housing group that fights University-promoted gentrification in the Woodlawn neighborhood. STOP speaker Fred Payne supported the workers, telling them they were fighting for themselves and for patients like him. In addition to cutting jobs, the hospital announced plans to turn away more poor people who come to the emergency room, and instead send them to Cook County Hospital, ten miles away. Most of the 80,000 patients that use the Emergency Room are African American.

Local 743 represents 1500 service and maintenance and clerical workers. Their union representative at UCMC, J Burger, said that many of the 450 layoffs were workers represented by Local 743. Local 73 represents trades people, including carpenters and painters, 18 of whom were given layoff notices.

The threat to these workers is very serious. Taylor-Kennedy announced, “I have $1500 rent due every month and six children to feed.”

Burger said, “We will fight until we win back these jobs and until this employer respects the workers and the residents of the surrounding community.” The workers ended their protest chanting, “Yes, We Can!” aware that President Obama's home was only a few blocks away from the University, where he had been on the faculty a few years ago.

#UniversityOfChicago #ChicagoIL #News #Teamsters743 #SEIU #Layoffs