Chicago, IL – 1100 faculty members at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) went on strike, Feb. 18, to demand a fair contract. Several rallies drew 500 strikers and their supporters to the middle of campus.

These members of Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) Local 6456 showed a high degree of solidarity. Issues in the strike include a wage increase for the entire bargaining unit, but also a minimum salary for the non-tenured full-time lecturers – teachers with PhDs currently earning only $30,000 a year. IFT Local 6456 is demanding a $45,000 minimum for them.

The union points to the wrong priorities in place at the university, where tuition has risen 25% since 2007 and where the school has over $1 billion in reserves, but where faculty are not paid what they are worth. Most professors have gone two years without raises. Three years ago, their pay was docked through the use of furlough days.

IFT leaders blame the Board of Trustees and University President Bob Easter. Joe Persky, president of UIC United Faculty, said in a statement, “The administration’s priorities don’t match the University’s mission, and after trying to negotiate a fair contract for eighteen months, they’ve left us no choice but to strike.”

UIC looks more and more like a corporation each year. The IFT notes that the number of administrators has increased by 10%, while tenured faculty positions have decreased by 1% in recent years. In response to this, one of the chants heard from picketers has been, “Chop from the top!”

#ChicagoIL #ChopFromTheTop #UniversityOfIllinoisChicago #tuitionHikes #teachersStrike #workersRights #IFTLocal6456

Chicago, IL – Students in Chicago came together today to oppose the threatened Qu’ran burning by the Dove Church in Gainesville, Florida. As part of a nationwide response, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapters from the University of Illinois-Chicago, Wright College and Columbia College joined together with others from Northeastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University and the Palestine Solidarity Group.

As cars driving by honked in support of the protesters, Alaa Saleh, a Palestinian student from Wright College SDS, led the chant: “One, two, three, four! We don’t want your racist wars! Five, six, seven, eight! No to bigotry and hate!” Saleh stated, “It is important to stand up for what is right.”

“These attacks are aimed at the communities who are already victims of U.S. wars and the U.S.-backed occupation of Palestine,” explained Hatem Abudayyeh of the Arab American Action Network.

Abudayyeh continued, “The hate against Arabs and Muslims is not new, and it’s not just in Gainesville and it’s not only members of our community that are targeted. We’re here to take a stand against attacks on Arabs, Muslims and all immigrants.” Kait McIntyre said that it was very powerful for her to know that SDS chapters all across the country were holding protests today.

#UniversityOfIllinoisChicago #ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #AntiRacism #September11 #Koranburning

Chicago, IL – The University of Illinois Board of Trustees had protesters inside and outside their meeting here, May 21.

Inside, speakers representing union, student and community groups opposed cutbacks in the UIC (University of Illinois – Chicago) budget. The members of the coalition applauded loudly when Sirlena Perry, a 25-year employee and a leader in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, declared, “You have abandoned the ‘Urban Mission.’” This is the name UIC gives to its pledge to help the poor, mainly Black and Latino communities that surround the campus. Most workers at UIC are from these communities.

Outside, upwards of 100 people picketed for 2 and a half hours to put the Board of Trustees on notice that layoffs, tuition hikes, increases in fees for graduate employees and cuts in services to the community would all face opposition. The picketers were outraged because one month earlier, University of Illinois administrators had asked for and received support from Local 73 and the Graduate Employees Organization for a lobbying effort at the state legislature for a budget increase. As a result of these efforts, Governor Quinn announced that an earlier 2.5% cut to UIC's budget was being restored, and this year’s budget would also have a small increase.

Union members were in Springfield where University of Illinois President Joe White addressed them in a rally, saying, “Thank you for your voice.” Meanwhile, UIC’s Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, John Loya was drawing up a list of 35 workers whose positions were to be eliminated; who would be ‘bumped’ from their current positions; and finally 35 to then be laid off. When the coalition members marched from the Board of Trustees meeting to join the picket line, they shouted at the trustees and other top administrators, “You got bailed out, we got sold out!”

The picketers, including many who were threatened with layoff, responded that there is an alternative to cutting crucial support staff. They chanted, “Chop from the top!”

#ChicagoIL #News #BudgetCuts #SEIULocal73 #UniversityOfIllinoisChicago #urbanMission

Chicago, IL – From Jan. 15 to Jan. 23, hundreds of clerical and administrative workers at UIC (University of Illinois – Chicago) turned out for a strike authorization vote. 94% of them supported the call from their elected bargaining committee to walk out of work if negotiations fail to reach an agreement.

The workers, members of Local 73 SEIU (Service Employees International Union) have gone without a contract raise for over two years. Sirlena Perry, a member of the bargaining committee as well as Local 73’s executive board, said, “We’ve never had a strike at UIC, but we can’t accept what’s on the table. There is no raise for the first year, no retro pay back to the August start date of this contract year and no language to give us job security.”

Another major issue is the disparity in wages between the Chicago campus and the sites in Rockford and Peoria. For many years, Chicago workers had been paid less than those at the campus in downstate Urbana. After a decade long fight to win parity for Chicago, the workers at the other sites are striving for this goal as well.

Responding to a call for an emergency picket, 40 members of Local 73 SEIU marched outside the College of Dentistry, Jan. 14. The action was held to protest retaliation against an employee for union activity. The workers’ protest hit this attack, as well as the fact that 1900 clerical, administrative and technical workers have gone two years without a contract. Regina Russell, a member of the clerical and administrative bargaining committee, had only a light jacket, but said, “We have to come out to defend each other. An injury to one is an injury to all.” Temperatures that day were in the low 20s and the wind was gusting to 30 miles an hour, but the picket line was maintained for two hours.

Bargaining is scheduled with a federal mediator on Feb. 6. If this fails to bring the two sides together, the union will go forward with their plans. To show their determination, many of the voting workers wore on their lapels a sticker that read, “UIC won’t work without us!”

#ChicagoIL #News #SEIULocal73 #UniversityOfIllinoisChicago #strikeVote

The workers, members of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 73, are demanding a decent contract for 1500 clerical and administrative workers at UIC, including workers at sites in Rockford and Peoria. Together with 400 technical workers at the university’s medical center, they have gone without a contract raise for more than two years. In addition, workers are seeking language that gives them job security against replacement of civil service jobs and equal wages for workers on all campuses of the university.

Management put a new offer to the clerical and administrative bargaining committee the same day as the protest in Springfield. According to Jeff Dexter, lead negotiator for Local 73, that offer falls short of what the workers need.

University’s Racism, Sexism Hit

In addition to the Local 73 members, a student activist from UIC appeared at the board meeting. Sussan Navabi of Students for a Democratic Society spoke during the public comment section. She accused the university of having a history of discriminatory employment practices. This came to the attention of students when 35 prominent faculty members published a letter addressed to UIC Chancellor Manning. They criticized the drawn out contract negotiations for the nearly 2000 workers, mostly Blacks and Latinos, and mostly women.

Sussan explained that letter “prompted me to do some research into the history of inequality at UIC – two things which don’t belong in the same sentence, but unfortunately have and continue to.” The board had to sit through a list of examples of discrimination, including the 35 years that Black and Latino workers at the campus in Chicago were paid $1 or $2 an hour less than the mostly white workers in the flagship campus in Urbana.

Local 73 members, together with members of the Graduate Employees Organization from UIC and supportive faculty members from the Springfield campus, cheered Sussan’s remarks, and then marched outside, chanting and singing for almost an hour.

Diana Perez, another clerical worker from UIC, was fired up after the action. “This was my first protest, but I’m prepared to come out again, and to keep fighting. On the trip back to Chicago, Denise King continued, “We just got equal wages five years ago. Now they’re not offering us enough to stay up with the cost of living. It’s unacceptable.”

As Fight Back! goes to press, workers are meeting with the bargaining committee to consider the course of action. The bargaining committee is recommending a strike authorization vote.

#ChicagoIL #StudentMovement #News #SDS #SEIULocal73 #UniversityOfIllinoisChicago

Chicago, IL – Demetris McKinley, a customer service representative, came to work on Thursday, Aug. 16, even though it was a vacation day for her. She came to work to picket.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and then Thursday of that week, over 300 clerical and administrative workers at the University of Illinois – Chicago, members of Local 73 SEIU (Service Employees International Union), had picketed for a new contract. These workers are starting a second year without a contract, and that means a second year without a raise.

Picket signs read, “Fair contract now,” and “UIC get back to the table.” But the picketers, who were mostly Black women and Latinas, also felt discrimination. “I strongly believe that if this department was made up of whites and had even a small percentage of white males that we would not be going through this,” Demetris wrote later in an email to another union activist.

She went on to say, “… and we would not be working in this rundown building either. We are being taken advantage of.”

“They Say Give-Back, We Say Fight Back!”

Local 73 has other issues on the table. For example, stopping the erosion of unionized civil service jobs. Over the past five years, 500 of these jobs have disappeared, replaced by ‘academic professionals,’ a fancy sounding title which means employees with a college degree. These workers then have no job security and can be dismissed when a department has a tight budget.

The state budget has been squeezed by reduced revenues since 2001, and a budget for the current fiscal year still has not been adopted in Springfield, the state capital. However, workers know that UIC has been making record profits in the medical center, as a landlord and from research grants. The top administrators and physicians have seen their salaries grow. Union workers refuse to be left behind.

Also, UIC workers are still bitter that, for 35 years, they have been paid less than the mostly white workers at the downstate Urbana campus. UIC was built in the 1960s, and the Board of Trustees adopted a pay structure for the mostly Black workers at that time that was $1 or $2 less per hour. This continued until Local 73 became strong enough to force the university to grant parity in wages. This was only achieved for most workers in 2002. Food service workers only achieved wage parity this year.

This is in part why workers at the University of Illinois – Chicago are so determined to reject UIC’s proposal for wages that don’t keep up with the cost of living. “We fought long and hard to get here. We are not going backward,” said Local 73 executive board member, Sirlena Perry, a UIC secretary.

#ChicagoIL #News #SEIULocal73 #UniversityOfIllinoisChicago #picket