[Peace-discuss] Campus Antiwar Network's letter about the GEO Strike This Monday

[Karen Medina]

[ Campus Antiwar Network's letter about the GEO Strike This Monday ]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Campus Antiwar Network [U of I] <can.uiuc at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 8:14 PM
Subject: GEO Strike This Monday
To:


Hello all,
The Campus Antiwar Network fully supports the upcoming GEO strike as
part of their ongoing struggle to get a fair contract from the
University.  We urge all students to aid the GEO in whatever way they
feel comfortable doing, from respecting the picket line to actually
joining it.  Here are just a few ways that you can help the GEO:
1. Respect the Picket Lines.  This is of course an individual choice -
you have every right to attend class, even in picketed buildings. If
your grades will be put in jeopardy by not attending class, go to
class. Nobody is going to heckle or intimidate you. That being said,
if you don't absolutely have to enter a picketed building, DON'T!
Contact your professors, request that your classes be moved to
non-picketed/off campus locations and put them in touch with the
Campus Faculty Association (campusfacultyassoc at gmail.com) to help find
locations.  If you must enter a picketed building but still want to
show your support of the GEO, head over to their office on the second
floor of the YMCA, and see if they have any free buttons left.  The
more support they see around campus, the better!
2. Join the picket.  Not everyone is comfortable doing this, of
course, but the GEO will welcome - and really appreciate - any
undergrad help on the picket lines.  You can also provide picketers
with goodies - food, coffee, etc. - anything to keep their moral up,
especially because it will likely be raining.
3. Call or write the Administration, and let them know that you
support the GEO; better yet, talk to your parents and see if they will
also call or write.  Parental and alumni pressure is huge in
influencing the Administration.  At the end of this email is a phone
script the GEO wrote if you call them.
4. On Tuesday night in the basement of the YMCA, there will be an open
forum with members of the GEO, including members of the bargaining
team.  This is the perfect opportunity to ask questions of the people
actually in the bargaining room, to find out what is going on.  The
GEO is also voting that night about whether to accept the university's
proposal, so it could be a very interesting evening.  If the strike is
continuing after Tuesday, there will also be strategizing about how
Undergrads can more effectively help the GEO.
Naturally, it's everyone's personal choice about whether to support
the strike or not, so do what you think is right.
Peace and Solidarity,
Pete Rhomberg

PS: Following is the GEO's call for support from Undergrads:
>
> CALL FOR SUPPORT FROM UNDERGRADUATES AND PARENTS

The Graduate Employees' Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, calls for the support
of undergraduate students, parents of undergraduates, and citizens of
Illinois. As a final recourse to secure tuition waivers for graduate
employees, the GEO has authorized a strike against the Board of
Trustees of the University of Illinois to begin at 8am on Monday
morning.

After nearly seven months of negotiations, the GEO believes that we
have provided the administration with every opportunity to avert a
strike and ensure that classes are not disrupted. Our teaching and our
relationships with our students is an incredibly rewarding part of our
work and a top priority. However, we have been given no choice but to
withhold our labor in order to secure tuition waivers. This request
will not increase the University's costs, but it will help maintain
the quality and accessibility of this university. If tuition waivers
were rescinded, graduate education would be even further restricted to
those with access to significant financial resources and our public
university system will have failed in its core mission to guarantee
access to education. We hope that undergraduates and parents of
undergraduates will stand with us in holding the administration
accountable.

Please help us make this strike as short as possible by calling Robert
Easter, Interim Provost/Chancellor of the UIUC campus, and Christopher
Kennedy, the Chair of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. A
script and phone numbers are included below. In addition you can send
an email by visiting:

Provost Easter: http://citizenspeak.org/node/1807 (please consider
adding a personal note to these emails)

Chair of the Board of Trustees Christopher Kennedy:
http://citizenspeak.org/node/1808

Phone Numbers

Robert Easter, Interim Provost

Phone: (217) 244-4545

Christopher G. Kennedy, University of Illinois Board of Trustees
Chair, President MMPI

Phone: (312) 527-7890 x7890

Phone Script:

-Ask for Robert Easter or Christopher Kennedy. If they are not
available, ask to leave a message.

- Introduce yourself and any affiliation with the University
(especially if you are a current student, an alumnus, the parent of a
student, or a faculty/staff member).

- I support the GEO and urge you to call off the strike by securing
tuition waivers for graduate employees.

- Tuition waivers ensure the quality and competitiveness of the U of I
and ensure that graduate education at the University of Illinois is
accessible.

Thank you for your support. Please visit www.uigeo.org for the most up
to date information on the bargaining process and the strike.

--
University of Illinois Campus Antiwar Network
http://www.campusantiwar.net/
http://uiuccan.blogspot.com/



-- 
karen medina
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
"In this universe, we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and
the ability to ask questions." (Mary Oliver, American poet)