[Peace] Fwd: GEO Press Release

[Brian Dolinar]

FOR THE FIRST TIME, MAJOR STUDENT UNION AT UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
OVERWHELMINGLY VOTES TO AUTHORIZE A STRIKE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FOR THE FIRST TIME, MAJOR STUDENT UNION AT UNIVERSITY
OF ILLINOIS OVERWHELMINGLY VOTES TO AUTHORIZE A STRIKE

GRADUATE EMPLOYEES’ ORGANIZATION REPRESENTS ONE OF LARGEST LOCAL HIGHER
EDUCATION BARGAINING UNITS IN THE UNITED STATES

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS (November 7): On Monday, November 9th, the
Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will hold a press conference at 1:00 pm at 1001 S.
Wright Street in Champaign, IL to announce the results of its strike
authorization vote.

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 Employee’s 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 (TAs and GAs) on the UIUC campus.  With over 2600 GEO members,
and 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 TAs and
GAs. 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 August 11th, 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 layoff 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 FY 2010 budget
request, this is the result of long standing deficiencies in state level
budget prioritization and not a sudden result of the recent national
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 applicants.  Another $400,000
went to the attorneys who represented the University before the Governor’s
investigative committee, and another $550,000 to new faculty appointments
for the former President and Chancellor.  In this context, the GEO finds it
hard to trust the UIUC administration when it argues that there is not
enough money to provide a living wage.  From the GEO’s perspective, it
appears that budget priorities are simply out of place.  When campus
revenues rose by 7% in FY 2009, only 0.8% ($2.7 million) went to
undergraduate instruction.  Meanwhile, the Chief Information Officer’s
budget rose by 10.9 percent ($1.6 million), and the Division of
Intercollegiate Athletics budget increased 6.2 percent ($4.1 million).

GEO bargaining unit members teach 23.1% of all undergraduate course hours at
UIUC, and perform comparably to faculty in official student evaluations of
instructor performance as measured by the University of Illinois’ Center for
Teaching Excellence.   Yet our salaries draw only 6.5% of state funding,
including salaries for GAs and Research Assistants, who don’t teach.  By
contrast, faculty salaries draw over 55% of the University budget.  Graduate
employee labor is vital to the fiscally efficient provision of the
University’s core service, academic instruction. Should graduate employee
salaries be set to a living wage, the University would still have a large
pool of inexpensive and high quality instructional and administrative labor.

GEO members have been working hard to avoid a strike.  Hundreds of GEO
members have participated in three major rallies, and 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 November 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 November 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.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Peter Campbell, GEO Communications Officer,
odell.campbell at gmail.com, 253-222-5861, or the GEO office at geo at uigeo.org,
217-344-8283, 1001 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL, 61820.  Information
about the GEO can also be found on our website at www.uigeo.org.

###

-- 
Peter Campbell
Teaching Assistant
Department of Communication
Department of Gender and Women's Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign



-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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