The membership of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has voted to strike. This means as of midnight tonight the Building Service Workers (BSWs) and Food Service Workers (FSWs) are on strike.
GEO will be picketing in solidarity with SEIU at the Illini Union. Starting at 9 am tomorrow morning, you can join the picket line at the Illini Union–we will have signs ready for you!
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is voting this weekend on whether to go on strike, and a possible strike could occur as soon as Monday. These are the workers who clean the buildings on campus, prepare and serve food to students, and provide essential services such as snow removal on campus steps and sidewalks.
Why is SEIU Considering a Strike?
The SEIU bargaining team has been negotiating for a new contract since last spring. Despite reasonable proposals and significant concessions by the union regarding wages, the administration’s most recent proposal would continue to set wages well-below inflation. This is a particular hardship, since many of these workers are amongst the lowest-paid workers on this campus. In addition, many of the food-service employees annually undergo long layoffs, making it necessary for them to find second jobs to make ends meet. The top 28 University of Illinois administrators received an average 5.86 percent wage increase over the past year–that’s over 5 percent added on to their six figure salaries. Yet they cannot find the money to provide basic cost-of-living raises for some of the most vulnerable workers on this campus.
What does a strike mean for TAs, GAs, and RAs, on campus?
SEIU wants GEO members to continue to hold their classes and use the buildings and facilities on campus. By using the buildings, and not having anyone to clean them, empty the trash, and take care of the restroom facilities, it will help to demonstrate to the campus how absolutely essential the labor of these workers is to the functioning of our University. If you are asked to participate in cleaning your building during these days, please do not do so.
What is the timing of a SEIU strike, how long will it last?
SEIU is voting about a potential strike this weekend. If they go on strike, it could start as early as this Monday. We will not know anything for sure until Sunday evening, and we will send out a follow-up update as soon as we know. As is the case with all strikes, the duration will be decided as events unfold–so check the GEO Facebook and website for updates.
How can we support SEIU?
1) The number one thing you can do to support SEIU is to sign up to picket with them this Monday and Tuesday (during times when you are not in class or at work on campus). Email stephseawell@gmail.com to sign up for time(s) during these two days. You will be assigned a building to picket, and as much as possible you will be with other GEO members so there will be familiar faces while you walk the lines. SEIU has stood with GEO when we went on strike in 2009, often picketing with us after they had worked long shifts at their own jobs. Now is our chance to stand with them.
2) On Tuesday, starting at Noon, GEO will be sponsoring a ‘bike picket’ in support of SEIU. Bring your bike to the campus YMCA, where we will decorate our bikes (and ourselves) in SEIU’s colors of purple and yellow. We will then bike around campus to the various picket sites, making noise with kazoos and generally drawing attention of students to the strike. This is your chance to support SEIU and be a little bit zany in the process. You can also sign up for this event by emailing stephseawell@gmail.com.
3) The Campus Faculty Association is holding a food drive in support of SEIU. If the union goes on strike, the loss of wages will have signifiant impact on these workers, and this food drive will help them meet the basic needs of their families. You can bring dry and canned goods to a drop off box located at the first floor of the campus YMCA.
4) You can also express your support by posting SEIU posters on doors and bulletin-boards, and wearing yellow and purple clothes and ribbons while you are on campus. Starting Monday at 10 am, you can stop by the GEO office at the YMCA to pick up posters and ribbons. While there pick up some for your friends too!
The strength of labor on this campus rests in our solidarity with one another.
Members of the GEO Solidarity Committee, currently an Ad Hoc Committee, are proposing a Solidarity Amendment to the GEO constitution. The proposed amendment would amplify the mission of the GEO to stand in solidarity with social justice and workers’ rights issues, and create a constitutionally-mandated
Amend Article IX, “Committees,” as follows:
a. add
“F. Solidarity Committee
The General Membership and Constitution of the GEO recognize that active cooperation between the GEO, other unions, and groups engaged in the struggle for social justice is vital to the organizing mission of the Union and the welfare of its community.
1. The primary responsibilities of the Solidarity Committee are to: engage in activities and seek out opportunities to promote the social justice mission of the GEO; determine the allocation of “solidarity” funds as approved by the General Membership in GEO fiscal year budgets and in accordance with the constitutional objectives of the GEO; work with the Coordinating Committee, the Stewards Council, and the general membership on endorsements; work with the Steward’s Council and Coordinating Committee to ensure that the GEO maintains active and mutually supportive relationships with local, state, national and international labor organizations; and to generally engage in activities to promote the social justice mission of the GEO in cooperation with and support of local, state, national, and international struggles for social justice, including but not limited to economic, racial, gender, and sexual justice.
2. The Solidarity Officer shall chair the Solidarity Committee.
3. The other members shall be appointed by the Coordinating Committee, subject to approval by the Steward’s Council. Terms of appointment shall be as determined by the Stewards Council.
4. A quorum of four Solidarity Committee members who are also members of the GEO is necessary to: allocate “solidarity” funds as approved by the General Membership in GEO fiscal year budgets; write Solidarity Committee by-laws.
5. The Solidarity Committee may write its own bylaws to govern its internal operations.
b. change current sections “F”, “G”, and “H” to sections “G”, “H”, and add section “I”
Amendment 2:
Amend Article VII: Officers, as follows: change ”the officers of the GEO shall consist of two Co-Presidents, a Treasurer, a Communications Officer, a Grievance Officer and three Officers-at-Large”to
“the officers of the GEO shall consist of two Co-Presidents, a Treasurer, a Communications Officer, a Grievance Officer, a Solidarity Officer, and up to three Officers-at-Large.”
For Immediate Release – December 7, 2012
Champaign, IL – The members of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) from the campus of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign overwhelmingly voted by more than 95 percent to ratify a new contract.
The new contract will protect tuition waivers at their current levels for all members of the bargaining unit. Tuition waiver protection was consistently the most important issue for GEO members during negotiations. Tuition waivers are how universities, like Illinois, bring the best graduate student teachers to campus.
In addition, in a side agreement to the contract, the university administration has agreed to abide by the recent Illinois Education Labor Relations Board decision regarding violations of the 2009-2012 contract concerning tuition waivers. The administration will repay affected assistants in the College of Fine and Applied Arts that were unfairly charged a portion of their tuition starting in 2010. The administration will also pay seven percent interest to each member in compliance with the ruling. The union is currently in the process of compiling a list of affected members.
The term of the new contract will be five years. During that time the increase to the minimum wage will be 2.5 percent during the first two years of the contract, and then will be 1.5 percent for years three, four and five. Approximately 40 percent of GEO members make the minimum.
The annual raise for the entire bargaining unit will be 2.5 percent during the first year of the contract, and then will be set by the Campus Wage Program thereafter.
The annual percentage of the members’ health care fee paid by the Administration will increase from 75 percent, where it was set during the last contract, to 80 percent during the life of this agreement.
The contract also marked significant gains for access and equality for GEO members. The ability to file a grievance in the case of supervisor harassment was added to the contract. So was the requirement to provide accommodations for nursing mothers, in compliance with Illinois state law. The bereavement leave section retains domestic partners (including same-sex and opposite-sex partners) and also updates the contract to include Civil Unions to provide time off in the event of the death of a member’s partner.
The GEO is a member of the IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO, and represents more than 2,400 Teaching Assistants and Graduate Assistants that teach more than 20 percent of all instruction hours on campus. For more information, please contact Stephanie Seawell, at 217-722-7544 or stephseawell@gmail.com or www.uigeo.org
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The GEO Contract Ratification Vote will begin at the General Membership Meeting
Tuesday December 4th, 5:30 at Wesley Church (corner of Goodwin and Green in Urbana)
Last Tuesday, the GEO signed a tentative agreement contract with the administration. That evening there was a GMM to discuss this decision with the membership. The next step is to hold a ratification vote at a GMM and continue on-campus voting for two days. At this GMM we will discuss the tentative agreements and the GEO bargaining team will be there to answer your questions and concerns. We will also discuss the ramifications of voting for or against these tentative agreements. For more information see the summary at the bottom of this email. There will be an open forum for discussion and debate. There will be also copies of the tentative agreements for you to read for yourself.
The following voting stations will be available on Wednesday (5th) and Thursday (6th) from 9 am until 5 pm.
Krannert Center-Near “Stage 5″ (500 South Goodwin Avenue)
University YMCA (1001 S Wright Street)
Seibel Center (201 N Goodwin)
The GEO’s bargaining team reached a tentative agreement today on all outstanding issues in contract negotiations with the administration. The membership will now have a chance to ratify the contract. For information about the specifics of the agreement and the voting process come to the General Membership Meeting tonight at 5:30 at Wesley Church at the intersection of Green and Matthews.
Today the GEO held a Unity at the Union work-in. More than 100 members, undergrads, faculty and other campus community workers attended the event, and there are still GEO members at the Illini Union now!
At 1 pm we marched to Levis Faculty center for the bargaining session. The GEO bargaining team gave the administration a comprehensive proposal on the issues left on the bargaining table–healthcare, wages and tuition waiver security.
The rest of the meeting was spent in caucus as the administration considered our proposal. At the end of the session the administration indicated they were working on a response to our proposal that they would deliver at the bargaining session scheduled at 8:30 am tomorrow, Tuesday November 27, at Levis Faculty Center.
Several of our members who attended the Unity at the Union event and witnessed bargaining have decided to stay overnight at the Illini Union, even after it closes at midnight. We have made the decision to stay at the Illini Union, the center of campus community life at this University, with the request that administration meet us tomorrow with a proposal that can settle the issue of tuition waivers.
The GEO took a strike authorization vote that overwhelmingly passed by nearly 87%. Before we move on the option of calling a strike at the end of the semester, that has the potential to very be disruptive to the submission of grades and holding of final exams, we believe the GEO should try ALL options to settle this contract.
Many members of the GEO will be at the Illini Union throughout this evening. The Stewards Council will meet here at 7 pm.
A small group who plans to stay, in a symbolic act of Civil Disobedience, do so in the hopes that the administration will use tomorrow’s bargaining session to conclude this negotiation in a way that protects tuition waivers, secures the future labor of graduate assistants and teaching assistants on this campus, and ensures the quality public education that should be expected at this land grant institution.
We invite ANY GEO member who wants to join us to come to the Illini Union. We invite any GEO member with questions to stop by any time this evening.
It is clear the University is ready to make movement at the bargaining table. That movement is because of the GEO members who showed up, took the strike authorization vote, stayed at the Illini Union all day today, and attended the bargaining session. The time for GEO members to act is NOW. Come to the bargaining session tomorrow at 8:30 am. Show your support of the bargaining team. It is our most important bargaining session of the year.
In Solidarity and Great Hope for Tomorrow.
The members at the Illini Union
Click here to download the full (16-page) IELRB document.
Over fall break the elected Strike Committee met three times for a total of more than 12 hours to discuss plans for a potential work action. Currently the plan is to await the next two scheduled bargaining sessions with the administration Monday, November 26, 1-5 pm, and Tuesday, November 27, 8:30 am-Noon before making any decisions about the calling of a strike.
We will be holding a General Membership meeting on Tuesday, at 5:30 pm. The focus of this meeting is to provide an update about bargaining and about the timing and scope of a potential strike.
Please remember–as rumors swirl about a potential strike–the BEST way to stay aware of what is happening concerning a potential work action is to attend the bargaining sessions, attend the GMM, talk to the Steward in your department, check the GEO website, and email any questions you might have to geo@uigeo.org.
The GEO will be holding a MAJOR work-in at the union all day on Monday! Support your bargaining team during the most important bargaining session of the year:
9 am – 12:50 pm | Bring your work to the union. Grade, hold office hours, prepare your lesson plans, offer tutoring in your subject before finals!
12:50 pm | March to Levis Faculty Center to witness bargaining.
1 -5 pm | Witness bargaining at Levis Faculty Center.
THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT OF THE DAY. Come by even if you can only stay for a little while. See bargaining for yourself!
5-11 pm | Amass back at the union to continue the work-in and hear an update about bargaining at 8 pm.
8 am – Noon | Come back to the Union. Bring your work to the union. Grade, hold office hours, prepare your lesson plans, offer tutoring in your subject before finals! 8:30 am – Noon | Witness bargaining at Levis Faculty Center
5:30 pm | General Membership Meeting will be held at the Wesley United Methodist Church on the corner on the Goodwin and Green. Childcare will be provided. The focus of this meeting is to provide an update about bargaining and about the timing and scope of a potential strike.
Champaign, IL – November 16, 2012: The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) from the campus of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Strike Authorization Vote passed by a wide majority 86.7%.
This vote authorizes the formation of a 23 person Strike Committee. The Strike Committee now has full authority to call a strike. The Committee will work in consultation with GEO membership and the GEO bargaining team, and will hold its first meeting this evening.
This Strike Authorization Vote announcement comes one day after the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board (IELRB) ruled in favor of the GEO regarding violations of their previous contract related to tuition waivers. Tuition waivers are a fundamental part of graduate education at every major university. Waivers are how universities, like the University of Illinois, are able to hire and compete for high quality and diverse graduate students.
These talented employees teach more than 20 percent of all course hours offered at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and more than 36 percent of all Freshman classes. Without waiver protection, many of these teachers would be forced to choose other universities that are committed to quality instruction.
In November 2009, approximately 1,000 GEO members went on strike and successfully won tuition waiver protection in their contract. Nonetheless, a representative of the administration told GEO officials in a meeting held on March 2, 2012 the administration actually sees graduate student tuition as a means to “generate revenue.”
In violation of this contract protection, this University administration began to charge hundreds of dollars of tuition each semester for incoming students in the College of Fine and Applied Arts since the 2010-2011 academic year.
The GEO filed a grievance on the matter which was upheld during arbitration. This University administration challenged the arbitrator’s ruling, and yesterday the IELRB unanimously (5-0) endorsed this ruling.
The Strike Authorization vote also comes after the GEO has met with the Administration for approximately 100 hours more than 20 times since last April. GEO members have been working without a contract since mid-August. The last two sessions with a federal mediator have not garnered agreement on health care, tuition waivers, or wages.
The GEO is a member of the IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO, and represents more than 2,400 Teaching Assistants and Graduate Assistants.
For more information, please contact Stephanie Seawell, at 217-722-7544 or stephseawell@gmail.com. http:/uigeo.org.
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