Wednesday, February 1st at 5:30 PM
University YMCA – 1001 S. Wright St. 

The GEO stands in solidarity with Calvin Miller and other people who are targets of police violence or racial profiling in Champaign-Urbana. We call for the immediate creation of a permanent Civilian Review Board to investigate this case and future cases. This Board should not include any members of the police department and should have full investigative and subpoena powers. We condemn racism and race-based excessive force within the Champaign and Urbana police forces, and we demand equal protection and treatment. We recognize that these issues have a long history in this community and require long-term fundamental change. We stand for policies rooted in justice, peace, and equity, rather than excessive force and violent practice. Therefore we call for the following additional actions toward that end:

• The police department must listen to community input as the new police chief is selected.
• Champaign City Council meetings must remain public.
• We insist that Champaign and the University use their resources to fund economic development in poor neighborhoods and communities of color in Champaign-Urbana. In particular, we call for the continued full funding of programs such as the Summer Youth Employment Program to ensure that at least 150 Champaign students ages 14-18 can gain valuable job skills and build connections to employment opportunities in their local community.

This past Monday members of GAU voted to set a strike deadline. If no agreement has been reached by 12:01 AM November 3^rd, union members will walk off the job, commencing one of the largest higher education strikes in history.

Their demands are simple: a contract that guarantees quality, affordable health care to graduate employees, the option to buy coverage for spouses and children, and an end to skyrocketing fees, which have doubled over the past 5 years. Faculty are fighting to preserve tenure (the administration wants the right to lay offtenured faculty due to financial reasons) and civil service employees and those non-tenured faculty are fighting layoffs and furloughs.

It’s not too late to help our fellow graduate employees in Southern Illinois. You can email or call the SIUC administration to settle these contracts today! Help keep grads and faculty in the classrooms and offices and off the picket lines!

Ms. Misty Whittington
Executive Secretary of the Board
Office of the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees
(618) 536-3357

Rita Cheng: rcheng@siu.edu
SIUC Chancellor
(618) 453-2341

Glenn Poshard: poshard@siu.edu
SIU President
(618) 536-3357

Read more at the Inside Higher Ed ‘Quick Takes’ Blog.

Members of the GEO support the Carbondale graduate assistants as they work to find an agreement with the University and consider the need to strike in the face of insufficient bargaining progress. In 2009 the GEO held a successful strike in order to secure tuition waivers, which were a part of the contract that our members were not willing to compromise on.

We also stand in solidarity with the three other unions that are currently in negotiations with the SIU administration (the Association of Civil Service Employees, the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association, and the Faculty Association). We are particularly concerned that the SIU administration is seeking the authority to lay off tenured professors, at the administration’s sole discretion, for financial reasons.  This bypasses and undermines the tenure system. Many of us will become faculty members in the future and feel strongly that the integrity of our universities and the future of our academic careers are dependent on respecting the tenure system.

We know that labor solidarity in education is necessary to protect the future of accessible and quality public higher education.  As university employees and members of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, we send our support for our fellow education workers in the Graduate Assistants United of the National Education Association.

In solidarity,

The members of the UIUC Graduate Employees Organization

You can download the flyer event organizers have created here.

Solidarity!

We stand in solidarity with the National Week of Action in two ways: first, as we enter a bargaining year, our daily, weekly, and monthly organizing efforts share the common goal of increasing access to high quality graduate employment opportunities at a major public University in the United States.  In particular, our organizing efforts around increasing union membership, securing full tuition waivers for graduate employees, and insisting on fair wages and benefits have the goal of making graduate research and employment accessible to minority and working class students in the United States and Illinois.

Second, as we organize around our membership and our contract, our members continue to participate in solidarity actions with local, state, and national unions around the country.  Specifically, we endorse all actions in Champaign-Urbana connected with the AFL-CIO National Week of Action, including the Occupy C-U rally in Champaign on October 15.  We encourage our members to join other local unions and activists to demonstrate for the right of all working people to have access to good jobs.

Check out the Facebook Event page for Occupy CU (10/15) here: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=302100619806388