GEO November 12, 2009 Actions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: UIUC GRADUATE EMPLOYEES' ORGANIZATION TO HOLD BARGAINING SESSION WITH UIUC ADMINISTRATION 2:30 PM, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 14 AT WILLARD AIRPORT IN CHAMPAIGN - GEO IS PREPARED TO STRIKE

GEO MEMBERSHIP TO STAGE RALLY FOR A FAIR CONTRACT OUTSIDE OF BARGAINING ROOM

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN (November 14): At 2:30 pm, the bargaining team of the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), American Federation of Teachers/Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 6300, AFL-CIO, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), will meet the UIUC administration bargaining team for bargaining session at Willard Airport in Champaign, IL.  Members of the GEO will be present in the bargaining room, and GEO members will also stage a rally outside of the room in support of the bargaining team's efforts.  Unless significant movement is made on the GEO's core contract issues on Saturday, the strike committee of the GEO is prepared to call a strike to begin as early as Monday morning.

The GEO 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.  Over the course of a three day vote, an overwhelming 92% of participating UIUC GEO members voted last week 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 UIUC GEO a clear mandate to call a strike at any time. 

While the GEO is seeking an increase in the minimum salary to the University of Illinois' (UI) Office of Student Financial Services own estimate of a living wage in Urbana-Champaign, a proposal that represents less than two-tenths of one percent the overall UIUC budget, the decision to authorize a strike is about much more than wages.  The UIUC administration's most regressive proposals concern non-salary issues.  First, the administration claims that UI Board of Trustees Policy protects tuition waivers, but only in-state tuition waivers for GAs (not TAs) are protected, and the administration has moved to drastically reduce tuition waiver coverage in the past.  Tuition waivers are essential to the University of Illinois' mission as a public land grant institution, as they help to ensure that graduate education is truly accessible to all who show merit, regardless of economic background. 

The UIUC administration seeks to characterize tuition waivers as part of compensation, but this is highly misleading, as tuition is not considered in the OSFA's estimate of a living wage.  Many graduate employees do not receive full tuition waivers, and can pay as much as $10,000 for tuition while providing vital instructional labor for the University.  Protecting tuition waivers as they now stand would represent no increased cost to UIUC.  The administration's reluctance to do so is totally contrary to UIUC's stated commitment to not only excellence in education and research, but the ability to provide truly accessible access to education as part of UIUC's mission as a land-grant institution.  

The GEO strike authorization is also in reaction to the UIUC administration's proposed "scope of the agreement" clause, which would prevent the GEO from re-opening bargaining for the entire three year duration of the proposed contract.  This is a highly regressive proposal that seeks to undermine the purpose of union protection for employees, and the UIUC Campus Labor Coalition supports the GEO in refusing to agree to this clause. 

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.

The GEO has been negotiating with UIUC administrators for over six months.  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 administration still seeks to freeze GEO wages, refuse to provide contractual protection for tuition waivers, and take away the GEO's right to re-open bargaining during the contract should the administration make any substantial change in employment conditions. 

GEO members have been working hard to avoid a strike.  Hundreds of GEO members have participated in six major demonstrations, 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 the University of Illinois Faculty Senate passed a resolution of non-retaliation.  Several departments and dozens of faculty have issued public resolutions in support of the GEO, and over a dozen undergraduate representatives of Registered Student Organizations representing hundreds of undergraduate students issued a resolution in support of the GEO's strike authorization.  UIUC union locals represented by the Campus Labor Coalition also publicly support the GEO and the GEO's strike authorization.  

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@gmail.com, 253-222-5861, or the GEO office at geo@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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: UIUC GRADUATE EMPLOYEES' ORGANIZATION TO STRIKE OVER TUITION WAIVER SECURITY

ADMINISTRATION'S PROPOSALS ON ALL OTHER ISSUES, INCLUDING WAGES, DEEMED ACCEPTABLE

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN (November 15): The strike committee of the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), American Federation of Teachers/Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 6300, AFL-CIO, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), has authorized a strike against the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois to begin at 8am on Monday morning. After six hours of negotiation on Saturday afternoon, the GEO and administration bargaining teams managed to reach mutually agreeable terms on all aspects of the GEO contract except tuition waiver security. The administration's refusal to guarantee the continuation of its current tuition waiver practice not only means that the majority of graduate employees could be forced to pay thousands of dollars in additional tuition charges, but also indicates its plans to implement such a change. By making graduate education untenable for all but the most affluent students, the administration is abandoning its responsibility to ensure access to the highest level of public education for all.  This is contrary to the University of Illinois' mission as a public land grant institution.  By calling a strike, the Graduate Employees' Organization is holding the University of Illinois administration accountable to its stated commitment to excellent and accessible higher education.  

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Peter Campbell, GEO Communications Officer, odell.campbell@gmail.com, 253-222-5861, or the GEO office at geo@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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: GEO REFUTES UIUC ADMINISTRATION'S CLAIMS REGARDING CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

TUITION WAIVERS HAVE BEEN A CENTRAL ISSUE SINCE APRIL; ADMINISTRATION REFUSES TO GUARANTEE CONTINUATION OF CURRENT PRACTICE

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN (November 15): The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign administration has released two extremely misleading statements to press outlets regarding ongoing contract negotiations.

The Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), American Federation of Teachers/Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 6300, AFL-CIO, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), rejects the claim that tuition waiver security is an “eleventh hour” addition to the bargaining process. In fact, on the first day of negotiations in April the GEO submitted a comprehensive proposal with language explicitly intended to guarantee that the current tuition waiver structure would not be changed for the duration of the contract. Since that moment the GEO has openly and publicly announced the four “pillars” of its contract platform, including a statement that the GEO seeks a contract "preserving the tuition waivers that allow graduate programs at UIUC to attract and retain the best graduate student employees available."  This statement was included in GEO press releases beginning on May 5.  The GEO would be happy to email or fax documentation proving the administration's "11th hour" claim false .    

More importantly, the administration also claims that they have offered the GEO the full ability to bargain over any change to the tuition waiver policy.  This is NOT the case.  The administration proposal would only allow the GEO to bargain the impact of eliminating in-state tuition waivers.  Most graduate employees receive out of state tuition waivers.  The claim that the administration proposal represents any protection for most tuition waivers on campus is false.    

The administration's proposed side letter states that the “university will bargain the impact of any change by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois to the graduate assistant tuition waiver policy set forth in Article IV, Section 5, of the General Rules Concerning University Organization and Procedures.”  Article IV, Section 5 only guarantees base rate tuition, or in-state tuition waivers. Thus, the administration side letter only promises to bargain the impact of eliminating base-rate tuition waivers.  It does not allow for the GEO to bargain the impact of any other change to current tuition waiver practice, under which most TAs and GAs receive full tuition waivers.  For example, if the administration were to reduce out of state tuition waivers to only cover in-state tuition, the GEO would not have the ability to prevent its members being assessed additional charges of over $13,000 per year. The GEO's proposed side letter would have required the administration to bargain the impact of any change to current tuition waiver practice.*  This was rejected by the University administration.  

In sum, the administration's proposal does not sufficiently protect the ability of the GEO to bargain a change to tuition waiver policy.  The GEO's proposal would not cost the University any additional money.  The fact that the administration rejected the proposal knowing a strike was imminent indicates that it indeed seeks the ability to drastically reduce tuition waivers for graduate employees.  Tuition waivers are standard practice at public research universities throughout the country, and are central to the University of Illinois' mission as a public, land grant institution.  By not agreeing to a zero-cost proposal that would allow the GEO to bargain to protect current tuition waiver practice, the University administration signals a vision of graduate education that is inaccessible to poor and middle income persons.

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. Tuition waivers allow the University of Illinois to enjoy this cheap labor, as it would not have access to a pool of workers able to teach so much for so little without granting tuition waivers.  Again, without protection for tuition waivers, graduate education and graduate employment will only be accessible to the wealthy.  

• Date: Sun 15 Nov 22:53:14 CST 2009
• From: Peter Campbell <odell.campbell@gmail.com> Add To Contacts
• Subject: [geo-stewards] OFFICIAL GEO RESPONSE TO 11/15 PROVOST MASSMAIL - DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
• To: SC <geo-stewards@lists.uigeo.org>

At 10:05 pm, Provost Easter of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign issued a massmail spreading further misinformation about the GEO’s imminent strike.  The GEO will officially respond here – please distribute widely.  Also, our press release at http://www.uigeo.org/2009/11/15/specific-explanation-of-geo-and-admin-tuition-waiver-proposals/ contains a more detailed response to Easter’s misleading claims.

In his email, Easter says that:

“The university community is committed to providing the most competitive tuition waivers possible.Contrary to GEO assertions, the university has no plans to change current
policy on tuition waivers. Tuition waivers are governed by the General
Rules established by the Board of Trustees. The university has assured the
GEO it will bargain the impact of any change to the fee waiver policy in
the unlikely event that a change is proposed.”

As we demonstrate in the press release below, Easter’s claims are misleading at best.  The BOT rules only protect in-state tuition waivers.  If the University is “committed to providing the most competitive tuition waivers possible,” then what possible reason could they have for rejecting the GEO’s proposed side letter on waivers?*  The last contract proposal from the University administration would provide no protection for waivers if the University administration moved to change some or all of out of state waivers to in-state tuition.  Failure to accept the GEO’s much more explicit wording, which would protect tuition waivers as they currently exist, demonstrates a distressing lack of commitment on the part of the University administration to the U of I’s mission as a public, land grant university that provides high quality, acceptable education.

Easter also says that

“We are hopeful that the union members will accept the university’s offer, which represents the best possible package for graduate students within the difficult financial constraints we currently face.”

What Easter fails to mention is that sufficient protection for tuition waivers, the only issue that the GEO will go on strike over, represents zero additional cost to the University administration.

When members of the GEO and their allies walk the picket lines tomorrow morning, they will do so because they refuse to allow this sort of misinformation to sway them from their goal of earning a fair contract and finally holding the administration of the University of Illinois accountable to its duties as the leadership of a public, land grant, Research 1 University.

However, we can't say it much better than Professor Cathy Prendergast, who writes in response to the Provost: 

Provost Easter,

As it stands, TAs in many departments here are already drastically underpaid compared with what other schools in the CIC offer.  For example, one course in freshman composition is calculated to consume 17 hours of a TAs time per week at the University of Wisconsin. At the University of Illinois, that same course, which I direct, is only calculated to consume 13 hours. The real losers here are our undergraduate students.  Why should they accept four hours less per week of instructional time than they would get at Wisconsin? If the University were to tinker with tuition waivers, whether in-state, or out-of-state, thus even further down-grading its support to graduate students, you might as well rename this  East Central University of Illinois, so shattering would be the consequence to the UofI's R1 status. I think the GEO's version of the language on tuition waivers is by far clearer than what the university has proposed, and should be accepted.   Please invest in this university:  Approve the GEO contract.

Sincerely,

Catherine Prendergast
Professor and University Scholar
Director, Undergraduate Rhetoric Program
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

So much for "only wanting a contract that was "as good as previous years". You got EVERYTHING you asked for that was an improvement on anything the GEO has had before - raises, insurance subsidies, maternity leave, you name it, you got it - and now are nitpicking over some "in-state vs. out-of-state" free tution languange BS that always HAS BEEN in the contract in the past and has NEVER been an issue before. You even got them to drop the furlough days that ALL OTHER faculty and staff have to live with! This is DESPICABLE. For as poor as you all claim to be it's amazing that you are willing to lose pay for the days you are striking over piddly crap like this. I hope the UI comes up with a way to deal with this that will end this ridiculous greedy and spoiled behavior once and for all.

We're union strong. Every worker in the United States deserves to be union strong.

Is that "despicable"?

Is that "ridiculous greedy and spoiled"?

No, no, no, and no.

It is our right and the right of every worker.

Get over your brainwashing and join us.

Back in the day, we all heard this same union rhetoric. Today, years later, there are no manufacturing jobs left in America - particularly in the north - they have either been moved overseas, or down south to right-to-work states where people aren't forced to join unions in order to work. Detroit and the rest of the rust belt are dead, and unemployment in this country has topped 10%. That's what you get when "every worker in the United States is union strong". If anyone is brainwashed, it's members of a union who blindly follow the party line at the expense of their own wages to go stand on a picket line in the cold. Believing that strongarming your employer is somehow sticking it to "the man" and Blago and wall Street. is your "union strong" counterculture going to pay you back for the days of lost wages you gave up in the name of "solidarity"? From the posts on this site, it's obvious half of you don't even know what you're really striking over.

And PS - I'm not a spoiled grad student - I work for a living, and there is no union involved. if joining one means losing pay to show my allegiance and having a strained relationship with my employer to show for it, count me out. Somehow, without a union, the people I work with manage to do pretty well for themselves. My job provides health insurance for my family, full benefits and a comfortable wage. It's called working in the real world. Maybe you should try it sometime. Beats standing in the rain asking for a handout.