Graduate Employees union strike begins today, April 27

Dear Campus Community,

The UIC Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), the union representing over 2,000 graduate, research and teaching assistants and certain visiting teaching associates in collective bargaining negotiations, is on strike effective today.

The university is committed to fully continuing normal operations during this work stoppage. Students and parents can be assured that educational objectives will be fulfilled, and grades will not be affected. All other members of the university community are expected to continue all normal operations, including attending or teaching classes.

We believe that this work stoppage is not in the best interest of the university or our students. However, UIC fully respects the rights of its employees under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act and other applicable laws. GEO members:

• have the right to picket and demonstrate peacefully
• have the right to work or to strike
• who work and do not strike will continue to be paid
• who do not work will not be paid during the strike

To date, the university has participated in more than 29 negotiating sessions over the past year, including six conducted under the guidance of an independent federal mediator, and has reached a tentative agreement with the GEO on 20 of 27 items.

The bargaining teams are planning to meet this week. Key outstanding issues include wages and health care costs. We hope to make headway on the key outstanding economic issues, including wages where the university is offering a 2% raise in year one and the campus wage salary program in year two and year three of the contract, while the union is demanding a 57% raise in year one and a 5% increase in year two and year three of the contract.

We sincerely value the contributions made by our graduate employees and visiting teaching associates to our academic mission. We remain optimistic that we will, together, reach a collective bargaining agreement that is fair and beneficial for all involved.

The university has created a website, geobargaining.uic.edu, to inform our campus community, to answer questions related to the strike and to share detailed information about the most recent university and union proposals. We will continue to provide timely updates to our campus community as negotiations continue.

Sincerely,

Marie Lynn Miranda, PhD
Chancellor

Karen Colley, PhD
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Robert Barish, MD, MBA
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs

Keino Robinson, JD, MPP
Director of Labor and Employee Relations

For more information, please contact:
Office of the Chancellor
[email protected]