On Tuesday, we met with the administration for the 8th session as we continue bargaining for a fair contract for all. If you missed previous bargaining sessions, please find those updates here. We had members speak today, both in caucus and in the session, about why some of the proposals we are still negotiating are very important and very material to our members’ lives, with particular attention paid to increasing paid parental leave. As we start nearing the semester, it becomes incredibly important to show up to bargaining sessions and start organizing the members in your department.
We started off the session on a high note—we finally tentatively agreed to a new Discipline and Dismissal article! We TAed this proposal that hopefully makes the discipline process clearer and follows a positive progressive discipline model, which is very important for protecting the employment of graduate workers.
Next, we asked if the university had a response to our Employee Rights proposal. They said they did and they didn’t. They didn’t necessarily send it back yet with new language but told us that they needed some clarification and that they were willing to see if they could craft language that could work in response to our language not requiring employees to record themselves.They still deemed guaranteed internet access for remote work an impact bargaining issue, even though remote appointments have existed long before the pandemic. GEO passed another proposal on paid leaves and holidays, making significant movement by stepping down from our initial ask of 12 weeks for paid parental leave to 11 weeks, but kept everything else from the last proposal we passed. We again explained that what we are asking for is not unreasonable—asking for 1.5 more sick days per semester during an unprecedented global pandemic is a basic request. When they passed back their counter-proposal, they did make movement towards us that we were happy to see: The university proposed 5 sick days per semester regardless of percentage of appointment. This only happened because we have been advocating for more sick time since the start of the pandemic through impact bargaining and because we have had members show up consistently to bargaining sessions!
We also had a pregnant member come to this bargaining session to bravely voice her concerns about being able to take maternity leave next semester—she explained why the university’s current proposal at a measly 3 weeks is not even close to adequate, particularly if she experiences a C-section or complications during the delivery of her baby. The university’s response? “Best of luck to you” and “UIC supports expectant families,” But, when they came back with a counterproposal on paid leave, they refused to budge from their current 3 weeks of paid parental leave. Even with members telling them they needed more time. Their words ring empty when they continue to refuse to line up with their own UIC policy of 6 weeks—we are not different from other workers in that we also need and deserve many more weeks of parental leave, at the bare minimum keeping up with their own policy.
Overall, we saw some promising movement, but still some frustrating lack of movement from the administration with regards to parental leave, even after hearing from members that this directly impacts. Our caucus room was once again filled with many members voicing their concerns and suggestions with proceeding forward, which helps the bargaining team better draft proposals that reflect what we all want to fight for, together. Our next bargaining session will be on Monday, August 16th, at 11am-1pm Central Time. Please note the different day, and earlier start time! We will send reminders per usual. Thank you, and see you Monday, August 16th!
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