On Friday, GEO started off the session by passing Articles IX (Union Rights), XXI (Discipline and Dismissal), and VIII (Hours of Work) yet again. For Union Rights, we held the line in demanding UIC provide us with office locations for all graduate assistants. Without knowing where our coworkers even are, we are severely hindered in organizing ourselves. We also changed wording to expand our rights to post union information without UIC approval. UIC and GEO have gone back and forth on these two issues multiple times, but in a surprisingly positive turn, UIC agreed to this proposal, and both sides signed the TA (tentative agreement). For Discipline and Dismissal, both sides are close to agreement. GEO agreed to language proposed by UIC that the contractual disciplinary process may not apply to an assistant’s academic performance, but we also added in language to protect workers’ right to union representation even if that language is not respected. For Hours of Work, we agreed to UIC’s proposed language that assistants should generally not be required to work more than 8 hours in a day or after 10pm, so once UIC signs that article will be TA’d as well.
Next, UIC passed Article X (Employee Rights) and Article XV (Leaves and Holidays) back to us. For Employee Rights, they are still refusing to commit to providing access technologies to assistants or give additional assistants a technology stipend. We are hoping to find a way to specify what we mean by access technologies so that they can agree. For Leaves and Holidays, they again refused to give RAs extra personal days, again saying that they don’t think it makes sense to give some workers benefits that other workers don’t get. We again explained how RA and TA/GA duties are very different, and that many RAs are in extreme need of time off, and they at least indicated that they agree that the duties are very different.
After time in caucus, GEO passed Article XV (Leaves and Holidays), Article XII (Wages), and Article XIII (Health Care). For Leaves and Holidays, we maintained our demand of 6 personal days per semester for all RAs. For Wages, we let UIC know that ratification bonuses are not unprecedented — in fact the opposite is true. A one-time ratification bonus is an extremely reasonable thing to ask for, and we are still demanding $10K for each graduate worker who has been an RA at any point since the RA campaign began in Fall 2022. For Health Care, we cleaned up the language to just apply to Spring and Summer 2025, but we are still asking for the CampusCare fee to be waived for all assistants. For such a poor health benefit (not even a real health insurance), if some graduate workers get it for free, we all should.
As long as RAs are willing to fight for more, the Bargaining Committee will hold the line and keep advocating. Join us at the next session November 26 2-4pm. If you have ideas about proposals or strategy, send us an email or consider joining the Organizing Committee. For access to a spreadsheet containing the most recent passes from each side and our drafting docs, email egcairncross@gmail.com. Finally, mark your calendars for the General Membership Meeting 6pm December 4, where we’ll collectively decide on goals and strategy to close out this campaign!
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