BARGAINING UPDATES

Bargaining Session #30, April 4, 2019

Today was our 30th bargaining session, the 8th since our strike began. The meeting lasted 8 hours. The progress from yesterday’s session continued today, finally leading to GEO and the university reaching a tentative contract agreement. However, as Dawn explained in an email a few minutes ago, the administration said they couldn’t negotiate or settle on the terms of ending the strike tonight, so therefore we have to remain on strike.

Here is a summary of what was secured for the contract at today’s session:

• A 3-year contract instead of a 4-year contract

• A $2,550 increase to the campus minimum salary over 3 years, the largest raise in GEO history. This includes the current academic year’s raise, which is $815, which will be paid retroactively to anyone currently covered by the GEO contract making the campus minimum (it will appear in our May paycheck).

• Starting next fall, the International Student Fee will be reduced in half, so international grad workers will pay $65 each semester instead of $135

• The planned $50-per-semester increase to the General Fee starting next year will be offset with a $55-per-semester increase to all TAs’ and GAs’ pay, in addition to our regular wage increase, regardless of whether they make the campus minimum. This offset will be front-loaded, paid out in October and February, both next academic year and the following academic year.

• To further offset the economic impact of the General Fee, in academic year 2020-2021, all TAs and GAs will get an additional $150 regardless of whether they make the campus minimum.

• The amount we pay for the cost of Campus Care will be reduced from $295/semester to $240/semester this year (if you already paid, you will be credited the difference in your student account), $250/semester next year, and $260/semester in 2020-21. So we will continue paying less than we currently pay even as the Campus Care fee increases next year.

• For the first time, the university will cover part of the cost of dependent care coverage on Campus Care. The university will cover 20% of the cost of 1 dependent, and 10% for additional dependents.

• Departments with 10 or more TAs, GAs, or any combination thereof can’t deny GEO access to departmental orientations. This way, the union can inform new grad workers of their rights under the contract, tell them about GEO, and ask them to become members to ensure the union remains strong.

These are all in addition to the things GEO has already won in contract language, including but not limited to a requirement that departments will establish written guidelines on appointment decisions by Fall 2020, and new anti-discrimination language to include citizenship/immigration status and arrest record. Also, it’s important to note that there are no concessions from the union on existing contract language– in other words, we only won new rights and protections and didn’t lose anything we previously had.

This is a tentative agreement pending ratification by the membership. Members will have an opportunity to read the full contract and vote on whether to ratify it. We will have more details soon about when and where the vote will take place.

But until we can secure an agreement on ending the strike and allowing us to make up any lost pay, we will remain on strike tomorrow.

Bargaining Session #29, April 4, 2019

Today we met with the administration for our 29th bargaining session, the 7th since the strike began. For the first time, Provost Poser joined the administration’s negotiating team. The session lasted 9 hours.

GEO members completely packed the room, to the point it was standing-room-only and several people had to stand in the hallways. Clearly feeling the pressure of our strike and the packing of the room, the administration finally made some serious movement on the issue of fees. It is important to remember that at UIC, we pay a higher percentage of our salary in fees than grad workers at many other universities. They offered to waive half of the International Student Fee, which would be a big victory for GEO. On the General Fee, both sides had a dialogue about providing fee relief in the form of an increase to our pay. The administration offered to offset the planned $50 increase to the General Fee by paying all TAs and GAs an additional $55 at the beginning of each semester. They also offered to waive any new fee created during the life of the contract, at least until the contract expires.

This is good progress, and absolutely none of it would have happened if we hadn’t been on strike for all this time. We also started having what seemed like a productive discussion on other outstanding issues, including the length of the contract and the GEO’s right to not be turned away from departmental orientations to inform new grad workers of their rights and keep our union strong.

We hoped to continue discussing these issues, as well as wages and healthcare, for the sake of progressing the negotiations. However, the provost framed the administration’s movement on fees as a gift, and told us we would need to accept a 4-year contract, give up on our proposal on access to orientations, give up on our proposal to have the university cover some of the cost of dependent care in Campus Care, give up on our proposal having the university provide the union with an office space, and step down by 7 percent on our most recent wage proposal.

All of this would be in addition to things we’ve already conceded on, including full fee waivers, the ability to opt out of the CTA U-Pass fee, more paid sick days, more paid personal days, more paid parental leave, stronger tuition waiver language, getting compensated for late appointment letters, having an article on academic freedom, and stepping down repeatedly on our wage proposal. We have made numerous concessions over the course of the past 13 months, illustrating our ongoing willingness to negotiate in good faith.

Therefore, the administration’s insistence tonight that we concede even further in exchange for their movement on fees was not considered acceptable to the majority of the many members in the room. We gave them an offer that made significant movement on fees to try to meet the administration in the middle. We accepted the administration’s framework to offset the General Fee through an increase to our pay, stepping down from our earlier stance to have it partially waived. We also gave up on our proposal for the university to provide the union with an office space. In addition, we stepped down on wages by the same dollar amount that they moved up for the life of the contract.

When we gave the administration this offer, several GEO members in the room who are not on the bargaining team gave personal testimony for why we are not prepared to give up on more of our proposals. They also spoke to their concerns with some of the condescending ways the administration interacted with us today. However, we also acknowledged that we made progress in negotiations today and we look forward to continuing to do so. We’re still scheduling our next bargaining session, which will be by the end of this week, as well as planning to support the student walkout on Friday. After today’s progress, we feel there’s the potential for finally resolving this strike soon. At the same time, if we still don’t have a contract by this Saturday, we plan to hand out flyers at UIC’s undergraduate recruitment events this Friday and Saturday. In the meantime, join us on the pickets.

Bargaining Session #28, March 30, 2019

Today was our 28th bargaining session, the sixth since the strike began.

As mentioned in yesterday’s bargaining update, today’s session was proposed to GEO at the last minute, so we agreed to only meet for an hour. The administration told us they still will not consider waiving, capping, or freezing fees, except to offset the planned $50-per-semester increase to the General Fee with a matching increase to the campus minimum wage next year only. They also didn’t offer us any new proposal on wages or healthcare.

We informed them this wasn’t acceptable, and we did not schedule another meeting. Continuing their game of tag over who gave the last proposal, they asked us to stay an extra 15 minutes so they could give us the exact same proposal they gave us yesterday, before leaving. We then emailed them our same proposal from today, reminding them the ball is still in their court so there would be no confusion.

This game of “who handed the last proposal” is juvenile and inane. The reality is that we are on strike and will remain on strike until the administration takes serious action on both fees and wages, and the admins already know this very well. The people who get paid handsome sums of money to run this university have the responsibility and the authority to end this strike by giving us a fair contract, but they simply refuse to do it.

Further, it was recently brought to our attention that the administration is telling department heads to urge faculty to take on the duties of grad workers. This has already resulted in some department heads sending out innocuous-sounding emails over the last couple days asking if there’s anything they can do to support TAs or their students. This is obviously strikebreaking, but the administration is describing it as “serving our undergraduates.” But undergrads have overwhelmingly expressed their support for our strike and have directly asked the chancellor and provost to settle a fair contract. If admins really want to serve the undergraduates, they should start listening to them.

This Monday, April 1st, marks GEO’s return to regular picket lines after spring break (updated logistics document here).  On Monday, we’ll have a rally in the quad at 12 followed by a free performance at 12:15 by striking musicians with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra outside the Science and Engineering Laboratory (SEL).

Everyone should return to the regular shifts they signed up for before we went on strike as well as come out for shifts at any other times they can make it.  This week will be crucial to our success!

In solidarity,

GEO Bargaining Team

Bargaining Session #27, March 29, 2019

Today was our 27th bargaining session, the fifth since the strike began.

At the beginning of the session, the administration still did not have a counter to our proposal on fees or to our proposal on the right of GEO to not be denied access to departmental orientations for new TAs to inform them of their workplace rights. They still demanded that we step down further on our wages proposal, with nothing in return. In an effort to move things forward, we offered to make some movement in exchange for them agreeing to our proposal on access to departmental orientations, since this is a non-economic proposal that wouldn’t cost the university a penny. They rejected this offer.

Then, literally 5 minutes before the session ended, they finally gave us a counter-proposal addressing fees. Their proposal is to create a side letter to the contract saying in academic year 2019-20 only, the planned $50-per-semester increase to the General Fee will be offset with a matching increase to the campus minimum wage. This means that next year only, anyone making the campus minimum would see an extra $50 per semester, presumably in addition to whatever raise we get. The side letter also says that next year only, the university will not increase the cost of the International Student Fee. However, there was already no plan to increase this fee next year that anyone is aware of.

At that same moment we were given this proposal–with 5 minutes left in the session–we were told the admins would be on campus to meet with us tomorrow and expected us to show up, even though these sessions are supposed to be and have always been scheduled by mutual agreement. We’ve held three sessions this week, and only at the last minute today they gave us something on fees and pressured us into coming in on a Saturday to give our counter offer.

After the session ended, the GEO bargaining team put together a package proposal on all the outstanding issues, including fees, wages, and healthcare. On fees, we are still seeking that most of the General Fee and International Student Fee be waived and that any new fees automatically be waived until GEO can negotiate them. On wages, we’re seeking a 24 percent increase by the 2020-2021 academic year, which would still have us making $5,000-$9,000 less than our counterparts at Chicago’s other Research 1 universities. And on healthcare, we’re still seeking a cap on the Campus Care fee and for the university to partially cover the cost of dependent care. For a university that has been throwing around a lot of money on new buildings and huge bonuses for top administrators–a university that claims it wants to be attractive to working-class students, students of color, and international students–we feel this is all very reasonable and doable.

We emailed this proposal to the admins this afternoon, saying they can take a look at it now and we will come in tomorrow to meet for one hour, from 12 to 1, in UH 650, to see if they have any response. We also let them know that in the future we will refuse any sessions proposed in the manner in which this one was proposed. They’ve been playing a game of tag on who hands which proposal last, forcing us to waste our time. But they now have our counter-proposal on all outstanding issues and we will be there for an hour tomorrow in an effort to settle the strike. The ball is in their court.

In solidarity,

GEO Bargaining Team

Bargaining Session #26, March 28, 2019

Today was our 26th bargaining session, the fourth since our strike began.

The administration still did not have a response to the proposal we gave them on Tuesday on waiving and capping fees. We had also given them a proposal on Tuesday on not denying GEO the right to speak at departmental orientations for new TAs to be able to inform new grad workers about their workplace rights and give them an opportunity to join the union, something the administration has previously been opposed to. They did not have a response to this either today.

The federal mediator told us he thinks the administration still has no willingness to have the General Fee or International Student Fee be reduced, capped, or waived in any way. He suggested the admins might only consider offsetting future increases to the General Fee by having a wage raise in the same amount of the increase (which, unlike a waiver, would be taxable because it would be part of our wages), though they have not actually made a proposal to us on this. The members in the bargaining room had a very long caucus discussion about this, trying to think about creative ways to end the stalemate in negotiations, ultimately concluding that we still need meaningful relief on fees.

We will hold another bargaining session tomorrow, 10am to 12pm, in UH 650. By agreeing to so many bargaining sessions but without being willing to change their position, it feels to many of us that the admins are simply trying to waste our time and use up our energy instead of reaching a settlement.

Also, to clarify something mentioned in the last bargaining update: when the police told us on Tuesday we couldn’t bring picket signs into UH, they specifically meant signs on sticks, and we still brought in signs without sticks. There were no police present at today’s session that we could see.

In solidarity,

GEO Bargaining Team

Bargaining Session #2, March 22, 2018

GEO met with the UIC administration today for our second session to bargain a new contract. Once again, GEO members from multiple departments filled the room to show the admins we’re united in wanting a fair contract. We continued discussing the 16 contract articles we’re *not* seeking to change, and the admins have now agreed not to change 13 of them. They offered a counter-proposal trying to make the language around required online training more open-ended. This could be harmful to graduate workers if it means missing a training would lead to discipline. So in response, GEO proposed more careful wording. GEO also brought a new proposal to strengthen the grievance procedure by making it more efficient and effective. These proposals will be further discussed in future sessions, after both sides give them more consideration. The next bargaining session will be Thurs., April 5, 1pm-4pm, in UH 650. As always, GEO members are encouraged to pack the room so everyone has a voice in bargaining! 

Bargaining Session #1, March 01, 2018

GEO met with the UIC administration this afternoon for our first session to bargain a new contract. GEO members from several departments packed the room to show the admins that winning a fair contract matters to us all—so many people came that we needed to bring in extra chairs! Since this was the first session, we discussed the 16 contract articles that we’re *not* seeking to change. These include subjects like union recognition, employee rights, and training. We reached tentative agreements with the admins to not change 9 of those articles. For the articles they want to change, we got them to commit to providing their own counter-proposals at the next session. In other words, we made some very good headway for the first day. The next bargaining session will be Thurs., March 22, 1pm-4pm, in UH 650. GEO members are encouraged to come and show their union pride—because the more members we have in the bargaining room, the more movement we see in negotiations!