UIC GEO

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The Grind

  • Upcoming Training: Membership 101

    UIC GEO is pleased to announce the launch of a new training designed to facilitate the creation of a more democratic culture within our union. While GEO’s executive power rests in the membership vote, it can be difficult to leverage this power when a person is unaware of how to use the union as a…

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  • What to Expect on Your Paycheck

    As you likely know, we won a 6% raise in the first year of our contract. However, you won’t see the raise right away in this paycheck. Why not? Although our bargaining team worked hard in August to meet the timeline that HR requested to ensure smooth ratification and implementation, our diligent efforts were not…

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  • Fight the Cuts! Against the University’s attack on Computer Science grad workers

    As the start of the Fall semester neared, many Computer Science graduate workers received devastating news. It is, according to our contract, a violation of our rights to not be informed by our departments what our appointments for a coming semester are with at least forty-five days’ notice. Despite this, the CS department rolled out…

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  • GEO holds back-to-school potluck

    GEO held a back-to-school potluck to start off the new academic year with a bit of community-building. Between twenty and thirty union members stopped by to share a meal with one another and to say hello to people they had not seen since the previous semester. We also spoke with a number of graduate workers…

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  • GEO Members Vote to Ratify Contract

    As of 5pm today, the ratification vote has closed. We are pleased to announce that the membership voted to ratify the contract, with 86% voting yes! The full text of the contract, and a summary of changes, can be found here. It does not officially go into effect until the Board of Trustees ratifies. However,…

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  • TONIGHT! Special Membership Meeting for Contract Ratification Vote

    Hello Graduate Workers, We are now mere hours away from tonight’s Special Membership Meeting and the start of the contract ratification vote. Voting will be open for several days afterwards (until EOD on 8/17), but tonight’s meeting represents a very important part of the democratic process. We have been struggling for this contract for well…

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  • Bargaining Update May-July 2026

    During the final week of our strike (5/11-5/15), we negotiated a Back to Work MOU which allowed us extra time to submit final grades and promised no retaliation. Although administration was unwilling to make a lot of movement during the strike, we have seen a significant change in their attitude since then. Notably, the university…

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  • Contract Bargaining Update (4/27/26-5/7/26)

    We bargained with admin for another 8 hours last week, working to make movement on our remaining six proposals that center on our key demands: job security, wages, healthcare, and international worker support. While we saw some small movement on things like hours of work and appointment terms, much more movement is needed on the…

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  • Contract Bargaining Update (4/17/26-4/24/26)

    GEO and University administration returned to the table for 5 bargaining sessions (4/17, 4/20, 4/21, 4/22, and 4/24) as we approached the end of the semester and a possible strike. After an extremely lackluster session on April 17th where the university gave us a beautiful “admin gets everything they want and graduate workers get even…

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  • Contract Bargaining Update (4/10/26)

    GEO and University administration returned to the table Friday April 10 for our 24th bargaining session overall– and our 3rd with FMCS commissioner Rosa Tiscareno serving as mediator. After the previous discussion and ranking of priorities, we passed 2 packages: One containing Additional Employment, Leaves and Holidays, Discipline and Dismissal, and Grievance Procedure. After discussion…

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