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The Grind

  • Contract Bargaining Update (4/3/26)

    GEO and the university returned to the table with FMCS Commissioner Rosa Tiscareno serving as mediator on Friday, April 3. This session was largely spent with the mediator discussing tactics to get many of the outstanding articled TA’d, so we may focus on our key demands. To facilitate this, the bargaining committee ranked our priorities…

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  • Contract Bargaining Update (3/20/26)

    GEO returned to the table Friday March 20 after a long wait to accommodate the administration’s schedule. This was our first session with Commissioner Rosa Tiscareno from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) serving as a mediator. This meant a large amount of the sessions was going over expectations and the commissioner speaking with…

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  • 2/27/26 Bargaining Update

    GEO and the university returned to the table Friday, February 27th for our 21st bargaining session. After the final details regarding requesting mediation were ironed out, several proposals were exchanged. GEO passed back: The University’s bargaining team passed: GEO has now returned our major economic demands after the insulting response to our initial proposals. We…

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  • Meet the Grads Standing Up to Admin’s Crackdown

    Ever since UIC first announced the graduate hiring freeze at the outset of bargaining in Spring 2025, graduate employees have noticed increasing workloads and tightening supervision practices–despite the union’s warning to UIC admin to bargain in good faith. But graduate workers haven’t taken these new austerity policies sitting down. Across campus, workers are stepping up…

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  • 2/13/26 Bargaining Update

    UIC and GEO returned to the table last Friday, February 13. In line with the proposal passed at the Special Membership Meeting last month, we formally requested mediation at this session. Mediation involves bringing in a third party that tries to help us communicate with UIC and explore solutions to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.…

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  • 1/29/26 Bargaining Update

    GEO and the university returned to the table on Thursday, January 29 for our 19th session. The university passed back: Though we were unable to get hourly graduate workers and fellows added to the bargaining unit at the table, this does not by any means mean we don’t intend to fight to get them added.…

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  • 12/5/2025 – Wages update!

    We are not paid enough to do our work. You know it. We know it. We feel it in our anxiety when our monthly utility bills loom. We feel it in our perpetual stress managing rent and groceries alongside research and instruction. We feel it trying to take care of our kids, our parents, and…

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  • 10/21/2025 Bargaining Update

    Bargaining resumed Tuesday, October 21st. GEO passed proposals for No Strike/No Lockout and Recognition. The No Strike/No Lockout clause is a legally required section which prevents workers from striking–but as our agreement has expired, passing this proposal does not stop GEO from going on strike during bargaining. With the Recognition proposal, we are fighting to…

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  • 9/24/2025 Bargaining Update

    9/12 In this session, we passed Health and Safety (with provisions for providing respirators, hand sanitizer, and air filters), Additional Employment (with provisions for grad workers to use materials created by them for outside employment), Training (with added language about trainings on dealing with federal law enforcement), and Appointment Terms (with several changes including language…

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  • Statement Against Repression in Higher Education

    Over the past few weeks, we have seen a further rise in political repression and backlash against higher education across the country. Senior lecturers like Melissa McCoul at Texas A&M have been fired for saying there are more than two genders in the classroom, tenured professors like Thomas Alter at Texas State have been fired…

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