UIC GEO Strike Will Continue Into Spring Break

Carrie Boike | Posted on March 22, 2019

The UIC Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) went into their 24th bargaining session with the university administration today around 10 a.m. Bargaining lasted an hour, but the administration’s position remained essentially unchanged from yesterday’s unexpected and short-lived meeting.

On Thursday when the UIC negotiation team stated that they were unwilling to move either the General Fee or the International Student Fee, the GEO members and bargaining team walked out of University Hall.

Anne Kirkner, GEO Co-President had time to speak with UIC Radio and gave insight on the negotiation process this morning. The fees that graduate students have to pay to attend UIC were a key point of contention and, according to Kirkner, the GEO has made it clear that they are willing to go down on their wages if the university agrees to waive student fees. However, UIC continued to request that the union compromise on both the wages and the fees.

“They asked us to give them a counter proposal on our wages and we refused to negotiate against ourselves,” Kirkner said. “We don’t think we can come down any further on wages, unless they are willing to wave the fees. But they’re still unwilling to waive any of the General Fees or International Fees.”

The GEO has not accepted this and made the fees a non-negotiable point during these sessions. Kirkner said, “One thing I can tell you is we’re not backing down on the fees.”

Kirkner spoke on the tone of the bargaining, saying that the UIC negotiation team have showed a lack of respect and refuse to provide proof for their claim that a state law prohibited them from waiving or freezing the General Fee. Kirkner is skeptical of the supposed law, saying, “They’re allowed to interpret things however they want to, which makes us think that perhaps this law doesn’t even exist.”

Kirkner revealed that the UIC negotiation team, which is made up of about six people and has changed their lead negotiator four times, tends to talk down to the GEO negotiators and that union members who sit in on the bargaining are often surprised at the lack of respect. On Thursday, the GEO team waited for 15 minutes for them to show up and, according to Kirkner, they have waited 45 minutes to an hour in the past. She pointed out that this is a tactic the UIC negotiation team uses, “We don’t get paid for the time that we’re in the bargaining session, but they do,” she said.

Since these developments, the GEO has stated that they will not be suspending the strike for spring break. “We won’t picket on campus, but we will still continue to withhold our labor,” said Kirkner.

Despite the two bargaining teams’ failure to come to an agreement at the end of the first week of strikes, the UIC campus has predominantly stood in solidarity with its graduate workers. Throughout the week, signs have been posted in windows across campus saying “Undergraduates support gradworkers,” “Lecturers support gradworkers,” and hashtags supporting GEO, including #weseeUIC and #weneedGEO. Kirkner said that a group of undergraduate students dropped off coffee for the picketers this morning.

After a week of little change and inflexibility from UIC, the GEO remains adamant and unified in their goal to improve graduate employee working conditions. Kirkner said they are willing to ratchet up the tension of the disagreement if necessary and stated, “They’re trying to break us, but we’re not gonna give in.”

Email: cboike2@uic.edu, tacker3@uic.edu, mcuart2@uic.edu

IG: carrieboike, mattcuartero

Twitter: @Tom_AckermanDI

Reporting credits to Carrie Boike, Tom Ackerman, Matt Cuartero.