The UIS faculty union, UPI Local 4100/UIS United Faculty, and the UIS Support Staff Union voted on Thursday March 19 to authorize a strike. This decision comes in the wake of ten months of contract negotiations with the University of Illinois in Springfield. UPI Local 4100 held voting hours in the Student Union on March 17, 18, and 19, which culminated in a rally on Thursday outside the Student Union while the University of Illinois Board of Trustees held a meeting inside the building.

“We are out here today at this rally because ten months of negotiations is too much. We are ready to say, enough is enough. We want the administration to know that we’re here and that we’re serious. We have a number of proposals that we are willing to work with them on,” said Dathan Powell, Associate Professor of Art, Music, and Theater and president of the UIS United Faculty tenure-track faculty union.

The UIS Support Staff union, which has also been in contract negotiations for ten months, also passed a strike authorization vote and participated in Thursday’s rally. The two unions gathered together on the North Patio of the Student Union to march and chant outside the building where the U of I Board of Trustees was meeting.

“We are here today on a mission to get better funding for us. The U of I Board of Trustees is meeting here today inside the Student Union, and we are trying to get into their line of vision and maybe wake them up,” said Thomas Gebhardt, UPI Support Staff President and Building Service Worker Forman.

A breakdown in negotiations

A strike authorization vote does not mean faculty have initiated a strike. It gives the union’s bargaining team the authority to call for a strike no earlier than March 30.

“This vote is not a strike vote, and it is followed by a ‘cooling off’ period in which our bargaining team hopes to meet the administration’s team at the table and negotiate in good faith to settle the contract,” Powell said.

This vote shows that both unions feel strongly about the lack of progress made in negotiations over the last ten months. Voting to authorize a strike is an escalation tactic designed to apply more pressure during contract negotiations and to signal to employers the seriousness of a union’s demands.

The University does not share the unions’ sentiments about the state of negotiations and feels the strike vote is unnecessary. Blake Wood, Director of Media Strategy at UIS, stressed the University’s financial limitations and the multiple proposals it has submitted during the negotiation process.

“From the University’s perspective, a strike is not warranted. The University has presented proposals that represent a fair contract given the University’s fiscal constraints,” Wood said.

The UIS campus came close to witnessing a faculty strike last Spring, when the UIS full-time nontenure-track faculty union passed a strike authorization vote. The union and the University reached an agreement on March 19, 2025, before a strike was officially called. The nontenure-track faculty union works under a separate contract from the tenured/tenure-track faculty presently in negotiations.

The current strike authorization vote falls into what Powell said is a pattern that results from the University’s unwillingness to meet the union’s demands.

“The playbook from the U of I seems to be to force its workers into this position. The nontenure-track faculty found themselves having to authorize a strike in March 2025 in order to have their negotiations move forward,” Powell said.

Unmet demands

Both United Faculty and the Support Staff union at UIS acknowledge that the University has submitted multiple proposals during negotiations, but they feel these proposals do not adequately address union members’ concerns and demands.

In an open letter to UIS students released by UIS United Faculty, and published in the UIS Observer, the union states that issues of central concern have gone unmet. According to the letter, these issues include, increase in pay, anti-bullying measures, gender-neutral bathrooms, limiting the use of artificial intelligence to “replace or surveil faculty,” and allowing faculty to have a voice in the “review of elimination of academic programs.”

At the rally on Thursday, Gerhardt outlined some of the Staff Union’s demands that the University has rejected, such as not having to come in to work on snow days.

“We asked for snow days. We have to be here when campus is closed and there are no classes, we still have to be here. We have to risk our lives, our health, our safety, our automobiles to get here when nobody else is here,” Gerhardt said.

A major grievance from both unions is that pay has not increased to keep up with inflation and rising costs of living.

“They have proposed compensation that fails to recognize years of neglecting to keep up with inflation and the cost of living. And they have made proposals that take away benefits and rights earned by the faculty in previous negotiations,” Powell said.

“We don’t make enough money to actually earn a living. A lot of us have to work two jobs or live with family just to make ends meet. And that just doesn’t seem right, so we’re out here fighting for a fair wage,” said Allan Bettis, a Budling Service Worker and member of the Staff Union who has worked at UIS for seven years.

The open letter from United Faculty states that the University’s proposals do not include a raise for the current year, “despite every UIS administrator receiving a cost-of-living raise this year.”

The University maintains that it has offered proposals in good faith that work within the bounds of its limited resources.

“UIS values the daily impact our faculty have on students and remains committed to working with the union to reach a fair and fiscally responsible contract that serves the best interests of the entire university community,” Wood said.

Message to students

Both the University and the unions have said they want to avoid a strike, which would not only signal a failure to negotiate a contract, but would also grind campus life to a halt.

“Students need to know that faculty don’t want to strike. They want to be in the classroom teaching. But the strike authorization is the necessary next step towards getting the contract that faculty deserve,” said Powell.

“UIS is committed to supporting students and has plans in place to minimize any impact of a strike,” Wood said.

The open letter from United Faculty states that in the case of a strike, “over 100 UIS professors will stop teaching classes, answering student emails, grading assignments on Canvas, conducting research, and holding office hours.”

Looking forward

According to the UIS collective bargaining webpage, the next negotiation meeting will be held on March 23, 2026. This meeting will consist of representatives from the University, the union bargaining team, and a federal mediator who was first called in on January 23, 2026.

UIS encourages all students with questions about the negotiation process to visit the collective bargaining webpage, which includes a timeline of events and proposals, information about federal mediation, and information about strike authorization votes.

UIS United Faculty encourages students with questions about contract negotiations and the strike authorization vote to attend a “Student and Professor ‘Work-In’” at the Student Union near the high top tables from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 25.