UIS’ striking tenure/tenure-track professors spent their sixth day on the picket line Wednesday as the union and administration met for 4 1/2 more hours in an attempt to hammer out a deal that has remained elusive for 11 months.
Neither side on Wednesday announced any significant progress made. Tentative agreements on two issues were previously reached between the union and the administration, one on April 4 and the other on April 7. The next bargaining meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 9.
UIS United Faculty, the professors’ union, issued an update Wednesday indicating that the top three contested issues remain increases to faculty salaries, protection from AI surveillance and release time for union leadership. Union release time refers to giving union leadership paid time off to conduct union business.
While union members said that minor progress had been made in negotiations for higher pay, the union and the administration have yet to agree on an amount. According to the University’s bargaining update website, the union is asking for raises that would amount to about 3% per year over a three-year period. The University is countering with a 0.5% annual increase plus a flat $480 in the first year followed by at least 1% raises in the second and third years of the deal.
The University maintains that its offers reflect the financial limitations of the institution. Union members criticize the administration’s offers, citing the more substantial raises that the Chancellor and other administrators have received.
Striking faculty and students took to the sidewalks Wednesday to chalk messages on the quad and around the colonnade. These messages included union slogans, such as “Fair Contract Now,” and notes from students, like “Students support faculty.”
There were also messages criticizing UIS Chancellor Janet Gooch. A large message on the quad written in block letters read: “Get Gooch Gone.” Another message near the Public Affairs Center stated: “Gooch Got To Go !!! (she sucks).”
A variety of speakers joined striking faculty and students on the picket lines for day six of the work stoppage. Another legislator, state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Champaign, expressed her support for United Faculty. The president of the University of Illinois Chicago faculty union, Aaron Krall, also spoke in solidarity with striking UIS union members.
Members of the UIS Support Staff Union attended the rally to give speeches to striking faculty and to talk about their own negotiations with the UIS administration. The UIS Support Staff union, which represents building maintenance, food service workers office administrators, has been in negotiations for more than 10 months and voted to authorize a strike in March at the same time as United Faculty.
UIS Support Staff have not started a strike. Their latest negotiating session with administration was April 7. According to the UIS collective bargaining page, the meeting ended without a confirmation of the next negotiating date.
Higher pay is also one of the Support Staff Union’s major demands.
Earlier this week, service and support employees at Illinois State University (ISU) in Normal, who have been in negotiations for almost a year, gave the president of ISU a deadline to reach an agreement. That deadline expired Wednesday, and some union members began a strike.
