12 Mar Member Meeting, Grad Picket, School Strikes
- UICUF Member Meeting 3/16 at Hull House: Join us for our Spring Member Meeting on Wed 3/16, 3-4:30pm at Hull House or remotely via zoom. Members should have received a zoom link to participate via email.
- Grad Worker Info Picket: Support our grad worker colleagues by joining them for their informational picket regarding their own bargaining demands for a fair contract, immediately before the meeting, 1-3pm in front of Student Center East on Halsted.
- Public School Strikes Near Chicago: Proviso and Patton school district employees are currently on strike for a fair contract. Please support them by donating to the strike fund!
Dear Colleagues,
Our Spring Member Meeting is less than a week away! We will be holding the meeting both in-person at the Jane Addams Hull House, and remotely via zoom. Please display your full name so we can verify your membership when you log in. All members are highly encouraged to attend, and non-members can join at the door. Every effort will be made to ensure both methods of participation are fully enabled and interactive.
Our agenda for the meeting will include:
- A remembrance for our late President, Janet Smith
- Union leadership elections
- A report on bargaining from our grad worker colleagues, UIC GEO
- Presentation of the full bargaining team and platform
We will end the meeting with a march at 4:30pm to the Chancellor’s Office to present our demand to bargain. This is the step which formally initiates the bargaining process with the administration, and the more members we can have join us, the better.
UIC GEO Information Picket
As we’ve reported in recent weeks, our colleagues in the Graduate Employees Organization are also bargaining for a fair contract. Just this week, they began the mediation process, with significant distance between their positions and those of the administration on several key articles, like pay, fee elimination, protections for survivors, and 9-month appointments. They will be holding an information picket outside of Student Center East on Halsted from 1-3pm, immediately before our meeting, and we hope you will wear your UICUF t-shirts and take some time to join the picket before coming to the member meeting. We share many of the same issues and concerns, so supporting their negotiations for a fair contract will show the administration that we stand united where it really matters.
Active Strikes Near Chicago
At the time of this writing, there are two active educator strikes going on in the region. Patton School workers and Proviso workers are both picketing for a fair contract. You can support either or both of them by donating through the IFT Strike Fund, and you can follow Proviso’s efforts via their facebook page. Please support our fellow educators any way you can!
Sincerely,
UIC United Faculty
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