It Was All Bad Faith: Management Refuses to Further Bargain

We found out why management cancelled our bargaining session on Monday, May 18, and it’s because they've attempted to con us.

In another unprecedented move, management is falsely asserting that it has no obligation to bargain with us because we did not issue an “official” demand to bargain within the window provided by the contract, which they erroneously limit to between April 17-May 17, 2026. Management then concludes from this misreading of the contract that they 1) can extend our current contract by one year until August 15, 2027 (we don't know exactly what this would entail), and 2) are not obligated to continue bargaining with us for a new contract.

You can read Associate Director of Labor and Employee Relations Hubert Thompson’s message (only titled with one of our bargaining co-chair’s names, insultingly) here for NTT and here for TT, because management still refuses to see us as one union.

You can access our bargaining chairs’ full response here: it is definitely worth a read.

To be clear, we reject UIC management’s assertion that our contract has automatically renewed, and we expect management to honor its statutory and contractual obligation to bargain in good faith.

Article XXIII. Duration outlines both parties’ obligations in terms of contractual length, negotiating a new contract, and extending the contract past expiration. The article states (in part) that either party has not more than 120 and not fewer than 90 days to “notif[y] the other in writing . . . that it desires to modify [the current contract’s] terms.” Management claims that there are two issues: first, the timing of our demand to bargain, and second, the mode in which we demanded to bargain.

First, management claims we violated the timing by submitting a letter demanding to bargain on February 2. Our bargaining team submitted early as we are well aware of management’s propensity to stretch bargaining far beyond a given contract’s expiration date. In fact, management revealed their position as recently as their April 21 announcement of GEO’s intent to strike: “It is common for bargaining to extend well past the end of a labor contract.” With an earlier start to bargaining, management would have had ample time to negotiate a fair contract in good faith before the end of the current one. It is absolutely not normal to expect employees to work after a contract expires, and we intend to end that precedent.

Second, management claims that regardless of what has transpired at the table and in our inboxes preparing for the table, “neither party has made a Demand to Bargain within that [previously] specified window of time.” Our contract does not contain the phrase “demand to bargain” and nowhere does our contract stipulate how initiation of bargaining should look, other than it being written. If handing over a full contract with completed proposal revisions doesn’t demonstrate a “desire to modify terms” of the existing contract, then what does? We publicly submitted a formal letter because our bargaining team wants all union members to understand what we were fighting for. Additionally, our bargaining team and management have met and engaged in bargaining in multiple ways:
Parties have met at formal bargaining sessions four times with three of those dates being within management’s window.
Parties have scheduled these sessions and have discussed specific ways in which they desire to modify the terms of the contract in writing by email before and during April 17-May 17.
Further, management returned one counterproposal on April 26 and four counterproposals on May 8 – both dates within the window – that contained management’s written desired modifications to current contract language.
Management's refusal to bargain further is a gross attempt at a sneaky gotcha moment and shows blatant disrespect for both faculty bargaining the contract and our entire membership, who expect to be treated like colleagues. Our bargaining team spent four bargaining sessions in good faith at the table, and countless hours away from the table for the past calendar year planning, researching, writing proposals, and strategizing, only for management to take their toys and go home. Last week’s session seemed rather positive and productive, with true negotiation and bargaining, and with both sides demonstrating a willingness to work together on mutual interests. We came to the table in good faith; they are attempting to dodge the table entirely. We came to negotiate in good faith; they are trying to spring a shoddy procedural trap based on a bad faith interpretation of contract language.

Unfortunately, management’s overall strategy is nothing we haven’t seen before: wait out our contract, placating our bargaining team with halfhearted semblances of movement at the table until they finally push us over the edge into a strike. It’s disappointing that management continually tries new tricks instead of putting that energy where it belongs: improving the university. Management is disrespecting our membership who expect a new contract, delivered on time without underhanded games. On management’s part, there is no urgency, only blasé condescension: like a cat toying with a mouse it never intends to eat. Management's actions are disappointing, degrading, and enraging.

But we’re cats that will continue buckling down to keep UIC’s gears turning. We will settle a new contract for our faculty, our university, and our community, and we will not settle for less than we deserve.

What Our Bargaining Team is Doing
It seems to be very early in the process, but it’s time to get angry. The attempted swindle by management demonstrates that their tactics remain unchanged, and so we need to change ours in order to meet the moment.

If UIC management refuses to meet, UICUF will pursue all available remedies, including filing an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. Management should also understand that a refusal to bargain opens the door for faculty to legally engage in an unfair labor practice strike.

What You Can Do
If you feel the need to productively express your concern, disappointment, and anger, consider emailing or calling the following administrators:
Associate Director of Labor and Employee Relations Hubert Thompson: hubertt@uic.edu; (312) 996-5691
Director of Labor and Employee Relations Keino Robinson: keinor@uic.edu; (312) 996-1232
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Mike Stieff: mstieff@uic.edu; (312) 413-3472
Provost Karen Colley: karenc@uic.edu; 312-413-3450
Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda: chancellor@uic.edu or mlmpi@uic.edu; 312-413-3350

As a further step, consider gathering colleagues in your unit and writing a statement denouncing management’s tactics to post on social media and to send to the email addresses above. It’s unfortunate for management to push us towards these types of public statements so early in the process, but solidarity is the bedrock of union work.

And when we fight, we win.
In Solidarity,

The UIC UF Bargaining team

Sarah Abboud (Associate Professor, Nursing) | Ben Aldred (Associate Professor, Library) | Xochitl Bada (Professor, Latin American and Latino Studies) | Andy Baker (Clinical Assistant Professor, Music) | Maya Banks (Research Assistant Professor, Mathematics) | Becky Bonarek (Lecturer, UIC Tutorium) | Tessa Bonney (Assistant Professor, Public Health) | Pranav Bhounsule (Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering) | Ian Collins (Clinical Assistant Professor, Daley Library) | Dave Crockett (Professor, Business and Marketing) | Kate Floros (Clinical Associate Professor, Political Science) | Anna Guevarra (Professor, Global Asian Studies) | Jeff Gore (Senior Lecturer, English) | Anna Kornbluh (Professor, English) | George Maratos (Lecturer, Computer Science) | Jonathan Mekinda (Associate Professor, Art and Design) | Nicole Nguyen (Professor, Criminology, Law and Justice) | Kevin O'Brien (Clinical Associate Professor, Library of the Health Sciences) | Ed Podsiadlik (Clinical Associate Professor, Education) | Laurie Quinn (Clinical Professor, Biobehavioral Nursing Science) | Sarah Ullman (Professor, CLJ) | Charitianne Williams (Senior Lecturer, English)