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Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO)
IFT/AFT AFL-CIO
1001 S. Wright St.
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 344-8283 Fax: (217) 344-8281
http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/taunion
IN CHICAGO UNIONS RALLY FOR JUSTICE
URBANA-- Friday, 8 August 1997
On Thursday, 7 August 1997, a delegation of Graduate Employees'
Organization (GEO) unionists, from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, traveled to Chicago to participate in a major "Justice
For Janitors" union rally, sponsored by the AFL-CIO. Nearly 800
unionists gathered at Federal Plaza in Chicago's Loop to demonstrate
their solidarity with the campaign to gain recognition for janitorial
employees that have been attempting to organize against great corporate
opposition.
GEO Treasurer Dennis Grammenos was called on stage to deliver the opening
speech of the rally. He stressed the need for solidarity among workers
and the need for an activist labor movement. Grammenos outlined the
history of the drive by graduate employees at the University of Illinois
to unionize and pointed to the refusal of the university's administration
to recognize the GEO. He explained how this refusal comes despite a
large authorization-for-representation card drive in April 1996 that
gathered the signatures of 3,226 graduate employees demanding the
recognition of GEO by the administration. Furthermore, Grammenos pointed
out that in April of this year the GEO won union elections --run
according to IELRB rules-- in a two-to-one landslide. "To this day," he
said, "the administration is refusing to recognize the democratic right
of its graduate employees to unionize. They are hiding behind the thin
veil of legal posturing as they argue that graduate workers are not
employees but 'merely students'."
At several points during Grammenos' speech, the Federal Plaza echoed with
chants of "G-E-O, G-E-O" as rally participants expressed their solidarity
with the struggles of the graduate employees.
Grammenos was followed on stage by Cathy Colson, of the GEO at the
University of Illinois in Chicago, who spoke of the campaign by graduate
employees to organize at her campus. "We draw inspiration from our
brothers and sisters in Urbana-Champaign," Colson said, "and we are
strengthened by their resolve not to waiver in their struggle for Justice."
Rich Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO and president-emeritus of
the UMWA, took the stage to call on corporate America to respect the
right of workers to unionize. "And that includes the University of
Illinois," he added. In his closing remarks, Trumka shouted "Justice for
the janitors! Justice for the GEO!" as the crowd exploded in cheers and
applause, followed by chants of "What do we want? Justice! When do we
want it? Now!"
Earlier in the day the GEO delegation attended a rally at Teamster City,
in Chicago's Near West Side, where AFL-CIO president John Sweeney gave
the keynote address. Hundreds of unionists signed letters calling on
University of Illinois chancellor Michael Aiken to recognize the
democratic right of graduate employees to unionize and to stop the
university administration's "shameful union-busting campaign against its
workers."
Both John Sweeney and Rich Trumka signed letters and expressed their
strong support for the GEO.
GEO staffer Erin Shackelford, who attended the rallies, was impressed by
the show of support for the GEO from the hundreds of unionists that had
gathered from all over Illinois and adjoining states. "It is folks like
this that have a lot to say to the university's administration," she
explained. "They are tax-payers, they are parents, and they are
union-workers. They are upset at the anti-labor tactics that the
administration has been using and they demand that the University of
Illinois respect the democratic right of its graduate employees to unionize."
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