================================
http://www.NEWS-GAZETTE.COM/story.cfm?Number=1056
================================
THE NEWS-GAZETTE
Champaign- Urbana - August 8, 1997
Grad assistants resume union effort
By JULIE WURTH
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA P Graduate students joined hands
with union members Thursday to prod the
university into recognizing a graduate
employees union.
Members of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees on
campus this week for a workshop took
part in a lunchtime rally by the Graduate
Employees' Organization outside the
Swanlund Administration Building.
With chants and songs accompanied by a
trumpet and trombone, protesters demanded
the UI cease its "anti-union court battle"
and recognize the Graduate Employees'
Organization as the official bargaining
agent for graduate assistants.
They also signed letters of protest to
Chancellor Michael Aiken, then delivered
them one by one to his office on the third
floor. However, Aiken was on vacation.
Associate Chancellor William Murphy
said about 60 letters were delivered.
The Graduate Employees' Organization
last year filed a petition to represent
teaching assistants, research assistants
and other graduate assistants at the UI.
Previously, 3,226 of the roughly 5,800
graduate assistants signed cards calling
for a union election.
The university objected, arguing that
graduate assistants are students first and
that Illinois law does not allow students
to unionize.
An administrative law judge with the
Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board
agreed, but graduate assistants appealed
her ruling. A decision on the appeal is
expected this fall.
Thursday's letter to Aiken criticized
the UI's "union-busting campaign" and use
of tax dollars to fight the organizing
effort.
The letter also noted that graduate
assistants voted in favor of
representation by the Graduate Employees'
Organization, 1,663-906, in a mock
election last spring.
"How can you, in good conscience,
ignore their democratic right to
representation and use our tax dollars to
fight the GEO?" the letter asked Aiken.
"You should keep in mind that union
members pay taxes and that they are
parents that send their children to the
University of Illinois."
Murphy said the issue is in the hands
of the Illinois Educational Labor
Relations Board.
"The university's maintained all along
that its graduate students are students,
and that assistantships are a form of
financial aid, and that therefore
assistantships are an inappropriate area
for unionization," Murphy said.
The graduate assistants are pushing for
improved wages and health care, affordable
child care, consistent hours and
workloads, and grievance procedures.
The Graduate Employees' Organization
also joined a "Justice for Janitors" rally
in Chicago on Thursday, part of the
AFL-CIO Regional Organizing Conference.
==========
1997 The News-Gazette
==========