Solidarity with Striking Workers at UIS
The Graduate Employees’ Organization at UIUC, IFT/AFT AFL-CIO Local 6300 stands in solidarity with the 4500 tenure and tenure-track faculty currently striking over unfair labor practices at University of Illinois Springfield. The University Professionals of Illinois (UPI), IFT Local 4100 authorized the open-ended strike on March 19th after negotiating with the university administration for 11 months and receiving only a 1% offered salary increase and take backs from their last contract. This salary offer breaks down to at most $100 per month for the highest paid and 16 cents per hour for the least paid faculty.
The university administration has repeatedly claimed that its financial position makes any further salary increases impossible, but, according to the Illinois Auditor General, the University of Illinois system had annual surpluses in 2024 and 2025 of hundreds of millions of dollars. While the University Professionals of Illinois has been pooling its members' own money for its Faculty And Students Together (FAST) fund that makes emergency grants for students, the administration has refused to budge from its proposal far below the rate of inflation.
We stand in solidarity with our union siblings at our parent union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, as they stand up for their workers’ rights in the UI system. As GEO enters a new bargaining cycle, we are heartened to see the power of organized workers in standing up for basic rights and protections. We are united as we both fight for respect, fair wages, and worker protections in the UI system. We call on the University of Illinois Springfield and the UI Board of Trustees to return to the bargaining table with fair and good faith proposals that meaningfully impact the workers who make the University run.
We look forward to joining UPI members on the picketline in Springfield to win a contract that they can be proud of. If you are able to contribute to UPI’s strike fund, you can follow this link. All proceeds will go towards providing emergency support for striking union members facing financial strain.
Solidarity Forever.