History Department Faculty Pass Unanimous Resolution in Support of GEO

A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS OF GRADUATE EMPLOYEES
(passed unanimously by the Faculty of the Department of History, UIUC, April 5, 2000)

Whereas, graduate employees at the University of Illinois are BOTH our students and valued co-workers who shoulder a substantial portion of the university's teaching, research, and administrative work,

and

whereas, many graduate employees are over-worked and under-paid and all are without independent representation of their own choosing,

and

whereas, graduate employees have demonstrated overwhelming support for the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), most notably in the 1996 authorization drive when 3226 of them signed cards supporting GEO's call for a collective bargaining election and in the 1997 collective bargaining election monitored by a panel of local religious leaders when 64% of those voting chose GEO to represent them,

and

whereas, undergraduate students have often shown their support for the GEO, most recently in the Student Government sponsored poll where 77% of those voting expressed support for graduate employees' right to a collective bargaining election,

and

whereas, GEO has made strenuous efforts to discuss the problems of graduate employees and has exhausted every legal means available to engage the university in such cooperative discussion,

and

whereas, the University of Illinois administration has consistently refused to even speak to representatives of the GEO and has instead blocked every legal effort by the organization to secure the basic right to collective bargaining for the university's graduate employees,

and

whereas, a recent National Labor Relations Board ruling recognizes the rights of graduate employees at private universities to organize and bargain collectively

and

whereas, the GEO has now been forced into a position where the only remaining options in the form of civil disobedience and strike action threaten to disrupt the normal work of the university, work we all cherish and support,

Be it therefore resolved:

that we, the faculty of the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, do hereby support the rights of graduate employees to organize and bargain collectively and do hereby call upon the university administration to recognize the GEO and to sit down and bargain with that organization in good faith and in the interests of graduate employees and other interested parties. Furthermore, we urge our colleagues in other departments and units across the campus to join us in our support of these basic rights and in an effort to avoid the disruption that is likely to result from the current administration policy with regard to the just concerns of graduate employees.