GEO

Grievance Win! 🎉✊

Due to an error from HR, a graduate worker was mistakenly assigned to a .25 TA appointment and a .25 RA appointment when the department meant to assign them to one .50 TA appointment. This led to miscommunication between the grievant and the supervisor, resulting in multiple weeks of overwork.

😬 When the grievance committee got involved, the department remedied the error - but refused to compensate the grievant for weeks of overwork on the grounds that the RA supervisor never explicitly assigned work to the grievant. Despite the grievant spending multiple hours each week working on research, the department argued this work wasn’t valid.

🎉 After appealing this decision through the grievance process and informing the University we intended to arbitrate, the University decided to settle with the grievant for $1,630.60 in backpay.

🇪🇸 Swipe left for Spanish

CLU-W Hygiene Pantry of Champaign County is a nonprofit that was founded in response to the rising cost of essential hygiene products and the growing need among local families. The pantry provides free access to items that support health, dignity, and daily living. We gladly accept donations of period products, adult diapers, soap, shampoo and conditioner, laundry supplies, and other hygiene essentials.

By working together, we can help ensure no one in Champaign County has to go without the basic products so many of us rely on every day!

On May 1st, International Workers’ Day, workers of GEO marched along side undergraduate students and members of the Champaign-Urbana community to present a petition to the university for strong protections for international and non-citizen students and workers and financial dissociation from corporations that provide material support to ICE. The petition originated from a GEO membership vote and was adopted by other unions of the Campus Labor Coalition.

UIUC’s protest surveillance “I-Team” informed organizers that Swanlund Administration Building doors would be locked and the petition would not be accepted.

📣 When march participants arrived, Executive Director Robb Craddock and Associate Vice Chancellor Kristin McMurray stood in front of the doors as protestors chanted “No collaboration with mass deportation!” and demanded a senior administrator appear to receive the petition and respond to community concerns. Craddock and McMurray refused, insisting only that they would deliver the petition.

Graduate students and faculty handed over the petition- signed by 900+ community members! - while continuing to call for a response from senior leadership, including Chancellor Isbell.

Union members and student organizers spoke on collective action and connecting immigrant rights to broader social justice struggles. Craddock and McMurray eventually left with the petition as protestors called for greater integrity and accountability from the UIUC administration.