UIC Graduate Employees Organization

Today GEO occupied the 27th floor of University Hall. For 4+ hours we:
- played board games
- put sticky notes on the walls with messages for Chancellor Miranda
- played music
- left removable messages around the space
- talked to the UIC representatives when they reluctantly showed up to meet us

We made our demands heard in an insistent but peaceful way. UIC, it’s your turn to offer us a better contract.

Everyone is welcome to join us tomorrow at 12 on the lawn outside University Hall. We want to make this a huge action, so please come to show the grad workers you support them!

ICYMI: Graduate workers at UIC have been on strike for a whole week! To kick off week two, swipe for a recap of how our work stoppage has been going. We've been so happy to see all of the support and solidarity from our community, as undergrads, staff, faculty, and community all came out to join us on the picket line. We'll be out on the line every day this week, so please swing by and show your support!

As of April 28th, we've officially been unsuccessfully bargaining with UIC admin for an entire year. Unfortunately, the university continues to stall and push back, so we're prepared to stay out as long as it takes to stop business as usual, take the power back, and win a fair contract and better working conditions for us all.

If you'd like to support, check out our web site at the link in our bio for our daily picket line schedule and the link to our strike fund. Solidarity forever! ✊

On Thursday, a group of overworked and exhausted graduate workers and undergrad allies mysteriously died in the lobby of University Hall... Perhaps that's because UIC administration announced earlier this week that our only healthcare option, CampusCare, will soon become even more expensive and inaccessible! Instead of providing its valuable teaching assistants, research assistants, and graduate assistants with the support and benefits that they need to thrive and sustain the university's operations, UIC has decided to significantly increase both the fees we pay per semester AND our co-pays on almost all essential health services. The only co-pay that they've decided not to increase...? Hospice care!

Once these graduate workers were resurrected from the dead, we left some of our tombstones in Chancellor Miranda's personal elevator to make sure she got the message.

So if UIC wants to compromise our health and safety, they'll have to face the workers who they're working to death when we say enough is enough! 🫡✊

After our successful march on the boss last week, it's time to escalate! Are you ready to lock in and mobilize grad workers in your department? Then attend our upcoming strike school workshop: Strike Organizing 101! We'll update you on our latest strike readiness plans and timeline, answer your frequently asked questions so you can start answering them for others, explain what it means to be a strike captain, and practice some organizing conversations together.

The same workshop will be held twice to maximize accessibility: in person this Thursday (April 10th) from 12 - 1:30 PM in the Gender & Sexuality Center Flex Space (BSB 183, on the first floor inside the political science department), and then online on Tuesday (April 14th) from 6:30 - 8 PM. Lunch will be provided in person.

Please RSVP at the link in our bio to let us know if you can make it, or to sign up to get info about other upcoming strike schools!

All power to the grad workers - we can't do this without you! 🙏✊

On April 1st, join us to show UIC admin that they can’t make fools out of us. We won’t settle for their joke of a raise (just 2% BEFORE fee increases). Sign the petition (link in story) which outlines our demands, and then show up to make some noise!