Members of Local 4100 of the University Professionals of Illinois began picketing Tuesday at Governors State University, joined by colleagues from Chicago State University and Eastern Illinois University, where walkouts are also underway.
John Miller, statewide president of University Professionals of Illinois, said state universities continue to lose faculty and staff to colleges out of the state because of pay.
“It is wrong when they do not invest in our students, it is wrong when they do not invest in our students,” Miller said, standing in front of dozens of teachers. “It is a disinvestment in the community.”
At Governors State, Miller said, faculty advisers have heavy caseloads and can’t give adequate attention to all of the students they advise.
“We need the time to be able to work with our students to help them succeed,” he said.
Carla Johnson, a faculty adviser, said she and her colleagues work full days but also continue to work from home in the evening.
“There is not enough time in the day to do the work we need to do for our students,” Johnson said.
“We feel like we are not valued,” she said.
Teachers from all three universities took part in a midday rally at the University Park campus.
Valerie Goss, head of the union local at Chicago State, told the crowd university administrators are doing an injustice to students by not investing in teachers.
“We know what’s going on here is unjust,” she said. “It’s unjust for our students.”
Evelyne Delgado-Norris, a foreign language instructor at Chicago State, said she graduated from the Governors State in 1987.
“We have to stand strong for our students,” she said. “We believe in the mission, we believe in our students and they believe in us.”
Mike Hart, president of the Governors State local, said both sides last had a bargaining session Thursday and another was scheduled for Wednesday.
The union said the main sticking points remain wages as well as the caseload being carried by faculty members who advise students. The local represents about 260 faculty and staff.
Governors State President Cheryl Green, in a statement, said the university is working to maintain regular class schedules.
“We have appropriate contingency plans we are following to minimize the impact of the strike,” she said.
Teachers and staff have been working under the terms of a previous contract that lapsed in August. The Illinois Federation of Teachers said 85% of Governors State local members took part in a strike authorization vote last month and 190 members voted to strike if no agreement was reached, while six opposed the move.
Both sides have been negotiating since last June, and a mediator has been involved in recent sessions.
“Since bargaining began this past summer we have made substantial progress and we remain optimistic we can reach an agreement,” Green said.
Hart said the union is trying to make up ground lost in prior contracts, when annual raises fell well below increases in the cost of living. He said this is first time the union has walked at Governors State. Members authorized a strike in 2019, but both sides came to terms shortly before teachers were due to walk out, he said.
Green, in her statement Monday to faculty and staff, said she was disappointed union leadership had called for a strike “despite the repeated enhancements we have made to address their bargaining positions.”
“Our goal remains reaching a fair contract that works for our faculty, our students and our institution,” she said.
Miller said it is unprecedented that teachers at three state universities are walking picket lines at the same time.
In deciding to walk off the job, teachers are saying “we’re tired of watching administrators not invest in our classrooms, not invest in our students,” Miller said.
Administration of the universities are “sending a message that our students are not worth the best we can give them,” he said.
Chicago State University negotiators and the union met Saturday, aided by a federal mediator, and another session was scheduled for Monday afternoon.
Chicago State officials said they offered the union a modified salary proposal to provide for a set dollar amount applied to each employee’s salary rather than a flat percentage.
“We remain committed to ending the faculty strike as quickly as possible,” Chicago State said in a statement.
Eastern Illinois President David Glassman, in a statement Monday, said university negotiator are “working diligently with our UPI partners to resolve our differences and reach a mutually fair agreement as soon as possible.”
He said the union’s salary increases would exceed $9.3 million over four years, while the university has offered raises that would, in total, exceed $5.8 million.
“We absolutely value our faculty and academic support staff and will increase their salaries significantly — indeed our current offer does so more than the last several collective bargaining agreements — but we must also retain adequate funding for increasing our non-UPI employee salaries and keep our university structurally sound, beautiful, and operating efficiently,” Glassman said.
Hart said negotiators for Governors State ended the Thursday session, although the union was prepared to continue meeting over the weekend.
“I would have come in Easter Sunday to avoid this,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the university said Governors State had no additional comment about negotiations beyond the statement issued Monday by Green.