#WeSeeUIC
This isn’t the kind of thing that I typically post about about, but it is an issue that’s especially important to me.
Graduate students do the majority of work, both in teaching and research, at American universities. Despite this, graduate teaching assistants and workers at the University of Illinois-Chicago are paid less than living wages, as well as having to pay over 10% of their income in fees each year. In addition, grad workers have no power or insight into appointments and re-appointments of grad workers.
Negotiations have been attempted and denied; as of today (19 March 2019) over 1500 graduate workers are beginning a strike to improve working and living conditions. They need our help for the strike to be a success.
How can we help?
First and foremost, strikes are not easy. Students are putting their livelihoods on the line - not working means not getting money, and for the strike to continue, strikers need to be able to support themselves. In order to make this possible, the union has set up a strike fund to pay for the students’ time. If we all come together to support them, they can stick it out long enough to make real change.
Secondly, share this story! Share the strike fund. Share this news article about the situation so others know what’s going on. Share the students’ outreach document so others are aware of the students’ situation and demands. Share this post. And use the hashtags #WeNeedGEO, #WeSeeUIC, #FairContractNow, and #uicUnionPower. Make enough noise that the university can’t ignore this.
Send a message to UIC that students and the greater community of workers are willing to stand together to improve working and living conditions. Stand in solidarity with UIC grad students to show that we are stronger together!
Donate to the strike fund here!
