Members of the Urbana campus Graduate Employees Organization voted by more than 95 percent to ratify a new contract.
The new contract will protect tuition waivers at current levels for all members of the bargaining unit. Tuition-waiver protection was consistently the most important issue for GEO members during negotiations.
During the course of the five-year contract, the increase to the minimum wage for GEO members will be 2.5 percent during the first two years of the contract, and then will be 1.5 percent for years three, four and five. Approximately 40 percent of GEO members are paid the minimum wage.
The annual raise for the entire bargaining unit will be 2.5 percent during the first year of the contract, and then will be set by the Campus Wage Program thereafter.
The annual percentage of the members’ health care fee paid by the administration will increase from 75 percent, where it was set during the last contract, to 80 percent during the life of this agreement.
The ability to file a grievance in the case of supervisor harassment was added to the contract as well as the requirement to provide accommodations for nursing mothers, in compliance with Illinois state law. The bereavement leave section retains domestic partners (including same-sex and opposite-sex partners) and also updates the contract to include civil unions to provide time off in the event of the death of a member’s partner.
In addition, in a side agreement to the contract, university administration has agreed to abide by the recent Illinois Education Labor Relations Board decision regarding violations of the 2009-2012 contract concerning tuition waivers. The administration will repay affected assistants in the College of Fine and Applied Arts who were charged a portion of their tuition starting in 2010. The union is compiling a list of affected members.
The GEO is a member of the IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO, and represents more than 2,400 teaching assistants and graduate assistants who teach more than 20 percent of all instruction hours on campus.
