LEOunion.org

From the AFT:

Graduate and teaching assistants were back leading their classes Nov. 18 as the Graduate Employees' Organization at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign called a successful end to a two-day strike. The job action was over just one sticking point—protection of the tuition waiver provision for all bargaining unit members. But it took the action of more than a thousand determined GEO members and supporters to make clear that the union was unwilling to bend. When the bargaining teams returned to the table, while hundreds of activists continued picketing in cold and soggy conditions, the union reached settlement with the university within hours. In addition to winning protection for tuition waivers through the strike, the GEO secured an additional two weeks of unpaid parental leave, increases to the university's contribution to healthcare premiums (reaching 75 percent in the third and final year of the contract), and raises on the minimum salary, totaling 10 percent over three years.