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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Workers and students band together to pressure UIC |
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by Alloy
Email: alloy_alloy (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!) |
08 Aug 2001
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The UI drags its feet everywhere when it comes to issues of justice for workers. Here's information on a protest last week in Chicago that somehow wasn't important enough to rate coverage by the News-Gazette as it doesn't fit the upbeat image they would like to propagate about the University hierarchy. ML |
On Friday, August 03, 2001 a group of 75 people gathered outside of the Chicago office of University of Illinois President Stukel to protest the inaction by the university during the Service Employees International Union members ongoing labor negotiations. Other groups joined in solidarity with SEIU local 73 to bring attention to the universities backpedaling on its own mission statement.
People slowly gathered outside the University of Illinois Chicago’s administrative building at 1737 W Polk around 2 PM. By 2:20 the crowd had grown to about 40 people and the pace and picket signs were picked up. Near the street, a 12-foot tall inflatable rat was blown up, representing President Stukel who has received a raise while the workers who make the university run have been locked in a heated contract negotiation.
Since October, the SEIU Local 73 has been grappling with UIC for a new contract. One demand is that there be equity pay between the workers at UIC and the other two University of Illinois campuses at Urbana and Springfield. The same jobs with the same classifications pay less at UIC than the other two campuses. So far university officials have not given a valid reason as to why there is such a pay inequity. Some positions have a pay difference of over two dollars between UIC and the other campuses.
But this gathering was more than just a labor picket. The protest brought together a range of groups. Along with SEIU members, there were also representatives from student groups and the communities that have been over run by UIC’s expansion plans.
Firing up the crowd, Joe Isobaker made note of the mix of people at the gathering and the reason that they were all there and how it is affecting the future of education.
\"Tuition now is four thousand a year and in addition for the new incoming students they’ve tacked on a $500 surcharge,\" yelled Isobaker. \"The university is making it impossible for working class students to attain a decent education. So today we have students and workers standing together to demand that the University start serving the interests of the community.\"
Breaking into song, the group, which had increased to almost one hundred, went on the move. Signs caught the feelings of the rally. One read, \"We have workers that don’t even make $19,000 a year,\" referring to the recent report in the Chicago Tribune that Stukel received a salary increase for that amount. That brings the University President\'s annual income to over $330,000, plus 30 vacation days. Other signs stressed the student\'s irritation with tuition increases with the simple plan of, \"Stop tuition hikes, cut Stukel’s salary.\"
What bought the groups together was UIC, but not under positive conditions. Bill Silver, a member of the SEIU negotiating committee, commented on the reasons the groups have pulled together. \"It’s about people who are really concerned that the whole mission of UIC is being lost as an urban school to help people who are poor or moderate income.\"
Along the way, UIC has managed to build a long list of people who are opposed to its actions and policies. Tuition increases and new student fees have upset the students and might be forcing away local residents because of the rising costs. Service employees are putting in long hours and not getting the same compensation as workers of equal status on the other campuses. Neighboring communities have seen areas absorbed by the university’s expansion plans and as a result seen a widespread destruction of affordable housing and community cohesiveness. Graduate student teachers fighting for a union have seen the university refuse to accept them.
\"It’s a question of priorities,\" explained Randy Evans. \"They don’t care about working class people, poor people, students or anybody.\"
The crowd thinned out for a short while as some members had to get to work and the rest waited for the people on first shift to get off. In the meantime, speakers stepped up to the microphone and related how the problems that they have experienced can be related to the problems of other groups. Resounding in each of the speeches was the importance of workers, students and the community working together.
\"UIC is out of control and we are not willing to take it anymore,\" commented one speaker.
As it approached 4 o’clock, Isobaker announced what was up next. A small group of representatives would enter the building and demand to see President Stukel’s representatives. Stukel was not on the campus at the time, which is not uncommon since he does most of his business downstate. The representative would be presented with a symbolic gift of bags of \"money,\" which represents the wealth that Stukel and developers have reaped and plundered on the backs of others.
At 3:50, the delegation of five people entered the building and was greeted at the door by university directors. Isobaker told of the groups intentions of delivering the bags of money to the president’s office. After a few short moments two administrators and security escorted the group to the elevator. One with a cigar in his mouth looked like a character out of a seventies cop drama.
The group squeezed into the elevator and was lifted to the fourth floor then whisked to the entrance of the president’s office. At the door, Mark Rosati, Director in the Office of Public Affairs greeted the group. The man with the cigar walked through the door and talked to the representatives in the office, who appeared to be expecting the visit. The group of five was allowed to enter the office but only about 8 feet in. The group could be met at the door but not allowed to feel to comfortable.
President Stukel’s representative, Sue Sindelar, shook hands with the delegation and waited with nervous calm in anticipation of the gifts that were to be bestowed upon her. Next to her stood the UIC chief of police.
Isobaker spoke for the group and told Sindelar how the news of Stukel’s raise hit the union members hard. \"Many of our workers don’t make $19,000 a year,\" commented Isobaker to Sindelar as she waited to see where things were going. \"We feel there was a need to make a statement to the University.\"
He also went on to state that the group also wished to speak on the behalf of the students in relation to the tuition increases. He bought the point home with the observation that many of the worker\'s kids couldn’t afford to attend UIC.
Then Isobaker presented the bag of money to Sindelar adding that it represented both the money that the university has gotten from the state and developers plus the wealth that the university earns from the staff’s experience.
Sindelar then was presented with another gift, a bag of golden eggs. The eggs represented the promise of public education and the affordable health care. Isobaker reminded her of the fable of the man with the goose that lies the golden eggs. Wanting more gold, the man killed the goose when it would not lay enough eggs for his greedy taste. The man was then left without any more golden eggs. In one of the more bloody versions the man is, in the end, killed in a grim fashion because the lord takes him for a charlatan.
\"Don’t kill the hope of education,\" ended Isobaker.
Sindelar said she would pass the message on to the president and with that the grouped moved back to the elevator to rejoin the group outside, minus the escort.
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See also:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3908&group=webcast
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