Illinois Federation of Teachers Debrief
GEO members,
On October 18th-20th, 18 delegates from UIUC GEO and 13 from UIC GEO attended the triennial Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) Convention in Chicago to propose an amendment to the IFT constitution that would lower our per capita taxes as locals of the IFT. Per capita taxes, or “per caps,” are similar to the dues GEO members pay to GEO as a union, but these go instead to the “parent unions” under which both UIUC and UIC GEO are certified: the IFT, the AFT (American Federation of Teachers), and the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations). Per caps payments take up a disproportionate amount of our budget as grad unions struggling to maintain financial solvency after last year’s Janus vs. AFSCME decision. We proposed lowering these IFT per-caps to match the per-caps we also pay to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) as shown below:
| Per-Capita Class | IFT | AFT |
|---|---|---|
| Full-Member Dues | $ 37.98 | $ 19.58 |
| Half-Member Dues | $ 20.74 | $ 9.79 |
| Quarter-Member Dues | $ 12.12 | $ 4.90 |
| Half-Member Dues | $ 7.81 | $ 2.45 |
To clarify, each per capita class is based on a different level of income, so for example members who make below $34,878 or above $12,000 annually pay half dues. A majority of our membership fall within half-member, quarter-member, and eighth-member dues. For example, in September ‘19 we had 921 members classified under Half-Member Dues. This corresponds to a per-capita payment of $19,101.54 to IFT in the month of September for that per-capita class alone. Under the per-capita rates for AFT, this is only $9,016.59 for just the 921 Half-Member Dues in September.
On Friday, October 18th, UIUC GEO delegates attended various committee meetings, notably the Higher Education Constituency Council where the UIUC and UIC GEOs had the opportunity to speak to other locals on our financial predicament, how it is hampering our mission on behalf of graduate employees, and why we think an amendment to the IFT Constitution is in order. Committee members were very interested to hear from us, and the chair cut other items from the agenda in order to further facilitate this conversation. GEO delegates were able to reach out to additional locals during the reception later that evening.
By the time we went into the morning General Session on October 19th, UIUC and UIC GEOs had rallied a significant number of supporters from other locals. When our amendment came up, a long and passionate debate ensued. Many supporters stood up to give statements in favor of our amendment because they recognize the gravity of the predicament both UIC and UIUC GEO are in. We also heard from many who opposed it, who especially argued that lowering payments to the IFT is not the answer to our financial challenges.. On either side of the issue, other locals stated that they stand in solidarity with us and claimed genuine interest in supporting us in other ways. When the vote was called and yays/nays tallied, the final tally showed 102 “For” and 155 “Against”. The session immediately ended and many from other locals came to talk to us about ways to help our union, whether they supported our amendment or not.
On a high note, however, former UIUC GEO Co-President Bruce Kovanen, was elected as a Vice President of the IFT Executive Board during the General Session as well! Immediately following the Convention on Sunday, the board convened its first meeting: our amendment and the concerning financial situation that UIUC and UIC GEO face were a focus of discussion. Some members of the board suggested an immediate formation of a committee to investigate this particular issue, but this suggestion was denied. Instead, some Executive Board members expressed their intent to form a committee at some future date.
We received noticeable support from a number of locals including:
Federation of College Clerical and Technical Personnel
UIC United Faculty
Non-Tenured Faculty Coalition at UIUC
Elgin Community College Faculty Association
University Professionals of Illinois
For those that voted against the amendment, many said they were willing to work on finding ways to support us through other means.
The delegates at the convention, both representing UIUC and UIC, have discussed several potential next steps we can take to strengthen our collaboration as grad local unions and continue to fight for and work toward a long-term financial solution.
The next steps available to us include:
Stay in contact with local delegates who spoke in favor of our amendment
Hold accountable the IFT leadership who stated they wanted to find an alternate solution to our proposed amendment.
Reach out to other graduate employee unions in solidarity
Stay in contact with IFT as they make steps to potentially form a committee to investigate our unique financial situation, ideally aiding UIC and UIUC GEO in the future.
This is an ongoing issue and we need your help as members to work it out. Volunteers can sign up for discrete tasks within our emerging action plan--email geo@uigeo.org for details. If you are interested in the proceedings of the convention, please email sc@uigeo.org to request access to the notes from the General Session or ask any followup questions you may have.
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org
Twitter: @geo_uiuc
Facebook: @uigeo @geosolcomm
Instagram: @geo_uiuc