GEO Statement on Fall 2020 Instruction: Let’s Start the Year “People First”
The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign demands that the University put people first by holding primarily online instruction for Fall 2020.
The COVID-19 emergency has shifted us into an unprecedented and still unfolding convergence of historic global crises. In the United States alone, the pandemic has pushed the unemployment rate to 20% and taken over 100,000 lives as of June 2020, causing a tremendous amount of suffering and uncertainty. Although the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has provided some information regarding essential services, financial aid, and online instruction support, it is still far from addressing the justified concerns of campus students, workers, and the Urbana-Champaign community at large. At the onset of this pandemic, all UIUC students faced an outrageous 33% increase in healthcare premiums for 2020-21, while graduate employees are living with a precarious minimum wage of less than $18,000 per year. Students are also burdened by several service fees that the University has also refused to reimburse and by the many expenses students had to incur in the transition to online learning.
The GEO understands that only through solidarity and collective organizing can we safeguard the conditions of work and the quality of life that all students and workers on this campus deserve. We urge the University to put people first, because we understand that we cannot afford anyone getting sick. For this reason, the GEO demands:
The University maintain online instruction for Fall 2020 for all classes for which online instruction is possible
Democratically develop strict but financially responsible guidelines for using research facilities and other indispensable operations.
All alternative modes of operation must be in consultation and dialogue with all UIUC labor organizations and follow public health and state guidelines.
The University continue pay and benefits for all its employees, guarantee no layoffs, and provide proper protective equipment to all workers.
We will reject any solution put forward by the University that does not guarantee these protections for workers. To put the people of UIUC and its community first, we need to understand that this is a life-threatening virus and the University has the financial means to avoid layoffs as well as to provide all the necessary equipment for quality online instruction. Maintaining online instruction does not mean that students should not return to campus and continue safe activities. We support the Campus Faculty Association’s call for the creation of an emergency alternative budget with the active participation of all stakeholders. This pandemic has dramatically changed our lives and graduate workers have the right to contribute to any decision that will undoubtedly impact our lives.
Despite the many challenges, this is a moment of tremendous opportunity to create collective solutions for our collective problems. On April 1st, the Campus Labor Coalition sent an open letter to Chancellor Jones, Provost Cangellaris, and the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois articulating campus workers’ unmet needs in the wake of the Illinois state lockdown. This led to positive movement on some unions’ demands, but academic labor organizations at UIUC are not yet satisfied by proposed campus working conditions. Throughout the end of March and the month of April, graduate employees petitioned the University Administration to revoke its decision to increase the student healthcare premium for AY 2020-21, and on May 1st held a socially-distanced car rally demanding this revocation as well as the provision of health insurance coverage for Summer 2020. On April 29th the ISG Senate Unanimously passed Resolution 04.04 supporting the demands of the open letter sent by the GEO, CFA, and NTFC on May 12th, signed personally by over 200 people on campus, half of whom are faculty members. Graduate and Faculty employees were glad to see the University’s decision to distribute CARES Act funds to students through the Summer Supplemental Block Grant program, but were concerned by the unevenness in their distribution.
Only by building community in our Union and across campus will we gain the power to fight any intention of reopening without consideration of workers’ financial and medical safety. We feel inspired by the social uprising of people in the United States and across the world, led by the Black Liberation movement and our Black and Brown brothers, sisters, and non-binary siblings, to fight against racial exploitation and achieve our bargaining goals. If we put our students, professors, staff, workers, and community first, there is no austerity measure, repression or illness that can undermine our capacity to win.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact geo@uigeo.org. More information can also be found on GEO’s website at www.uiucgeo.org.
Twitter: @geo_uiuc
Facebook: @uigeo @geosolcomm
Instagram: @geo_uiuc