GEO members picket over COVID-19 policies, University Police attempt arrest
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Contacts:
Bram Osterhout
GEO Member
Owen MacDonald, Angela Ting
Communications Officers
GEO members picket over COVID-19 policies, University Police attempt arrest
Champaign-Urbana, IL - University of Illinois police, who arrived alongside Senior Director of Labor and Employee Relations and administrative lead negotiator Robb Craddock, attempted to arrest GEO members outside the Swanlund Administration Building this morning. The saga over COVID-19 safety at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign continued today as GEO members picketed Swanlund in the hours leading up to COVID-19 Impact Bargaining where GEO representatives and administration met once again to negotiate health and safety policies. GEO’s demands are reasonable: that UIUC provide in-class exposure notifications, robust and safe testing policies, more high-quality N95 or KN95 masks for all campus workers, and an extension of the indoor mask mandate currently set to expire at the end of February. Despite this, in over two years of impact bargaining little progress has been made.
Regardless of administrative rhetoric to the contrary, graduate workers continue to put themselves at risk for contracting or spreading COVID-19 every time they appear for in-person work. This risks the health and safety of the entire community, especially those rendered most vulnerable by institutional failure on every level. “I was exposed to COVID-19 during class. I am at higher risk for covid, and I was able to stay home and get tested to prevent spread because my friend told me they tested positive. The university provided no exposure notification, even though I was sitting 3 feet away from someone who had covid in a UIUC classroom for a full hour,” Grace McCourt, a graduate worker in math said. “Without exposure notifications, we cannot keep vulnerable members of our community safe.”
In addition to impact bargaining and picketing, GEO filed a grievance last week. The grievance asserts that, “by failing to continue evaluating which employees are able to work from home and facilitate remote work when possible, the University Administration is in violation of [Illinois Department of Labor] regulations… [Campus Administrative Manual] Policy FO-18, …and Article XXII: Health and Safety, of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”
While GEO is heartened by the decrease in positive COVID-19 cases over the last few weeks, the changes to the face covering guidance will likely lead to a surge in cases when students return to campus after Spring Break. GEO likewise urges the administration to take stronger precautions as the new, potentially more severe Omicron BA.2 subvariant spreads throughout the population. As the state flagship university, UIUC must do more to keep us all safe!
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 a 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.
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