GEO Statement on Illini Union Labor Day Celebration
For the past few weeks, the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) Solidarity Committee had been planning a Labor Day event with the Illini Union Board. The event would have taken place on Labor Day, Mon. Sept. 6, and would have involved a labor film, printouts on the history of Labor Day and labor unions on the UIUC campus, and an interactive visual art display created by GEO featuring photos of labor actions and strikes throughout UIUC’s history.
Early Thursday morning (Sept. 2nd), a confused and concerned GEO member reached out about a social media post. The post was a flyer advertising the Labor Day event that Illini Union was collaborating with GEO to plan, except there was no mention of the history of Labor Day, labor unions on campus, or a labor film. Instead, it was a Labor Day cookout showing the film Jumanji: The Next Level that was apparently being co-sponsored by the University of Illinois Police Department (UIPD) and GEO. As more and more members reached out with confusion about this event, GEO posted on social media that we were not aware of the co-sponsorship with UIPD and that we do not support it, especially on Labor Day of all days. The Illini Union Board responded by removing GEO from the event altogether and canceling the visual art display that GEO had already designed.
If the Illini Union Board had gotten a chance to read the printouts on Labor Day that they had requested GEO prepare, they would have realized the utter absurdity of GEO co-sponsoring a Labor Day event with UIPD. Labor Day grew out of labor struggles in the 1880s for improved wages and working conditions. On Sep. 5, 1882, 10,000 workers marched through the streets of New York to demand shorter work days under the banner “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what we will.” At this rally, workers called for the establishment of a Labor Day holiday. When, on May 3, 1886, workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company went on strike to improve their working conditions, police killed several workers to break the strike. On May 4, the workers’ rally and ensuing massacre of workers by police at Haymarket Square in Chicago became known as May Day. As protests spread throughout the U.S., several cities and states began to establish Labor Day from 1885–87.
Labor Day wasn’t recognized as an official holiday, however, until Pullman Company workers went on strike on May 11, 1894, in response to pay cuts and rent costs that were severely impacting workers’ quality of life. With the support of the American Railway Union (ARU), 125,000 workers brought railroad traffic out of Chicago to a halt. President Grover Cleveland sent military troops to shut down the strike, resulting in at least 30 worker deaths and the arrest of Eugene Debs of the ARU. Concerned about further worker uprisings, President Cleveland asked Congress to pass a bill that recognized Labor Day as an official national holiday. In other words, making Labor Day a national holiday was a concession to avoid future strikes and bloody clashes between workers and agents of state repression.
As graduate workers, we cannot accept a Labor Day co-sponsorship that promotes the same police force that is prepared to keep us in line by any means necessary when we make our voices heard for issues like COVID-19 safety, living wage jobs, healthcare, and tuition waivers that guarantee access to education for all. Further, UIUC is currently considering a new “Expressive Activity” policy that will make it even easier to police workers, students, and community members who want to express themselves on campus by restricting our freedom of movement and censoring our freedom of speech.
We are disappointed in the Illini Union Board’s decision to continue a Labor Day event with the sponsorship of UIPD rather than upholding a commitment to partner with a labor union like GEO that represents over 2,700 graduate employees and our Campus Labor Coalition representing thousands more workers. On this Labor Day, Illini Union has chosen police over workers. For the campus and C-U community, we ask you to reflect: which side are you on?
If you want to learn more about the real history of Labor Day you can check out these resources:
Tim Goulet, “Today Belongs to Workers,” 2016
Socialist Appeal, “US: The History of Labor Day,” 2009
Labor films to watch:
Divided We Fall
10,000 Black Men Named George
Pride
9-5
Matewan
Starving the Beast
Modern Times
Norma Rae
Battle of Algiers
Sorry We Missed You
Bread and Roses
Sorry To Bother You
Blood on the Mountain
Burn!
Local C-U radio station for labor news and history: Radio Free Labor, WEFT 90.1 FM
If you’re interested in the issues being discussed here, you can get involved with GEO’s Solidarity Committee by emailing solcomm@uigeo.org or Defund UIPD by emailing defunduipd@protonmail.com.
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