Catherwood LibraryILR School

In a major victory for the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a daylong occupation of the administration building yesterday has led to a new compromise offer by the administration. Formed in 1994, the GEO won an Illinois State Court of Appeals decision in 2000 protecting the right of graduate employees to bargain collectively---but experienced a major setback when the Illinois Labor Board sided with the university and excluded ninety-five percent of the 5,000 workers the GEO wants to represent from a proposed bargaining unit. The university administration had refused to negotiate a contract for a larger unit since then (see WIT for Nov. 29, 2001), deadlocking negotiations until yesterday?s labor action convinced them to seek a compromise.