An eight-year fight by the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) to become the official bargaining representative for graduate assistants at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) culminated in a sweeping victory yesterday. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT)-affiliated union won the two-day vote by a three-to-one margin, with slightly over half of the approximately 3,000 eligible graduate students voting. The size of the bargaining unit was largely determined by negotiations between the union and university administrators that stalled when the Illinois Labor Board agreed with the university’s recommendation for a 250 member unit, and resumed only after a one-day occupation of the university’s administrative building by students seeking a 5,000 member unit (see WIT’s for March 14 and June 7, 2002).
See "U. of I. graduate teaching assistants OK unionization bid", Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, December 5, 2002