Faculty and staff at Governors State University rally in support of a fair contract and to highlight the central role they play.
Ellie Walsh, an associate professor of history and the interim grievance officer for the University Professions of Illinois union, talks with other Governors State University employees Thursday about issues between the union and the university administration.
“It’s not been particularly contentious yet,” said Tweddle, one of the faculty members organizing the rally. “We’ve been settling a lot of the low-hanging fruit type of issues but we expect this coming session is where things will get more interesting.”Tweddle said the union anticipated an offer from the administration Friday. However, after the session concluded he told the Southtown the administration “did not present economic proposals.
Will Davis, the university’s vice president of institutional research, released a statement Monday saying negotiations were ongoing and productive, but would not take any questions. “With inflation, the faculty have really been starting to feel the pinch,” Tweddle said. “We’ve not been keeping up with the cost of living for raises and we want to make up for lost time.”Tweddle said while the previous contract gave modest raises to the faculty over that past three years — 2%, 2.75% and 3% — the prior contract negotiated during the state budget crisis in 2016 provided no raise its first year and only 0.7% raises each of the following two years.