UIC Faculty Union Could Strike Next Week

The University of Illinois at Chicago United Faculty (UICUF), UIC's union for full-time tenure and non-tenure faculty, has filed notice of its intent to strike if contract negotiations remain at a standstill. The union says that it will stage a two-day walkout on Feb. 18 - 19 if no progress is made before then. A flyer professors handed out to students this week claims that 16 months and 65 negotiation sessions have yielded "almost no progress on key issues." Faculty will be refusing to "teach classes, hold office hours or perform other duties on those days," and students are being encouraged not to attend class and instead to join professors on the picket line. The Chicago Tribune reports: In explaining the decision to strike, the union told its members that bargaining sessions have been unproductive, and that the two sides have met for just one hour during the past two weeks. The union contends that the administration’s compensation proposal is less than half of the union’s proposal, and that little progress has been made on issues such as multi-year contracts for nontenure-track faculty.