rolling the union on

Grad employees at Southern Illinois University Carbondale win recognition for their union, GA United (NEA.)

CARBONDALE, IL With a two to one show of force, Graduate Assistants
United-IEA/NEA of Southern Illinois University Carbondale wound up a
year-and-a-half long organizing campaign on Wednesday with a strong vote to
unionize. Over 400 graduate assistants took part in the vote with a final count
of 248 for representation and 112 opposed. Dozens of challenged ballots
insufficient to affect the outcome of the vote were also cast. The total voting
unit was 982 GAs although GAs at SIUC have ranged from 1,200 to 1,600 per
semester by recent counts provided by the university through Freedom of
Information Act requests by GA United.

Political Science Teaching Assistant Marinus van Kuilenburg co-chairs GA United
with Shelly McGrath, a Research Assistant in Sociology. Van Kuilenburg was
pleased with the turnout and strong support the vote represents.

"This is a great victory for the many grad employees who make this place work.
That is why this is good for SIUC," van Kuilenburg said.

Graduate employees at SIUC are hardworking, motivated and care greatly about the
work they do in service to our students. With the security of a collective
bargaining agreement and representation from the IEA/NEA, they will be able to
do even more.

McGrath said individual contacts were made over the last several semesters with
most of the eligible voters by a large core of union activists on campus and
through phone banks. "Through this campaign we found that GAs are tired of
onerous fee increases, stipends and basic benefits that lag behind peer
institutions, and less than desirable working conditions for many. We organized
to gain a voice and put to stop to the unilateral decisions that make a hard job
even harder."

While many of SIUC's graduate employees serve the university in non-academic
areas, this vote follows the organizing trend across Illinois and the nation by
contingent academic labor, now the majority of those teaching undergraduate
students at American colleges and universities.

Congratulations to the folks at SIUC as they head into bargaining their first contract.