U Of I Non-Tenure Union Holds Work-In After Last Week’s Strike
Members of the Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition hold a 'work-in' outside the Henry Administration Building. Twitter photo/NTFC Local #6546
A faculty union at the University of Illinois' Urbana campus that went on a two-day strike last week plans another work action. Members of the Nontenure Faculty Coalition Local 6546 say they're holding a two-day work-in Tuesday and Wednesday.
The News-Gazette reports members will do grading, research and hold office hours at the school's Henry Administration Building from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. those days. A bargaining session with a federal mediator is scheduled Wednesday.
The union is amid contract negotiations with the university that have dragged on since October 2014. The contract would be the group's first with the university. The union that represents about 500 faculty, lecturers, and lab is seeking multi-year contracts for its members.
"We have gotten no substantive response since our strike," said the union on its Facebook page Monday. "Join us in showing the value of our work and keeping up the pressure on the Administration to ensure we get real progress at the bargaining table on Wednesday 4/27."
Union members say they want to put pressure on administrators to get a contract. Administrators say they believe they're facilitating negotiations.