NEIUPI

Meet our state representatives, March 20

l-wallis — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:13:56 +0000

The fate of education, health care, human services and public safety is in the hands of our state representatives. The Responsible Budget Coalition has invited state representatives, Deb Mell, John D’Amico, John Fritchey, Lou Lang, Joe Lyons, and Mike McAuliffe, to a Town Hall Forum on March 20 (Saturday) at 11 am. It is time for us to show up and convince these representatives to make the right decision. Information about the event and the Responsible Budget Coalition follows. Please consider attending the forum.

March 20th @ 11 am
Town Hall Forum
5216 W. Lawrence Ave
(Copernicus Center)
Chicago, Ill

What’s the Responsible Budget Coalition?

The Responsible Budget Coalition brings together many diverse organizations that represent and serve millions of Illinois residents. We are committed to building the support needed to solve Illinois’ budget crisis, prevent harmful cuts to essential public services, save jobs, eliminate the state’s long-term structural deficit, and make taxes fairer.

What’s the problem?

The Illinois General Assembly threatens or has already forced deep and damaging cuts to education, health care, human services, and public safety.

What’s the solution?

HB 174 is comprehensive tax reform to raise new revenue that’s desperately needed to close the state’s huge budget shortfall AND make taxes fairer. The bill would raise the income tax by 2 pennies on the dollar, broaden the sales tax base, and expand tax credits for middle-class and low-income taxpayers, homeowners and seniors.

Happy NEIU/UPI Hour, March 17

l-wallis — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:11:55 +0000

A team of colleagues have assessed the current climate and reported the overwhelming need for an NEIU/UPI social event. To that end, join your colleagues and meet new members of our community next Wednesday…

happy NEIU/UPI hour!!

Membership, Fair Share Payers, Members on Sabbatical (that’s you department chairs!!)
join us to celebrate the green of spring, St. Patrick’s Day, and our union!!!!
Hollywood Lounge
3301 West Bryn Mawr
(just east of school between Christiana and Spaulding)
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
4:30 – 7:30 p.m. and/or later

cash bar for drinks* and soft drinks,
bring yourself and two other members of the NEIUPI community,
have them bring two people,
let’s mix together and make a party

(* no union funds can be used for the purchase of alcoholic beverages)

Raise taxes or cut education

l-wallis — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:55:34 +0000

From the Tribune:

Not even close

“We cannot afford to duck our responsibilities.”

That’s how Gov. Pat Quinn opened his budget address Wednesday. Then he ducked.

He posited that we can “sacrifice the future of a generation of children” or we can raise the state income tax rate by 33 percent. But he set out a budget that would hack at school funding or whack taxpayers and would still leave the state with a grossly unbalanced spending plan.

Faculty Senate is seeking your input

l-wallis — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:55:15 +0000

Are you concerned about the state of shared governance at NEIU, the preservation of academic freedom, and/or campus climate, this is your opportunity to be heard? Members of the Faculty Senate would like to meet with and hear from you this Thursday, March 11 from 1:30-3:00 in the Lower Level Classroom of the Library.

A second meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 17th (hours to be determined) for those unable to attend this week’s meeting.

Stop by the UPI tables and pick up the latest information on the legislative initiatives designed to increase legislators’ awareness of higher education issues.

Funding (?) administrating perk by laying off workers

l-wallis — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:47:02 +0000

If you didn’t wake up cranky, the following may help you find that emotion. One of the UPI campuses is UIS (University of Illinois at Springfield – formerly Sangamon State). As you know the U of Illinois has decided to furlough its employees in response to the budget crisis. For those employees represented by collective bargaining, labor law requires that UI must bargain furloughs. For our few colleagues at UIS, the administration refused to bargain furloughs and instead laid off some of the poorest paid workers in the entire U of I system. Ellie Sullivan, UPI local 4100 President, responded with the following piece in the Sun Times:

U. of I. exec hardly sharing the pain

March 9, 2010

Some people just ruin things for the rest of us, and I put University of Illinois Chancellor Richard D. Ringeisen first in line.
While pulling down a whopping consulting fee of $273,500, this man is trying to balance the troubled budget of the university on the backs of the people who keep the place running. Three members of University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100 staff chapter are being laid off. Not for a couple of days, but for a total of 23 weeks — almost half the year.

Another reason to be ticked off and ready to take action…

l-wallis — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:44:12 +0000

Interesting ruling in New Jersey (not Illinois)….their appellate court rules that NJ is not required to pay millions owed to pension fund, teachers unions sought a constitutional amendment. Our state constitution guarantees our pension and as employees, we may our payments with each paycheck…even though constitutionally mandated, our legislators didn’t make their contribution….

How do you think an Illinois appellate court would rule?

Teachers lose pension ruling; Appellate panel says state can skip millions in payments

By LISA FLEISHER, STATE HOUSE BUREAU, North Jersey Media Group

In a ruling against the state’s largest teachers union, a three-member appellate court panel Thursday said New Jersey is not constitutionally required to pay the millions it owes every year into the fund for teachers’ pensions.

The decision came amid a fight in Trenton over how to fix the state’s underfunded pension plan, including a proposal that could make full funding a constitutional requirement.

Read the related article on nj.com

Salaries decreased for 32% and median raise was 0%

l-wallis — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:51:47 +0000

We are starting the “I am ticked” campaign at the UPI tables this week…the article below should be a good kick off reading to get you in the mood. It is time to take action against those threatening the health and education of Illinois residents. Can you imagine what will happen to K-12 education with the 17,000 teacher lay offs to be listed as part of the Governor’s budget address? What will this do to the job market for our recent and future graduates from the College of Education?

R U TICKED?

I am…in solidarity. Let’s make a change!

Salaries Fell for 32.6% of Faculty

March 8, 2010

The median salary change for faculty members in 2009-10 was 0 percent — and for many professors, no change would have been better than the decreases they experienced.
The figures on faculty salaries come from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, which is today releasing its annual report on faculty salaries. The CUPA-HR report focuses on overall trends and disciplinary averages. The American Association of University Professors, which is due to issue its report next month, also releases institution-by-institution information.

WIU and UPI reached tentative agreement

l-wallis — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:45:15 +0000

They started in July 2009.

Thought you’d like to witness the progress on another UPI campus…We have a bargaining session today. Drop by the tables today and tomorrow for an update.

Western, UPI Reach Five-Year Tentative Agreement

MACOMB, IL — Western Illinois University President Al Goldfarb and University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) WIU Chapter President John Miller announced a tentative agreement on a five-year contract for faculty and academic support staff.

Pending ratification by collective bargaining unit members and the WIU Board of Trustees, the agreement will set contract terms for the 2010-2011 through 2014-2015 academic years.

Tables, meetings and retirees this week

l-wallis — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:03:08 +0000

There is no bargaining session scheduled this week but we are having membership meetings and the tables in Village Square. John Murphy, former NEIU chapter president and former Local 4100 vice president, is recruiting retirees to help us with the tables this week. We are going to distribute info on the latest legislative actions as well as rallying our members. If you haven’t spent some time at the time please consider joining your colleagues for an hour or so this wednesday or thursday. Chat with the retirees and find out if life is better after you’ve done your time at NEIU. To sign up for table “sitting”, follow the directions below: The tables are set up on Wednesday and Thursday from 11:00 to 3:00 pm.

Instructions: go to http://upi-tabling.genbook.com

1) Click on the “UPI Table Volunteer” link
2) Click on the “No preference” link
3) Select the date you‘d like to volunteer
4) Click on the time you’d like to volunteer –(this will automatically register you for 1 hour)
5) Enter your details as prompted—(your phone number must include an area code)
6) Confirm the appointment

Bargaining updates and membership meetings

l-wallis — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:44:34 +0000

Membership meetings are scheduled next week. It is important that each department/program/unit has at least one representative at the meeting:

Wednesday, February 24, Student Union 003 – noon – 1 pm
Thursday, February 25, LWH (CLS) 1002 – 1:40 – 2:50 pm

Weekly update on negotiations

Your UPI negotiating team met with the administration team on Tuesday. Our team passed counter proposals for the Grievance article and the Leave without salary article. It looks like we are getting closer to agreement on Grievance. We continue to wait for the administrative response in the form of a counter proposal to Intellectual Property article that we passed to the administration in early January.

Last week we passed workload proposals for Teaching and Resource Professionals as well as Instructors and Academic Resource Professionals (formerly known as temporary Resource Professionals). We did not receive counter proposals from the administration for workload.

On Tuesday, your UPI negotiating team proposed the roll over of the current language in the following articles: 26 – Retention; 27 – Tenure and 28 – Promotion. The administration passed proposals (with changes to the current language) for the following articles: 17 – Information and Reporting; 22 – Employment Status Statement; 26 – Retention and 30 – Sanctions and Termination.

See you at the membership meetings next week…