UIC’s commitment to good-faith negotiations with UIC United Faculty

The University of Illinois Chicago continues its negotiations with the UIC United Faculty, the labor union representing the bargaining units of tenure/tenure-track and nontenure-track faculty with 51% time or more, including visiting faculty, at UIC. The union does not include faculty in the colleges of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy or the School of Law.

The previous four-year collective bargaining agreement between UIC and UICUF expired Aug. 15, 2022, but faculty union members have continued to receive compensation under the terms of the previous agreement as both parties work to reach a new contract.

Since April, the university and union have held 17 bargaining sessions and, recently, both parties agreed to add an independent mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to assist the parties in working toward a resolution. The mediator joined for the 17th bargaining session, which took place Oct. 31.

Thus far the discussions between UIC and UICUF have led to 13 contract article agreements, including academic freedom, management rights, diversity and affirmative action, access to personnel file, no strike/no lockout and more. All remaining articles have been shared and are being negotiated, including economic proposals.

It is not uncommon for parties to be far apart where, as here, the parties have only exchanged initial economic proposals. Even so, and without the benefit of additional bargaining, UICUF announced after the Oct. 25 meeting that its members will have the opportunity to vote Nov. 14-15 to authorize its bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary. This does not mean that strike will occur. If approved by the membership, the union will have to file a Notice of Intent to Strike with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board and allow for a 10-day waiting period.

While the economic-related articles are currently unresolved, we are eager to continue discussions as we believe much can be resolved through continued dialogue and the involvement of a federal mediator. It is important to note that the university recognizes the importance of its faculty and that under the last negotiated contract, the faculty union received the best guarantees of salary increases of any employee group or union.

UIC continues its commitment to good-faith negotiations with UICUF and will make every effort to reach an equitable and fiscally responsible contract agreement that addresses the needs of our faculty and the best interests of our entire campus community.

To keep our campus community informed, the university has created a website, facultybargaining.uic.edu, to answer questions and share updates. We will continue to keep you updated with additional information, as needed, while our talks progress.

We look forward to the next bargaining session scheduled Nov. 7.