In 2004, the teachers’ union at NEIU went on strike for 19 days. This was after contract negotiations failed. Earlier that year, the budget was decreased 8.2 percent from fiscal year (FY) 2003 to FY 2004. The governor’s proposed FY 2009 budget is about $2.2 million less than the FY 2003 budget.
Governor Blagojevich’s NEIU budget for FY 2009 is $370,000 less than FY 2008, a 0.009 percent decrease. This has made the University Professionals of Illinois’ (UPI) Local 4100 unsatisfied with the budget. The total requested appropriations for NEIU’s FY 2009 is $40,400,700. In FY 2003, NEIU received $42,585,400 from the state and $39,077,700 for FY 2004. With current inflation trends, the actual value of the FY 2009 appropriations is diminished even further.
“[Blagojevich’s] suggestion that Illinois’ public universities should not be included in ‘education’ spending is deplorable,” stated a press release sent out by the UPI.
“No one seriously believes that education stops at the 12th grade. Yet, our Governor continues to stop the flow of funding at that 12th-grade level, forcing our public universities to scrape by with funding that doesn’t even match 2003 levels,” said UPI president Sue Kaufman.
“It was about a basic increase of salaries,” said Therese Schuepfer, UPI’s NEIU chapter president, commenting on the 2004 strike.
This time is not different, but Schuepfer explained that both sides brought outsiders to the negotiations prior to the 2004 strike, and that “was a mistake.” She commented, “When it came to the battle of the outsiders, the real participants in the negotiations were left to the wayside.” She went on to say that they would keep it someone from NEIU or UPI, if it came to that.
“One of the concerns is that there are a growing number of instructors that are not given the same kind of resources,” Schuepfer said, talking about the amount of instructors to a room and the concerns about this year’s contract. She commented on one instructor who was sharing the room with three others. She also stated that money was an important issue.
At this time she said they are at the fact-finding stage in working out a new contract. This means discussing issues and relaying them to an administrative team.
The union’s contract ends at the end of August. In early April, union members will lobby for more money.