UIC are on strike.

The Chicago Tribune reporter Naheed Rajwani wrote about the story on Tuesday. The strike started yesterday when University of Illinois at Chicago faculty members picketed on the Quad of the East Campus. The strike is drawing attention to the contract negotiations between the university and the union that represents about 1,150 full-time tenured and nontenured faculty members.

According to organizes this was the campus’ first faculty-led walkout and was a last resort. They acknowledge this is a short-term plan with the hopes of a long-term payout with the investment in education. Members of the Campus Worker and Student Coalition and SEUI 73 came out to show support for the unionized faculty.

Students drew attention to the working conditions of teachers directly impacting their learning conditions. Of course, students are also concerned about the strike’s impact on their coursework. To which all I can say is fuck those kids. Sure, it would suck if the faculty walked out for a month, but we’re talking two days. We’re talking about the working conditions of people verses a slight inconvenience.

UIC’s faculty union was certified in 2012, and it hasn’t finalized its first contract with the university even though they’ve had dozens of bargaining sessions. The sticking point seems to be (according to the university) the minimum salaries for lectures to be competitive with other institutions’ lectures. The university does acknowledge they need to increase wages. The union says the university’s latest proposal fall short. The university is proposing a 3.25 percent salary increase, while the union is asking for 4.5 percent. The union is asking that tenured faculty make a minimum of $60 thousand per year and nontenured between $30 and $45 thousand. Bargaining sessions are scheduled for Friday, February 24, and March 3.

Obviously, I’m with the faculty on this one. I have some friends there in Chicago watching and protesting with them so my Facebook feed is kind of better than Twitter on this one.