Graduate and teaching assistants may decide to unite this month, which could bring the University to another union bargaining table.

We are still researching and seeing if there’s support on this campus, Graduate and Professional Student Council President Tim Hoerman said.

The potential union is unprecedented for graduate and teaching assistants at SIUC but not for other campuses. Graduate and teaching assistant unions thrive at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Michigan.

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Attempts at unionization have also been made at the University of Illinois. According to an April 1997 story in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) at the University of Illinois staged a mock election to unionize. They also filed petitions with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board for a union representative.

U of I administrators labeled the election a publicity stunt, reinforcing their opposition to a graduate student union. A judge also ruled that graduate students are not eligible to unionize under the Illinois Educational Relations Act. However, the decision did not render unionization attempts illegal.

The GEO at Illinois is recognized as a union by other unions but not the University, posing problems for collective bargaining talks.

The case was taken before the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board a year ago, and a decision is expected to be handed down this month.

Hoerman said a decision by SIUC graduate and teaching assistants to unionize would not hinge upon the outcome at the University of Illinois but acknowledged they are waiting to see what happens. A decision is expected to be made sometime this month.

It looks like it’s going to be a favorable decision, Hoerman said. If we determine it’s approved and we find a leader, then we believe all systems will be go.

But Richard Falvo, acting dean of the Graduate School, says U of I has about four times as many graduate and teacher assistants, so the decision may not be as relevant to SIUC.

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Also unlike U of I, graduate students have a voting voice on SIUC’s graduate council, he said.

However, if the Board decides in favor of the fledgling Illini union, Falvo anticipates an attempt at organizing graduate and teacher assistants here.

If that’s what happens, then we’ll deal with them the way the administration has dealt with the faculty union, but you can’t say there is no other answer, he said.

Hoerman said if union organization is to occur, the leader in the collective bargaining process would have to be someone who is not directly connected to GPSC.

We’re trying to find a person to act as a point person, he said. The leader would have to be a completely different entity.

Graduate students would unionize to put themselves on an equal footing with other unionized groups on campus, former GPSC President Mark Terry said.

The logic is at this point in time civil service employees are unionized and the faculty is unionized, he said. We could be at a competitive disadvantage if we don’t unionize.

Terry said despite the current haranguing between University officials and the faculty union association in contract talks, he does not expect that the University would impede unionization attempts.

I would not anticipate any wholesale fight from the University, he said. They realize the nature of the process.

Terry said although a decision is expected to be made sometime this month, there is no guarantee it will occur because previous labor board decisions have taken longer than anticipated.

Graduate unions at other universities have provided the same types of benefits enjoyed by faculty unions, which is why Terry says SIUC graduate students need a union.

Without a union, we would be unable to work in the legislative process and the legal process to get our share of federal working benefits, he said.

Research shows that graduate and teaching assistants are a vital part to the University. As an example, Terry cited a study in which the University decided that having a doctoral program in history was less costly than not having one.

If you didn’t have graduate students teaching it would be much more expensive in regards to teaching and class sizes, he said. We think that is an indication that not only are we graduate students but also employees providing a service to undergraduate students.

But John McKillip, associate dean of the Graduate School, says the move by graduate and teacher assistants is unnecessary.

A union like that is neither needed nor appropriate, he said. We have a very good working relationship with our graduate students and a very responsible grad school.

We intend to keep it that way.