March 19, 2026 ILLINOIS - 
 
Today, unionized staff and faculty at UIS voted overwhelmingly to authorize their respective Bargaining Teams to call a strike if the administration continues stonewalling in contract negotiations.
Notices of intent to strike were promptly filed with the UIS administration. In response, the university mass-mailed campus claiming it has made "fiscally responsible" offers to unionized workers.
In reality, it offered faculty NO cost of living raises in 2025-26 and staff a 17 CENT/hour raise. When inflation is running more than 3%, this is effectively a pay cut! This, from a university system with a $7 BILLION budget and $650 MILLION in state funding. This, from administrators that happily gave themselves cost-of-living raises this year.
For decades UIS has balanced its books on the backs of low-paid staff and under-paid faculty. No more! We're done! The UIS administration needs to come to the table with proposals for fair compensation and raises that keep pace with inflation, the resources we need to do our work, and no 'take backs' on previous contract gains!
If it doesn't, our members have said loud and clear: we're ready to strike!
FAIR CONTRACT NOW!
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