NULWU blog

  We’re back! It’s been a while since our last post, but we have a good reason for our radio silence. Since our last meeting with the University in November we have been hard at work on preparing for the economic phase of bargaining. The good news is that this work has paid off (we hope literally) and on January 17, we delivered our package of economic proposals to the University bargaining team! First, we counterproposed on two outstanding non-economic proposals: Union Membership and Dues: we continue to negotiate over whether the University will process deductions when employees have opted to contribute to COPE, which is SEIU’s political action committee. COPE funds support legislative efforts to improve workers’ rights in Illinois and nationally. Again, we consider an elective deduction of this sort to be no more difficult to process than those the University already processes for payroll deductions for transit cards, parking passes, or the NU Cares fund. Furloughs and Layoffs: whil