UI Board of Trustees Silences UIC Worker

The University of Illinois Board of Trustees denied a worker’s request to testify during their July 20 meeting in Chicago.

Local 73 Vice President and UIC Administrative Aide LaVitta “Vee” Steward requested to speak during public comments about the issues the UIC workers are fighting to improve at the bargaining table. On July 17, Steward received a response via email denying her request because her proposed topic deals with issues under negotiation.

“As a worker and community member, I should have the right to testify in front of the Board on issues that we’re bargaining over. Instead, the Board chooses to silence us and disregard our opinion on how to make UIC better for the workers and the people we serve. Local 73 wants to partner with the Board of Trustees and management to make UIC an institution that serves working families across the state. The least they can do is listen to our vision of how to move UIC in that direction. But they’ve shown us that they don’t want to work together; they’re not even willing to hear what we have to say,” said Steward.

Local 73 has been in negotiations with UIC since June 13. Union members are bargaining around three principles: getting UIC to take care of the workers who take care of campus; making UIC an employer, provider, and educator of choice; turning UIC into an institution that values the common good.

The Board of Trustees is a 13-member unelected board that oversees the U of I system’s $7.7 billion budget. The Board approves the collective bargaining agreements for all campus unions. The U of I Board of Trustees have previously denied Champagne-Urbana workers the right to testify about issues raised in collective bargaining, which resulted in Local 73 pursuing legal action against the University.