At 9:30 p.m. on March 13, 2002, the administration at the University of Illinois agreed to meet with the Graduate Employees’ Organization/IFT/AFT to determine the composition of a bargaining unit for the purposes of a union election. The agreement came after a daylong sit-in and intensive negotiations between the GEO leadership and Richard Herman, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

The day began when close to 50 graduate employees and their supporters took possession of the University of Illinois Administration Building in the morning and blocked the entrances. The building houses the offices of the university president and system chancellor, as well as the office of public affairs. The sit-in was part of escalating demands for negotiations with the U of I administration and board of trustees, who were beginning a two-day meeting on campus, just a block away. Speaking at the beginning of the protest, GEO Co-President Uma Pimplaskar stated: "We're here to demand that the board of trustees and university administration negotiate an out-of-court settlement that respects the express wishes of graduate employees for union representation."

The GEO’s intent was to pressure the university to recognize the graduate employees' right to have a union and bargain a contract. Such recognition would allow the union to represent the 5,000 teaching, research and graduate assistants at the UIUC, who have been organized since 1996 but have been stymied by numerous legal actions. "Our plan was to maintain a climate of obstruction on campus so the administration knows that this will go on until we have a union," says Mike Stewart, a field representative for the GEO.

At 4:00 p.m., the provost arrived with a handwritten offer proposing to begin unit determination discussions, although the proposal included no time parameters. After a counter proposal and four hours of negotiation with the GEO leadership, the administration agreed to "meet at least once a week beginning March 29, 2002 with a goal of reaching an agreement by April 28, 2002 on the composition of a bargaining unit. The parties hope that substantial progress will be made by April 15, 2002 so that said progress can be communicated to the various constituencies. The final agreement would be jointly submitted to the Labor Board to certify a bargaining unit and conduct an election."

The membership of the GEO voted in February to hold a three-day work stoppage in April, a possibility the GEO is not willing to rule out at this point. For now, however, they are hopeful that their long fight for recognition will finally be realized. "After nearly a decade of organizing, the University administration will be negotiating with the GEO for the first time," said Pimplaskar "this is a real tribute to the power of direct action and the unwavering dedication of hundreds of GEO activists over the years."