The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on Sept. 3 certified the Graduate Employee Organization/AFT at the University of Illinois at Chicago as the bargaining agent representing more than 1,200 graduate employees—making it the first campus union certified under the new Illinois "card check" law. Under card check recognition legislation that Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed last year, filing a majority of cards confers automatic recognition once the IELRB certifies the unit.

GEO-UIC co-president Eric Smith noted that many "knew the precedent we were setting and what we were up against" in being the first union to fall under the card check law. For the graduate employees, it was a long and frustrating process as the university stalled at seemingly every corner. At one point, the university revised the list of graduate employees eligible for the union, giving the GEO only hours to submit enough additional signatures to constitute a majority.

For the size of this unit and its diversity and composition, this was a trying process, but they were able to gather more than enough signatures to satisfy the university and the labor board. In the end, the GEO-UIC filed cards signed by 629 out of 1,236 eligible grad employees and the IELRB was able to certify the bargaining unit. 

Smith hopes that in future cases there will be "better protections through out the card check process" so that more unions can gain certification.

But now, after nearly a decade-long campaign for recognition, the graduate employees at the UIC are looking to enter into their first contract negotiations with the university in November. Smith says the members are "anxious to start negotiations" and are thankful for the organizing help they got from other groups, including the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the GEO at the Urbana-Champaign campus. [Lindsay Albert]