Over 200 employees at Illinois State University have signed a petition claiming some non-union workers have been unfairly "overlooked" and should receive a raise by July 1. Petition organizers threatened to unionize if they don't get it — just like many other employee groups have done in recent years.
University workers such as office administrators, student advisors, IT and administrative aides do not currently have a contract guaranteeing raises. Several other ISU employee groups have unionized, most recently tenured and tenure-track faculty. Their contract locks in raises.
Organizers presented a petition at Friday's ISU Board of Trustees meeting, with 204 signatures. It requests the board “allocate appropriate funds to ensure a fair and equitable raise of at least 4% by July 1.”
“It is [the signatures on the petition] full of faculty, staff, directors, chairs. We see what's going on, and we're not happy, and I know you all are very aware of it, so I'm not saying anything new. I just want you to realize that it is not fair,” said Trish Gudeman, administrative aide in the Department of History, in public comment to the board.
The petition says "unrepresented employees at Illinois State University have been overlooked, leaving them the ones to bear the burden of the administrative cuts while the rest of the university receive an increase. Clearly, the university has the money to compensate ALL employees but has chosen to take care of only those who force their hand."
Stacy Albright is an administrative aide in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures who signed the petition. WGLT asked her at Friday's meeting if there's interest in unionizing.
"If that's the only thing that it's going to take for the administration to recognize us, then that's an avenue we're going to have to look at, yeah, sure," she said.
Added Gudeman: "If they continue to refuse an increase for the rest of us, then yeah, they can count on unionization happening across campus."
The petition also asks Board of Trustees to investigate why these workers were excluded from the opportunity to receive a raise and for the “implementation of transparent compensation policies to prevent future oversights.”
Gudeman also mentioned the need for worker pay to keep up with inflation.
“They're not getting the special other things, sure, fine, but you should at least be able to compensate for inflation and put that in your budget and plan on it,” said Gudeman. “You found it for the faculty, you found it for all the other unions, find it for the rest of us.”
While Gudeman said there is no set goal for the number of petition signees, the hope is that the petition leads to an increase for non-unionized workers.
“Nobody should have to bear the brunt of their short-sightedness. We should not have to be the ones that suffer because they didn't plan ahead,” said Gudeman.
“This is a non-negotiable," she added.
Half of ISU workers are unionized
Just over 50% of ISU employees are now unionized, represented by 17 collective bargaining units.
Rising expenses and lowered state investment in universities have continued to add pressure on ISU’s budget. Recently approved contracts with Faculty United ISU, the tenured and tenure track faculty union, and other bargaining units on campus include pay raises that will cost millions of dollars to implement.
In a recent WGLT interview, ISU President Aondover Tarhule acknowledged that and other recent contracts complicate efforts to close the structural deficit.
“It's a challenge. As you know, last year, we projected a deficit of about $9 million at the end of this fiscal year, and that's what we've been trying to address. And so as we negotiate more contracts that have a higher dollar amount, that adds to the overall expense, and we have to take that into account,” said Tarhule.
Non-union workers haven't received raises this fiscal year because of the structural deficit, and Tarhule acknowledged that may create pressure to increase unionization on campus. He said ISU has tried and will continue to try to make wage increases across campus when the money is available, noting union contracts that require pay increases must be honored, which puts non-union workers at a disadvantage.
“It's something I'm very mindful of. It's something I'm very sensitive to," said Tarhule. "We have many discussions about how to try to address this. The irony from my point of view, as more people unionize … eventually you get to a point where you have to start shedding people because then you can't pay everybody.”
Is ISU at that point?
“Not yet,” he said.
RISE initiative update
Also at Friday's meeting, Glen Nelson, vice president for finance and planning, gave an overview for where the Resilience, Innovation, Sustainability and Excellence [RISE] initiative stands at the moment. Nelson said the initiative itself is “on time and on budget.”
The university is currently operating at a deficit in its general fund. Nelson said that is being offset by increases in the auxiliaries and service funds.
One goal Nelson mentioned was to create a dedicated fund for the university's strategic initiatives. Other universities have such a fund, but ISU does not.
“So we have to look at, do we have to take money from reserves? Do we have to come back to you as the board to ask for those types of expenditures? And so we want to make sure the new model can operate within this framework.”
In the fall the university plans to seek feedback from the overall campus community on what is working and what is not within the budget.
“I will have failed if we roll out a model that doesn't live within those guiding principles and that framework, and so we'll be expecting the campus to give us feedback on that,” said Nelson.
There were also a few takeaways from the initiative in terms of avenues for improvement.
The university does not use "position control," a system that manages based on job roles rather than the employees that hold positions. Nelson said it would have helped when budget issues come up like they did last year.
“If I had position control in place, I could immediately inform my Cabinet colleagues that if we stop hiring for the rest of the term, how much money will that save us? I can't answer that quick question with the way we are built today.”
Approved resolutions
The board approved a number of items, including:
- Authorizing up to $41.5 million in construction expenditures for the College of Engineering. This funds project and classroom construction, lab and audio/visual equipment for the project at 1709 General Electric Road in Bloomington. It also allows the university to enter into contracts with contractors, vendors and suppliers.
- Authorizing up to $1.2 million for repairs to parking garages on South University and School Street.
- A contract with University Foundation for in-kind consideration not to exceed $4.7 million.
- A two-year agreement with Connect Transit not to exceed $1.5 million and lasting until June 30, 2027. The prior contract lasted until June 30 of this year.
- A one-year extension of the university’s strategic plan. The plan was first approved last May, with the first year of the plan being dedicated to implementation planning. The additional year is expected to better help the university reach the goals outlined in the plan.
- A contract renewal with sports supply vendor BSN for ISU Athletics merchandise. The ISU Athletic Department determined the quality of goods and services has been consistent with department needs through the first four years of its relationship with BSN. The contract was extended another three years at a cost not to exceed $2 million.
