On day 17 of the AFSCME Local 1110 strike, union representatives presented the president of Illinois State University with nearly 7,000 petition signatures urging his negotiation of a fair deal.
AFSCME was assisted by state Rep. Sharon Chung and state Sen. Dave Koehler, both Democrats representing parts of Bloomington-Normal. Chung and Koehler presented the signatures to ISU President Aondover Tarhule on Friday in a private meeting which lasted just over 15 minutes.
While multiple union members were present on the fourth floor of Hovey Hall outside Tarhule’s office, he only agreed to meet with the present elected officials.
“We conveyed the message that this is putting pressure on us as legislators as well, because we’re trying to fight for more funding for the university and our colleagues are all asking, ‘What’s going on with the strike at ISU?’” Koehler said after leaving the meeting.
Chung said the talk was a good one, though it is not their position to negotiate on behalf of the union.
Before the meeting, Koehler and Chung both gave remarks in support of the union. Chung reiterated her position from an Illinois House committee hearing in Springfield on Thursday.
Koehler agreed with her sentiment that the university was not negotiating in good faith. The university has refused to alter its final proposal to AFSCME in recent weeks, and the two have not scheduled any further negotiation sessions.
“Yes, I do, because if they were, we’d not have a strike,” Koehler told WGLT.
ISU says its current offer "is competitive with the pay for comparable roles in the local marketplace." It says all entry-level employees would earn $17.76 or more, and would climb to $29.29 per hour on the high end. ISU says "all but two positions in the bargaining unit would be at or above the median pay offered by other employers in Bloomington-Normal for similar positions."
“We must balance the market competitiveness against what we know it will cost students and our ability to attract them. That is the overall philosophy that guides our negotiations with every group,” Tarhule told lawmakers Thursday.
ISU says there are three key sticking points:
- Pay increases. ISU says it's offered AFSCME five years of guaranteed annual increases, but that AFSCME wants more.
- Whether AFSCME workers will get raises when other, non-union ISU workers get them. ISU says AFSCME wants a clause that "would guarantee both annual contractual increases and, in the event the annual increase for [non-union] employees under the campus wage program exceeds the negotiated contractual increases, the difference between the negotiated increase and the campus wage program."
- AFSCME wants a retroactive pay raise back to July 2025, representing what they missed when their contract expired during negotiations. ISU says it told AFSCME back in 2024 that it would "no longer [offer] retroactive pay in future contracts."
WGLT has reached out to an ISU spokesperson for additional comment on Friday's petition delivery.
Petition and community support
The union’s petition reads, “Come back to the bargaining table and settle a fair contract with fair pay for ISU buildings, grounds and dining services workers … President Tarhule's new performance review says he must do more to improve employee morale. That starts with paying ISU employees a living wage.”
Clint Mackle is a culinary supervisor for the university’s event management, dining and hospitality department, one of more than 300 AFSCME members on campus who are holding out for a fair contract.
Mackle said his colleagues appreciate the support from their community and the students, some of whom staged a class walkout Thursday.
“We appreciate the support. We just wish the president would listen,” he said. “The community supports us and wants us to have a fair contract. The president and the board of trustees ... they’ll break before we do.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey was also on campus Friday, speaking in support of the strike.
Koehler said the petition shows support on the part of multiple groups.
“I think people appreciate the students, especially appreciate the work that the AFSCME members do,” he said. “They are the ones that really keep this place running, whether it’s dormitories, whether it’s the classrooms. So, these are essential workers at this university, and they need to be treated fairly.”
Potential strikebreakers
Mackle, the culinary supervisor, agreed with the elected officials in attendance that the university is not negotiating in good faith. On top of that, he said the university is lying, referencing the union’s lawsuit alleging ISU of hiring strikebreakers.
Tarhule denied this at the committee meeting in Springfield. ISU says it "follows a state procurement process that ensures it is compliant with the law."
"They’re on campus right now, we have video. We can show you the [job] ads,” Mackle said.
“He’s maliciously representing the truth to present a better face to the public, and that’s just bad faith negotiation. It’s bad faith as a president of a university, [to] just flat out lie,” Mackle said.
Koehler declined to say whether he thinks the university has broken the law by allegedly hiring strikebreakers.
“But if they are using strikebreakers, and then that shows more of a sign of not bargaining in good faith, because if you’re bargaining in good faith and you meet with the workers, meet with the union, you try to work out your differences, and you put people back to work,” he said.
