AFSCME Local 1110 members went back to work at Illinois State University [ISU] this week at the ratification of their contract, but there are still hurt feelings after the strike.
The five-year contract approved Tuesday ended the nearly month-long strike, the longest in the history of ISU.
But at the university’s quarterly board of trustees meeting Friday, union president Chuck Carver said that while they are happy about returning to work, they are still upset with university leadership.
“All of this is not well, so we urge you, the members of the board of trustees, who have the ultimate responsibility for the guidance and direction of this institution, to take a hard look at the top leadership you have chosen and the decisions they made that took this university down a very problematic path,” he said.
Carver called out Vice President of Finance and Planning Glen Nelson, pointing out his arrival to the university came the same month as when contract negotiations began.
“Those negotiations were immediately bogged down by demands from the university to take away basic provisions that ensured fairness in our contract,” Carver said. “Basic provisions that we have long had and that are common in many other contracts on this campus and other university campuses in Illinois.”
“Basic provisions that have very small cost," he said.
He also criticized ISU President Aondover Tarhule's remarks during a visit to Springfield.
“Those misrepresentations and actions of the university leadership damaged the university’s reputation. We need lawmakers to be advocates and allies for this university,” Carver said.
Contract's cost
In the final contract, ratified by more than 95% of AFSCME’s members, the union got much of what it wanted. Workers received lump-sum payments which will be worth more than the retroactive raises they first asked for.
Nelson confirmed the contract is valued at $7.5 million. While costs were a sticking point, Tarhule said after the trustees meeting he preferred not to relitigate the strike.
“We got to a point where both the administration and AFSCME felt like we had reached a deal that we both could support, and I think that’s the most important thing that the strike is over, AFSCME is back and we have a staff taking care of the campus and we look forward to continuing to work together,” said Tarhule.
Through the strike had ended days before, comments like Carver’s are a reminder of the tense feelings the matter brought to campus. Tarhule said it demonstrates the value the staff brings to the university.
“Everybody who works here, there has never been a devaluation or a sense of, certainly from the administration side, a sense of anger or disappointment or anything like that,” Tarhule said. “It was just a negotiation, and sometimes negotiations can be difficult where we’re trying to reach a point that we could both agree with and live with.”
Tarhule said none of the administration viewed the negotiations are personal.
To work on refreshing the relationship, Tarhule said the administration wants to continue to show their appreciation to staff.
“That’s a message that we were working on even before the strike was over,” he said. “We were already thinking about reintegration, how do we make sure that when people come back, they continue to feel that they belong, that they are proud, not just about the work.”
Input from lawmakers
Throughout the strike, many local, state and federal elected officials pledged their support for AFSCME.
Nelson said the input of everyone involved, including lawmakers, was valuable.
“We were able to get back to the table, because everyone wanted us to get back to the table and we wanted to get back to the table,” he said.
During Nelson and Tarhule’s visit to Springfield, they spoke to a higher education committee and made the case ISU needed more funding.
“More funding comes from simply looking at the data that we are the lowest funded per student university by far in the state of Illinois,” he said.
Nelson recalled a state legislator asked Tarhule if more state funding would put the university in a better position to negotiate.
“And his response was ‘yes,’ and that would not just be for AFSCME but for all workers across campus,” said Nelson.
