=========================== Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) IFT/AFT AFL-CIO 1001 S. Wright St. Champaign, IL 61820 Phone: (217) 344-8283 Fax: (217) 344-8281 http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/taunion IN CHICAGO UNIONS RALLY FOR JUSTICE URBANA-- Friday, 8 August 1997 On Thursday, 7 August 1997, a delegation of Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) unionists, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, traveled to Chicago to participate in a major "Justice For Janitors" union rally, sponsored by the AFL-CIO. Nearly 800 unionists gathered at Federal Plaza in Chicago's Loop to demonstrate their solidarity with the campaign to gain recognition for janitorial employees that have been attempting to organize against great corporate opposition. GEO Treasurer Dennis Grammenos was called on stage to deliver the opening speech of the rally. He stressed the need for solidarity among workers and the need for an activist labor movement. Grammenos outlined the history of the drive by graduate employees at the University of Illinois to unionize and pointed to the refusal of the university's administration to recognize the GEO. He explained how this refusal comes despite a large authorization-for-representation card drive in April 1996 that gathered the signatures of 3,226 graduate employees demanding the recognition of GEO by the administration. Furthermore, Grammenos pointed out that in April of this year the GEO won union elections --run according to IELRB rules-- in a two-to-one landslide. "To this day," he said, "the administration is refusing to recognize the democratic right of its graduate employees to unionize. They are hiding behind the thin veil of legal posturing as they argue that graduate workers are not employees but 'merely students'." At several points during Grammenos' speech, the Federal Plaza echoed with chants of "G-E-O, G-E-O" as rally participants expressed their solidarity with the struggles of the graduate employees. Grammenos was followed on stage by Cathy Colson, of the GEO at the University of Illinois in Chicago, who spoke of the campaign by graduate employees to organize at her campus. "We draw inspiration from our brothers and sisters in Urbana-Champaign," Colson said, "and we are strengthened by their resolve not to waiver in their struggle for Justice." Rich Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO and president-emeritus of the UMWA, took the stage to call on corporate America to respect the right of workers to unionize. "And that includes the University of Illinois," he added. In his closing remarks, Trumka shouted "Justice for the janitors! Justice for the GEO!" as the crowd exploded in cheers and applause, followed by chants of "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" Earlier in the day the GEO delegation attended a rally at Teamster City, in Chicago's Near West Side, where AFL-CIO president John Sweeney gave the keynote address. Hundreds of unionists signed letters calling on University of Illinois chancellor Michael Aiken to recognize the democratic right of graduate employees to unionize and to stop the university administration's "shameful union-busting campaign against its workers." Both John Sweeney and Rich Trumka signed letters and expressed their strong support for the GEO. GEO staffer Erin Shackelford, who attended the rallies, was impressed by the show of support for the GEO from the hundreds of unionists that had gathered from all over Illinois and adjoining states. "It is folks like this that have a lot to say to the university's administration," she explained. "They are tax-payers, they are parents, and they are union-workers. They are upset at the anti-labor tactics that the administration has been using and they demand that the University of Illinois respect the democratic right of its graduate employees to unionize." ==========