FYI: Union tells UI it intends to strike

News-Gazette
Thursday November 8, 2007

Building and food service workers at the University of Illinois have notified the university of their intent to strike.

But if a strike occurs, it's not expected to happen until after the union's next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 26, with the university and a federal mediator. ...

Union members have been working without a contract since the end of July 2006, when their last contract expired. After several meetings failed to yield a new contract, the union voted for a strike option in August.

Last month the union filed the intent to strike notice with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board and notified the university. The union is required to give a minimum 10-day notice, but that does not mean the union will strike this week or any time soon, Hillier said.

...

Among the issues yet to be resolved: wages. The university has offered a 2.5 percent raise for both bargaining units, the food service and the building service workers. But that raise was only to be retroactive for the building service workers, not the food service workers, according to Hillier.

Also still in negotiation is the issue of campus parking rates. ... The union has proposed a sliding scale for parking fees, meaning employees who earn less would pay less for parking. A campus parking permit currently costs $427 annually for faculty or staff.

The university rejected the union's last offer regarding parking rates, according to the union.

...

However, she did say a strike by the food service workers and building service workers would affect the level of service university housing could provide to its residents.

"But we would work to keep the impact to a minimum. We have plans in place to keep the food service and building operations at a standard of service that should not significantly interfere with the experience of living on campus," she said.

For building maintenance, the main objective when covering jobs would be to clean, except for dusting, public areas in order of priority, beginning with restrooms, then on to hallways, entrances, stairs and elevators. After those tasks are completed, other work would be done by priority, such as removing trash, cleaning chalkboards and dust mopping floors.

Find this article at:
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2007/11/08/union_tells_uiit_intends_to_strike

FYI: New Global Studies (new peer-reviewed electronic journal)

The Berkeley Electronic Press is pleased to announce the launch of a major new peer-reviewed journal:

NEW GLOBAL STUDIES (NGS)

Editors:
Nayan Chanda (Yale University)
Akira Iriye (Harvard University)
Bruce Mazlish (MIT)

Managing editor:
Kenneth Weisbrode (Harvard University)

New Global Studies is the first journal to approach contemporary globalization as a whole, and across disciplinary lines. It draws from history, sociology, anthropology, political science, and international relations to study the past and present of today's globalizing process. Topics include the patterns and local effects of economic globalization, global media networks, preservation of the global environment, transnational manifestations of culture, and the methodology of global studies itself. New Global Studies is an essential resource: a single journal for those who are interested in global affairs and the contemporary history of globalization, both broadly and in depth.

To view any of the articles in question, simply click on the links below
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, 2007

ARTICLES

David E.H. Edgerton "The Contradictions of Techno-Nationalism and Techno-Globalism: A Historical Perspective".
http://www.bepress.com/ngs/vol1/iss1/art1

Jenifer L. Van Vleck "The 'Logic of the Air': Aviation and the Globalism of the 'American Century'".
http://www.bepress.com/ngs/vol1/iss1/art2

Timothy H.B. Stoneman "An 'African' Gospel: American Evangelical Radio in West Africa, 1954-1970".
http://www.bepress.com/ngs/vol1/iss1/art3

COMMENTARY

Yi-Fu Tuan "Power, Modernity and Traditional Cultures".
http://www.bepress.com/ngs/vol1/iss1/art4

REVIEW ESSAYS

Daniel J. Sargent "School of Zbigniew".
http://www.bepress.com/ngs/vol1/iss1/art5

Phyllis Thompson "Food for the Masses".
http://www.bepress.com/ngs/vol1/iss1/art6


To submit your next paper to New Global Studies, visit http://www.bepress.com/ngs, and click "Submit Article."

"Best mom" chosen as face of Korean currency

"Best mom" chosen as face of currency
Tue Nov 6, 2007 9:17am EST

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's central bank on Monday chose the face of Korean motherhood as the first woman to be featured on its banknotes, but women's rights groups say the selection only reinforces sexist stereotypes.

Shin Saimdang, known for raising a famed Confucian scholar and having a deft hand in painting, will grace the new 50,000 won ($55) note when it debuts in early 2009, the Bank of Korea said.

Women's groups say her selection bolsters the idea that mothers should stay at home and devote their lives to their children's education.

Shin, whose nickname is "wise mother," gave birth to the 16th-century scholar Yi I, also known by his pen name Yulgok. She is celebrated for placing her son on the path to fame.

The rest of the article can be found here.

Other: USPS Eliminates Surface Mail for Overseas Shipping (Sign Petition!)

As Becky wrote in a message to the list, "This is important for anyone who will be shipping books internationally from the US. The shipping rates have skyrocketed due to the elimination of surface mail (and M-bags in particular). Members of the H-ASIA listserv have started a petition to challenge the Postal Service's decision. If interested, please feel free to sign this online petition."

-------

"US POSTAL SERVICE ELIMINATES SURFACE SHIPPING OUTSIDE THE US: Many of you have generously collected and shipped critically important books (M Bags), school, medical, and craft supplies to ----. There is no other method of shipping items [outside the USA] other than by post--or personal delivery by a traveler. In the recent postal rate hike--the USPS has eliminated all surface and therefore 'reasonable' cost shipping outside the US. I was astounded when I presented an "M" Bag of science books at the Post Office to be told that my 30 pound box would not cost $30 but would cost $167 instead!

A group of individuals and organizations conducting various types of aid efforts around the world have been hit hard by this change and have banded together to try to find a way to accomplish our mission statements. ... [We hope to alert other interested parties regarding the problems resulting from ]the loss of the "M" Bag and small packet surface shipments outside the US."

For more information contact Shannon Brown and Lance Cole at
zikomo@easystreet.com
http://www.petitiononline.com/zikomo/petition.html

fyi: Google search inside this book--Now available in Japanese

Perhaps you've already discovered that books.google.com is a great way to search the content of books for key words (especially books that are poorly indexed or not indexed at all). If this is new to you, take a look at the right sidebar in the picture. As you may know, Google has worked with some major university and public libraries to scan millions of books. Most of them only allow for a limited preview, but that's generallylly enough to find what you're looking for, assuming you've got the book in hand.

Now, at long last, this is available in Japanese! Voila: books.google.co.jp. According to this Asahi Shinbun article, only a few tens of thousands of books are available so far, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

fyi: FLB to become School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics

It's official...

Board expands programs of study available to University students - News: "The [Illinois Board of Higher Education] ... approved a University school of literatures, cultures and linguistics which will offer more than 30 languages associated with literature and cultures, and a permanent Technology and Entrepreneur Center.

The school of literatures, cultures and linguistics will bring together the departments of classics, East Asian languages and cultures, French, Germanic languages and literatures, linguistics, Slavic languages and literatures, and Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

It will also house the comparative and world literature program, the study of religion program, the division of English as an international language and the unit for cinema studies. "

FYI: Graduate employees hold rally for higher pay

News-Gazette, Thursday December 7, 2006
By Christine Des Garennes

With temperatures hovering around freezing and less than a week to go before final exams begin, University of Illinois graduate employees took a break from studying and grading Wednesday to rally on campus for higher pay.

The Graduate Employees' Organization and the UI have been negotiating for a new contract since April. Several rallies and more than a dozen bargain sessions later, the two sides are still in discussions. Recently, tensions rose between the UI and the union when they started negotiating wages.

The current minimum graduate stipend – the salary a graduate student earns as a research assistant or teaching assistant – is $12,220. [...] Under the current UI proposal, the stipend would rise by 2.5 percent to $12,586 for 2006-2007. For 2007-2008, assistants would make a minimum of $12,963 and in 2008-2009 the minimum would increase to $13,354.

But that's not enough to cover the rising costs of living for a student, said union members.

[...] "Our own minimum stipend doesn't meet the published figures (by the UI's Office of Admissions and Records) for what it takes to live in Champaign-Urbana," Simeone said.

According to that office's Web site, graduate student expenses average close to $14,000 a year in Champaign-Urbana for room, board and other living expenses.

Also at issue are health care costs and the other student fees the graduate employees pay the university. [...]

The health care premium for a graduate employee is $256 per semester or $756 a year. But add a spouse and children to the plan, and graduate employees could spend more than $1,000 per semester for health coverage.

"For some students it's more cost effective to fly back to their home country to receive care there, and that includes the cost of airfare," Simeone said. [...]

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Dec. 13.

"We have an outstanding offer and have been waiting four weeks for a response. We're hoping for a response at that meeting," Kaler said of Dec. 13.

If there is no settlement soon, the two sides can request federal mediation. [...]

Find the rest of this article here.

FYI: Graduate employees, University continue to negotiate earnings

Daily Illini
Drake Baer, Posted: 11/29/06

The University and the Graduate Employees Organization are in continuing negotiations over the issues of earnings and insurance for teaching assistants and graduate students.

[...] He said that the remaining issues to be resolved are also perhaps the most important. The proposal made by the University was a three-year contract with increases to stipends in each of three years and changes made to the insurance plan.

The proposed graduate employee minimum salary rate for teaching assistants and graduate assistants, on average, was a $12,586 annualized salary or a 2.5 percent increase, whichever is greater, each year. [...] "Graduate students are also getting a fee waiver, $12,500 added to the tuition fee waiver. It's a pretty good deal," Veazie said.

Others seem to disagree.

[...] Brian Dolber, graduate student, said that the University has come across "as a completely disrespectful institution that doesn't care about students or employees but only care about their bottom line."

The GEO is not ignoring what the University has put on the table, but they are keeping things in "financial perspective," Simeone added.

[...] "We don't want to talk about any wage deduction as a raise until it is a raise over the cost of inflation. Any raise under the rate of 3.6 percent isn't really a raise," Simeone said.

[...] Veazie said that the University is ready to settle on a fair contract for graduate students and that they are frustrated by the delay, referring to the four-week break between meetings.

The University's negotiating team has "repeatedly stalled and delayed" in regard to issues such as health care and wages, Dolber said.

This is not the absolute final configuration of the contract, but it's close to that, Veazie said. He said that if the union wants "a lot more," then the next step would be mediation.

"The next step for both parties is to listen. We're happy that the University wants to settle sooner rather than later, but we won't settle for anything that's unfair," Simeone said.

The next meeting will be held Dec. 13.

The full article can be found here

FYI: Adjuct (Part-time) Faculty Not Satisfied with Working Conditions

Adjuncts Forgotten Amidst Grad Student Negotiations
Drake Baer, Daily Illini, 11/3/06

There have been ongoing negotiations between the University and graduate employees in an effort to come up with a fair and equitable contract for both sides. The graduate employees are organized and have made their presence known through demonstrations all over campus. However, another group of academic professionals has not received that recognition - adjunct faculty members.

The benefits, pay, and working conditions vary greatly amongst different members of University faculty because not every instructor at the University is full time. Adjunct faculty do not have the guaranteed work that their full-time colleagues receive. ...

"The situation varies from whole year, multi-year, to (contracts that are) per course and per hour, really the academic equivalent of day labor," he said. ...

Many adjuncts have more than one teaching job at a time, and most work for multiple institutes, especially in major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Berry said. University of Illinois-Chicago has 1,112 part-time faculty members, whereas the Urbana campus has 850 part-time faculty, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

"Our teaching conditions are the students' learning conditions," Berry said. ...

He said that an adjunct will earn from $600 to $1200 a course at an average institution (but significantly higher at the University).

"You can't live on that," Higbie said. ... "How long can you carry on the University's principles when you're exploiting certain sections of your workforce?" ... Higbie said that the University should be a "model employer," and not simply follow what corporations are doing.

You can read the WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.

FYI: Graduate Employees Negotiating Wages, Benefits

University, graduate employees continue talks--Two parties still in negotiations for wages, benefits
Drake Baer, Daily Illini, 10/27/06

After months of deliberation, the University and the Graduate Employee Organization are continuing negotiations over wages and benefits. On Oct. 16 they came to an agreement over professional evaluation for teaching assistants.

However, there has been little progress on the major issues of pay and other contentious matters, according to Christopher Simeone, lead negotiator of the GEO. He said that the GEO is awaiting the University's agreement to additional bargaining dates.

Frank T. Higbie, assistant professor of history at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, said that he has been involved with the GEO since his days as a doctoral student in the mid-1990s. [...]

He said the issue comes down to whether or not workers have a right to organize [...].

"What are they afraid of?" asked Higbie. "That the grad assistants are going to tear down the University?"

Higbie said graduate employee unions are at nearly all of the University's peer institutions. [...]

Cary Nelson, English professor and president of the American Association of University Professors, said that the union has provided a few areas of concern to the University, such as asking it to inform international graduate students of the American 911 system.

Nelson said that when the union asked the University to inform the international graduate students of the 911 system, the University declined on the grounds that "they would not have the union micromanage their affairs."

"Like many corporate entities, the University is not bargaining in good faith," said Nelson. "Their primary aims are to pay grad students as little as possible, to exhaust union leadership and to decrease students' faith in the union...I call that bargaining in bad faith." [...]

You can read the WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.

FYI: Graduate Employees Plan Union Picket

Graduate Employees Plan Union Picket

--Drake Baer

Posted: 10/13/06

Since late April, the Graduate Employees Organization has been in negotiations with the University over a new contract, but no agreements have been made. In the past few months, the union has picketed at Grainger Library, the Illini Union and other locations across campus.

...

Union members have said that they are displeased with the state of health care and other benefits offered by the University and are in intense negotiations with the University.

...

The poor wages and benefits offered by the University are not "financially commensurate with our responsibilities" as teaching assistants and graduate employees, Shulman said.

Robin Kaler, University spokeswoman, said the University is giving all it can to graduate students.

...

Schulman, though, said that graduate students work too hard for too few benefits.

"We're the ones who make contact with the students, and not the professors, so informally a lot of the work falls on us," she said. "When you become an instructor, there's a whole slew of responsibilities beyond grading papers and tests."

Shulman said that she also writes letters of recommendation and deals with issues of plagiarism.

She said that while she welcomes these additional responsibilities, the pay she earns does not properly correspond to the time she invests. Undergraduate education suffers due to the University's treatment of graduate employee instructors, she added.

...

"What we've experienced is a basic unwillingness to cooperate from the University," said Christopher Simeone, graduate student and lead negotiator for the Graduate Employees Organization. "The University is not interested in genuine rational dialogue. They are interested in dragging it out as long as possible."

"I would best describe the University's approach as incredibly disappointing and unproductive. It's not exaggerating to say that they have (historically) been dragged to the bargaining table," he said.

David Morris, a graduate employee and former co-president of the Graduate Employees Organization, also said that the graduate employee health plan is similar to the undergraduate health plan but with some minor changes.

...

"It's student insurance, not employee insurance," Morris said. "The University assumes that many grad students are provided for by their parents, but that's simply not the truth. Grad employees have partners and children."

Simeone said that he is concerned with how the University is marketing itself toward prospective academics.

"What they're telling developing scholars is that you'll be impoverished and disrespected," Simeone said. He added that if the University desires to raise its prestige, it must treat its students and employees well.

"We are not asking for a handout but instead fair compensation for the work we do," Simeone said.

Graduate employees, he said, don't desire luxuries but income competitive with the cost of living, studying and teaching at the University.

Graduate Employees Plan Union Picket - News