UIC: Hands off our Healthcare!

Aug 28, 2025

Graduate workers may have noticed a heftier healthcare fee than normal. What's going on? In a blatant violation of established labor law, UIC unilaterally changed our working conditions by charging graduate workers the full fee. Our bargaining team pressed them for answers at the table on Monday. Admin's rationale? An expired contract "has to mean something."

It is the union’s position that this move to withhold our healthcare benefit waiver is unlawful, cruel, and punitive. This is another effort from the University to undermine your trust in our union and to pressure us to settle contract bargaining early – without any meaningful gains to our pay, benefits, or working conditions.

Normally, when a contract expires and bargaining is still taking place, both management and the labor union are expected to continue maintaining the status quo set by the contract except for a few areas: no strike/no lockout language, union security, management rights, and arbitration provisions. While we are not governed by the NLRA, the IELRA and subsequent case law often pulls from the NLRA, reflecting a similar understanding (Vienna School Dist. No. 55 v. Illinois Educ. Labor Relations Bd). This is also the first time that UIC has chosen to withhold fee waivers once a contract has expired. Fee waivers and benefits were paid out during our previous contract bargaining, in which we also saw our contract expire in August 2021.

This being said, GEO will support anyone who does not pay the additional $417 balance of their CampusCare fee. It is UIC’s responsibility to apply the fee waiver as soon as possible, and we will hold them accountable. If you’ve already made a payment on these fees OR if you boycott this fee, please let us know through this intake form. The situation is still unfolding, and we will provide as much information as promptly as we can.

‘Hurry up and wait’ continues to be the message from admin, despite dragging their feet on passing any proposals with significant changes and regressively clawing back previously protected rights that we’ve had as workers, like guaranteed access to orientations. We’re ready to bargain for fee eliminations, a real living wage, and protections for international workers as soon as they’re ready to get serious with us about what we deserve as workers.

In solidarity,

GEO Steering Committee