NTFC Local 6546 AFT / IFT

Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition, University of Illinois

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Weekly Update – Apr 7, 2017

By Shawn Gilmore, NTFC President :: Apr 7, 2017 :: Colleagues —

​ Spring is nearly here, and a few things ongoing for NTFC Local #6546.

This week, we were proud to co-sponsor an event with State Representative Carol Ammons, featuring Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Responsibility. Thanks to those who were able to come out, and for the excellent questions and thinking on display about what we can do.
In addition, we met with the UIUC administration for our Spring labor-management meeting, primarily to discuss contract implementation, the March campus salary program (which has resulted in raises for the majority of our bargaining unit), various policy changes, and the potential impact on members of our unit by changes at the federal level around H-1B visa applications.
We are moving forward with out Stewards Council elections, which close today, meaning that our first full (non-provisional) Stewards Council will meet next week! Some of the first items on their agenda will be to consider our plans to hire a staff member in the near future, fill gaps in the Council, and work out how we’ll handle endorsements and positions that the union will take.

Later on today, our regulars will be out for our weekly Happy Hour today, at or around 5pm, at our normal location, Quality Bar, in downtown Champaign. Come on out if you’re local to celebrate the end of the week!

In solidarity

Weekly Update

By Shawn Gilmore, NTFC President :: Mar 24, 2017 :: Colleagues —

A brief update from NTFC Local #6546. Most of our members are on a much-deserved Spring Break this week, but we have been up to a couple of things I’d like to highlight here:
NTFC has is co-sponsoring–along with GEO and CFA–an event hosted by State Representative Carol Ammons, with Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (link). I’m attaching a flier–feel free to circulate to any interested parties. Second, we are looking to coordinate with UPI 4100 (which the UIS faculty union is part of) on their April 27 “Teach Out” event. There will be more on this to come, but I wanted to highlight it now.
Next week, we’re swinging back into action, prepping for our Spring labor-management meeting (LMM) with UIUC’s administration, getting both our Stewards Council and officer elections going, and prepping for our end-of-semester activities, including a celebration of the one-year anniversary of our first contract.
Though turnout might be light, some of our regulars will be out for our weekly Happy Hour today, at or around 5pm, at our normal location, Quality Bar, in downtown Champaign. Come on out if you’re local to celebrate the end of the week!
In solidarity

Weekly Update

By Shawn Gilmore, NTFC President :: Mar 17, 2017 :: Colleagues —

Spring Break is upon us at UIUC, starting tomorrow, and many of us certainly can use it. NTFC Local #6546 still has a lot on its plate.

This week, we hosted leaders from UICUF and UISUF, the faculty unions at UI Chicago and UI Springfield, respectively. They were down to join us for a silent protest at the Board of Trustees meeting (photo) in support of UISUF’s bargaining, which faces many of the same problems that we faced around this time last year. We then met to plan some next steps for UISUF and our broader UI coalition–many of which you should hear about soon.
Also this week, a bill NTFC has endorsed, the IL Student ACCESS bill passed out of the Higher Ed Subcommittee (link), which means undocumented students in Illinois are closer to having access to higher education in Illinois.
In terms of our organizing and internal structures, we have open nomination periods for both our Stewards Council (until the end of March) and elected officers (until early April). Nominations can be sent to ntfc6546@gmail.com. These two elections will mean that near the end of the semester, now leadership will be in various roles and some of our prominent activists may have new responsibilities. An exciting time!
Finally, our communications team now releases periodic news letters, and the March edition has just come out: link. Check it out for member profiles, details on our various activities, and updates.
We have a number of events coming up in April, including an event with Ralph Martire, Executive Director of Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, hosted by State Representative Carol Ammons, which we are co-sponsoring. It will be on-campus on April 3 at 5pm (link) and is also co-sponsored by CFA and GEO. Later in month, we’ll be coordinating with a state-wide event hosted by UPI, a “teach out” which will bring students to Springfield to demonstrate the impact of the state’s problematic higher ed funding–ours will be a solidarity effort in support. And we have a couple of other events in the works that will hopefully be announced soon.
In solidarity

March 2017 Newsletter

Download our March 2017 Member Newsletter here.

 

Weekly update

By Shawn Gilmore, NTFC President :: Mar 10, 2017 ::
Colleagues —
A fairly brief update for the end of the week from NTFC Local #6546.
Much of our work this week has been internal, both on our own ongoing projects, and in connection with our solidarity partners. Our own efforts are being directed toward organizing and upcoming elections, first of Stewards, then of officers later this Spring. This will mean that the union will have new leadership in a number of roles, and many of our activists have stepped up their efforts to make sure we have strong Stewards and Executive Councils.
We also met with a number of our partners this week, including the historical AAUP advocacy local at UIUC, as we coordinate with them to avoid confusion (as we are also an AAUP chapter, though one with collective bargaining rights). We also hosted a meeting of the campus labor coalition, with updates on SEIU’s recently-settled contract–a huge congratulations to them. Both GEO and AFSCME will start bargaining this year as well, so we’ll need to offer them a lot of support. And, CFA held an amazing event this week, bringing together faculty, students, and labor: Radical Hope.
Next week, we’ll have leaders from UIC’s and UIS’s faculty unions in town and will be holding an action on March 15 at the Board of Trustees meeting. We’ll have much more to announce in a few weeks, including some developments about how we will proceed for the rest of the semester, with some events focused on the dire state of higher education funding in Illinois.
Our regulars will be out for our weekly Happy Hour today, at or around 5pm, at our normal location, Quality Bar, in downtown Champaign. Come on out if you’re local to celebrate the end of the week!
In solidarity

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