Our Welcome Back Picnic is scheduled for 🔶Saturday, September 12 from 3-7pm at the Hessel Park Pavilion. 🔷
Join us to celebrate the start of the fall semester, and meet & mingle with union members!
[Read more…]2026 Labor Day Parade & Picnic
Join us this LaborDay for the 2026 Labor Day Parade & Picnic in downtown Champaign, Illinois! Come and celebrate with the people who make America work!
[Read more…]IFT Night Schools on Union Professional Development
IFT is hosting free union night schools! Free dinner provided! Please register here for any classes you plan to attend. All classes will be held at the Champaign IFT Office, located at 2902 Crossing Ct. Suite B, Champaign, IL 61822. We are happy to provide rides if needed–just contact us! More details on each class below.
Thursday, February 13th, 5:45-8PM –CANCELLED–
Due to inclement weather and road conditions, we have been informed by IFT that this class is cancelled. They are hoping to reschedule this class for some time in late March or early April
This class will focus on Union Self-Governance. We will:
-discuss the impact of Janus and recent post Janus protections
-learn about what it means to be a 501c5
-learn about how to stay in “good standing” with IFT and AFT
-discuss the importance of compliance, bylaws, and constitutions
Thursday, March 26th, 5:45-8PM
–CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19–
This session will be all about student debt management. You will learn how to manage your student loan repayment plan and how to navigate the public service loan forgiveness program.
Thursday, April 16th, 5:45-8PM
At this session, we will be learning about collective bargaining strategies for when you are at the table with your employer. We will:
-learn the very basics of how to be a productive member of a collective bargaining team
-discuss the importance of internal team norms
-discuss the concept of having a bargaining platform
-engage in practice bargaining scenarios
Thursday May 21st, 5:45-8PM
At this session, we will talk about what an effective collective bargaining campaign looks like. We will:
-learn about the timelines and requirements to initiate a strike
-discuss ways to mobilize members
-discuss the importance of getting community support
-discuss strategies to put pressure on the board/admin
Statement of Solidarity with the Decatur Federation of Teaching Assistants
November 11th, 2019
We, the Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition #6546 AFT/IFT/AAUP, express our full solidarity with the Decatur Federation of Teaching Assistants (DFTA) #4324 AFT/IFT/AFL-CIO in their fight for a fair contract with the Decatur School Board. We call on the Decatur School Board to negotiate in good faith a fair contract with the members of DFTA.
Since April of 2019, DFTA members have been negotiating with the School Board for a fair contract. Teaching assistants represented by DFTA face inadequate wages, rising healthcare costs, and obstacles to taking unpaid family leave. Faced with these and a host of other issues, the teaching assistants hoped to bargain in good faith with the Decatur School Board. Instead, their current contract expired, and DFTA was forced to call on a federal mediator to aid in negotiations. Now, after several sessions with the mediator, DFTA members are forced to withhold their labor in a strike.
DFTA represents over 275 teaching assistants in Decatur School District #61. These teaching assistants provide invaluable labor everyday in Decatur schools. As fellow educators, we call on the school board to respect the labor that the teaching assistants provide and to demonstrate this respect by negotiating a fair contract.
In Solidarity,
Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition #6546 AFT/IFT/AAUP
Statement of Solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local #73 Chicago
We, the Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition #6546 AFT/IFT/AAUP, stand in solidarity with the 25,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the 7,000 members of Service Employees International Union Local 73, public-support staff, in their contract negotiations with the new Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago School Board. We stand in solidarity with their just demands for:
● Smaller class sizes
● Sustainable community schools with full wrap around services
● Access to a broad and diverse curriculum including art, music, world languages, computer literacy, and physical education
● Fully-staffed libraries in all schools
● Hiring of hundreds more social workers, school nurses, counselors, therapists, psychologists, special education aides and thousands of teachers in order to fully support students
● Educator-directed, not principal-directed prep time
● Adequate compensation with no increase in benefit costs
In 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) struck for seven days and won a victory against then-Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. Educators went out again for a one-day strike in 2016. These strikes were a precursor to the victorious wave of Red State educator strikes that swept through West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona in 2018.
Since then, educator strikes of various lengths erupted in Los Angeles, Oakland, Denver, Washington State and even charter school educators, members of the CTU, in Chicago, UTLA in Los Angeles and OFT in Parma, Ohio. A victory in this current struggle for educators in Chicago could help build towards the next wave of educator and other strikes in the U.S. In fact, there’s little doubt the current strike by almost 50,000 at General Motors were inspired by all the educator strikes. We believe it’s in the interests of not just educators, but all workers around the U.S. to show solidarity with Chicago educators.
During her election campaign, Mayor Lightfoot agreed with many of the educators’ criticisms of what needed to be changed in the Chicago Public Schools. However, once elected, her promises to both the CTU and SEIU Local 73 have yet to result in any meaningful contract language. Mayor Lightfoot says she doesn’t respond to pressure, but the entire history of the labor movement up through the most recent Red State strikes have made similar claims from those in positions of power ring hollow time and time again.
The CTU and SEIU Local 73 are standing up for the children of Chicago, for all unions and working-class people, in this time of budget cutting, union busting and devastating assaults on our living standards. These unions are fighting for the kind of schools our students, parents, educators, and communities deserve. Therefore, we, the Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition #6546 AFT/IFT/AAUP, stand in solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union and Service Employees International Union Local 73 in their fight to negotiate a contract that addresses all of their issues with Mayor Lightfoot and the Chicago Board of Education.
In Solidarity,
The Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition, Local #6546 AFT/IFT/AAUP
