Chicago, IL – 300 people rallied at the Cook County Courthouse, at the corner of 26th Street and California Avenue, July 29. They demanded an end to deportations, and said no to SB1070, Arizona’s racist, anti-immigrant law.

Chicago, IL – As part of strike preparations at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a leadership group from all three committees met at the famed DuSable Museum of African American history on July 23. Nine out of ten SEIU members at UIC are Black or Latino, and Local 73 had waged a decade long struggle in the 1990s to win pay equity with the employees at the University’s campus in Urbana, where the workforce is mostly white. UIC was compelled to raise workers’ salaries because of the fight that Local 73 waged, and because of a broad coalition that was built with Black and Latino forces on campus and in the community.

Chicago, IL – Between July 30 and August 2, 800 service and maintenance workers and 400 technical workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) will take strike votes. Bargaining for the two contracts has gone on since February and ground to a stop in the past several weeks.

Chicago, IL – 50 immigrant rights activists and community members gathered outside of the Illinois Republican Party offices here, July 21, show solidarity with undocumented youth who were arrested in Washington D.C. the day before. On July 20, many youth, including nine from Chicago, were arrested as they staged a sit-in inside the capitol’s lobby and at several representatives’ offices. The youth were demanding the passage of the Dream Act, which would legalize undocumented students.

Chicago, IL – Activists took part in the International Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Day of action by holding a demonstration at the offices of the Chicago Sister City Program, July 9 to demand that the Chicago drop ties with the Israeli city of Petach Tikva.

Chicago, IL – On June 11, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) won – actually swept, with wide margins – an election victory in the Chicago Teachers Union. With President Karen Lewis at the head of the slate, the reformers won every seat: all four officers, nine citywide offices, and 23 vice-presidencies for elementary and high schools. The old-guard leadership, of the United Progressive Caucus, with presidential candidate Marilyn Stewart, went down, with only 8300 votes against CORE’s 12,000.

Chicago, IL – Larry Davis, the new president of Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago, fired five staff members on May 28. Davis had been installed by International President Jim Hoffa on May 14.

Chicago, IL – “One, two, three, four – Petach Tikva – no more! Five, six, seven, eight – take away their dinner plate!” The chant came from protesters outside the Hilton Hotel June 2 as the Chicago Sister City International's Consular Corps Ball was happening.

Chicago, IL – More than 3000 people gathered here, June 1, to picket the Israeli consulate in Chicago and to express outrage over the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

Chicago, IL – Around 200 workers, students, and special guests from the Illinois state legislature came out for an energized protest against the Board of Trustees meeting, May 20, at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Protestors demanded that the incoming University of Illinois president Michael Hogan turn down his $170,000 raise, chanting, “Chop from the Top!” Members of SEIU Local 73 in conjunction with the coalition UIC-ABC (Against Budget Cuts) organized the picket and rally.

Chicago, IL – Organizers stood proudly, with their fists up, behind the Immigrant Youth Justice League's new banner as they launched the Equal Rights Campaign on the University of Chicago quad May 20. The incredible eight schools represented, and many others already on board, reported in their speeches how the demands had been delivered to college and university presidents across the city.

There is a big battle going on in the Teamsters Union, pitting reformers against corrupt officials. In Chicago, Teamster union reform leaders, President Richard Berg and Secretary Treasurer Gina Alvarez of Local 743 were removed from office by Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa Jr. this past Friday. Hoffa’s action aids corrupt union officials and criminals trying to worm their way back into Chicago’s Teamster unions. Fight Back! interviewed Richard Berg just before he received the official letter from Hoffa Jr.

Members fighting mad

Chicago, IL – Fight Back! learned May 9 that Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., at a meeting in Las Vegas, has joined with the corrupt Teamsters officials in Chicago to remove President Richard Berg and Secretary Treasurer Gina Alvarez from office in Local 743. Berg and Alvarez are rank-and-file reformers who fought for years against the gangsters who ran their union while Hoffa and officers of the Joint Council in Chicago turned a blind eye to the corruption in the local.

Chicago, IL – 100,000 personas salieron en fuerza a marchar desde el Parque Unión hasta la Plaza Daley. Cada orador del programa denunció la ley de Arizona y la comparó al apartheid. Los jóvenes eran una parte importante de esta manifestación.

Chicago, IL – 100,000 came out in force to march from Union Park to Daley Plaza in the Loop. Speaker after speaker denounced the apartheid-type legislation in Arizona. Youth were a major part of this demonstration.

Chicago, IL – Voting was completed for the 1500 clerical workers at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, April 16. The committee of co-workers elected last summer to negotiate a new contract had called for the vote. On the ballot was one thing: Should the committee be authorized to call a strike if a new contract could not be gained at the bargaining table?

On April 5, the members of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) prepared for a strike. Their bargaining committee went in for a last-ditch session with a federal mediator and the team from management. After 13 hours at the table, GEO scored a significant victory, emerging with a tentative agreement that protects tuition waivers and increases job security. They also won two years of raises to their minimum stipends and an increase in the university’s contribution for health insurance.

Chicago, IL – 300 graduate employees, faculty, students and campus workers rallied on the campus of the University of Illinois-Chicago today, April 5, to demand a contract for the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO). While the bargaining committee walked into the building to meet with management in federal mediation, the protesters chanted, “Who are we? GEO. Are we gonna back down? Hell, no!”

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Network to Fight for Economic Justice on the struggle of the Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Illinois at Chicago to obtain a fair contract.