Chicago, IL – Music and chanting rose outside the Illini Union building on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), May 15, as 100 workers, students, and supporters marched on the Board of Trustees meeting.

Chicago, IL – In the spring of 2001, 150 Sodexho food service employees at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) voted to join the Service Employees International Union Local 73. They work in the cafeterias in the student union buildings.

Chicago, IL – Over 400 workers, members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, rallied on the city's West Side, June 5. They have been fighting for a new contract at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) since October 1.

Chicago, IL – 700 service workers at University Illinois Chicago (U.I.C.) are working without a contract. This is because management is refusing to end their decades-long practice of paying less to workers in Chicago than at the downstate campuses. Chicago workers are mostly Black and Latino; downstate workers are mostly white.

Fight Back! responds: Rice Should Resign!

To the Editor:

Chicago, IL – Local 73 of the Service Employees International Union is heading into a fight. Over 600 workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have a contract expiring on Sep. 30. Workers have high hopes, but management looks ugly. UIC has an agenda of management rights, contracting out, temp workers, speedup and increased workload.

Chicago, IL – At 2:30 in the morning, May 9, the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) negotiations team at the University of Illinois at Chicago Hospital finally broke the back of the anti-Union employer negotiating committee, forcing them to settle the contract.

Nurses, Workers Battle Pirates of Privatization

Chicago, IL – On April 3, nearly 400 workers and nurses rallied and attended a public hearing against the privatization schemes of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). They are opposed to a secret administration plan to merge the UIC hospital with the private hospital called Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.

Chicago, IL – “El Salvador!” exclaimed Rodney Dye, a clerk from Medical Records at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center (UICMC). “They are facing privatization too?”

Chicago, IL – The struggle continues at the UIC Medical Center. In recent months, the Chicago Tribune broke the news of a planned merger of 3 hospitals: UIC, Cook County, and Rush-St. Luke's Presbyterian. This is another form of privatization, because Rush is a private hospital, with an enormous, for-profit HMO.

At the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Medical Center, the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) is in negotiations for a new contract. The bosses here are out to serve the wealthy few that own the healthcare corporations. They have been bombarding workers with attack after attack, and the INA has been actively resisting. Fight Back! interviewed Barb Cleveland, a nurse in the Oncology Clinic, and a member of the INA bargaining committee.

Just after the protest, Fight Back! caught up with Jose Artemio Arreola, a key organizer of the massive protest for immigrant rights that rocked Chicago, March 10. He explained how the Coalition Against HR 4437 built the unity necessary for a turnout of such proportion.

Chicago, IL – The bosses at UIC Medical Center have a new weapon in their arsenal: privatization.

Chicago, IL – When workers at the University of Illinois – Chicago (UIC) go into battle, they fight to win. Over recent years, a spirit has built up on campus, through the course of a series of battles. Earlier this Spring, medical center management wanted to contract out the housekeeping jobs in a new Outpatient Care Center (OCC). Instead, they got militant actions from employees.

Chicago, IL – In March, management at the University of Illinois Medical Center delivered 2 attacks on hospital workers. The first was a drastic shift change for all 140 housekeepers. A few days later, they announced the elimination of 250 jobs due to an unexpected revenue shortfall. The attacks sparked a week of protests by Local 73 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The mobilizations have already scored one victory for employees. Plus, notice has been served on management:

Chicago Il – “I was given a five day suspension for enforcing the union contract,” said Randy Evans, a union steward for Local 73 at the University of Illinois Hospital (UIH). But when management handed out that discipline, they shot themselves in the foot. The next day, 80 workers from UIC picketed the hospital, beating back the attack on one of the most active stewards. When that picket line was over, the manager that sent Evans home, submitted her resignation. “This challenge forced her to decide she couldn't handle such repercussions. Action speaks louder than words; that works both ways,” said Dolores Owens, another union steward.

Chicago IL – Upwards of 200,000 people marched through downtown Chicago, March 10, chanting, “Si, se puede!,” meaning, “Yes we can!” defeat the Sensenbrenner bill.

Chicago, IL – The weekend before Thanksgiving, November 21 and 22, people from around the country will gather in Fort Benning, Georgia, to demand that the School of the Americas be closed. Student activists from Chicago area campuses have joined the mobilization.

Chicago, IL – “It's a crime that the U.S. government has jailed a man who has dedicated his entire life to fighting for the liberation of the Colombian people,” said Tom Burke of the newly formed National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera. Palmera, a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is being held in a prison near Washington D.C. The FARC is a rebel army that has fought for 40-plus years to rid Colombia of exploitation, oppression and foreign domination. The FARC now controls more than 40% of the countryside.

Chicago, IL – There has been a high tide of conflict at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In January, two Saturdays were spent in hearings on campus before Black and Latino state legislators. Called by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, the hearings resulted in a 67-page report, released finally in late August. It details the many demands by the forces that are fighting the administration: union workers, oppressed nationality students, faculty and staff, and the residents of the surrounding communities, mostly Mexicano and African American.