PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 20, No. 8, Oct. 19, 2000

Graduate Employees Organization
Supreme court declines to hear appeal

It may take several months or more before the university and Graduate Employees Organization are able to resolve the issue of which graduate assistants are eligible to vote on union representation, according to university counsel.

Earlier this month, the Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear the university’s appeal of the appellate court ruling on the issue of a bargaining unit for graduate students. That means that the Appellate Court ruling stands.

For background, the state law governing collective bargaining at public schools in Illinois defines "employees" eligible for inclusion in bargaining units, and excludes "students" among other categories. But the appellate court said that graduate assistants should be considered students under the statute only if their assistantships had "significant connection" to their education. The court said the way to determine this is to examine the case of each graduate assistant to determine whether there is a significant connection between the assistantship that the student holds and his or her education.

It is likely that it will take some time to determine which of the graduate assistants would be eligible to vote on union representation. There are 5,289 assistants at Urbana holding 5,590 assistantships. Assistantship duties often change each semester, and many students hold multiple assistantships. Last year, 5,972 assistants held more than 11,000 different appointments throughout the year.