Another Teachers Strike

A few weeks ago City College teachers ended a strike, but now more than 500 Northeastern Illinois Univeristy faculty and staff members are striking. At least 30 teachers and staff marched in a picket line to support teachers and university staff who walked off the job early this morning. The strike affects 12,000 students, some of which were also picketing to show support.

The union has been working without a contract since August 31 and had been negotiating since May. As of Wednesday, 17 of the 30 issues in the contract remained unresolved. The two major issues are salary (surprise, surprise) and workload. The union doesn't feel that university administration is making a "serious effort" to resolve the dispute. Yesterday the union and the administration met from 10am - 2am and were still not able to reach an agreement. At the end, the administration said they'd given their final offer and walked out.

The university said they'd continue negotiating with the union to reach an agreement asap. They also said the school would remain open.. but students are saying that teachers aren't in class (duh?).