Regarding the faculty strike at the University of Illinois’ Chicago campus last week, nothing has really changed — so far. 

The members of the UIC faculty union walked out for two days after months of little progress and a legally filed intent to strike. The walkout affected some classes taught by both tenure-and non-tenure-track faculty. Fortunately, classes taught by graduate students were uninterrupted, and by Thursday, all classes were back in session. 

As classes continued the next day, the UIC United Faculty union representatives were back at the bargaining table with UIC officials and lawyers.

We may not know for a while how the strike leveraged bargaining in favor for the union, but, whatever the outcome, students lost class time that they paid for. 

Even if the strike worked in favor of the union, a faculty strike on the Urbana campus may not have the same result. The demands by Urbana faculty will be different from those of the Chicago union, and the administration will bring its own set of bargaining chips to the table.

Both campuses, though, are asking for increased wages and job security for non-tenure faculty. To hammer out the dispute over faculty wages (especially the pay of the lecturers whose minimum salary is $30,000) at UIC, the union and administration bargained with each other last week and on Monday, and they’ll meet again in a week.

We should be clear: We always support a better lifestyle for workers in any industry, and we hope that faculty members on all University of Illinois campuses continue to receive wage increases as they have for years. We do not support faculty members who would neglect their teaching responsibilities as leverage against administration. 

This may not be the last strike at UIC. Even if the administration and the union come to agreeable terms, the union will demand more; the administration will push back harder. Once you strike, you can’t go back. The animosity lingers, and no amount of handshaking and pleasantries will ever repair the relationship. The strike last week may have been the first of its kind at UIC, but it very well could be the primer for more in the future.

Through all the bargaining that will follow, we ask that both sides don’t lose sight of their main mission: providing an education for students. Without competitive wages and job security, the University of Illinois system cannot attract and retain the quality faculty that students deserve. But students can’t be served at all if there is no professor standing at the front of class. 

And that’s true for both UIC and UIUC.