Strike threat bad for UI, its students

The strike threat by the Graduate Employees Organization is unnecessary coercion against the University of Illinois that jeopardizes the quality of education for all students and erodes the reputation of this institution.

While unions may be beneficial to an economy in its industrialization infancy to protect laborers, once the economy matures unions outlive their usefulness.

The GEO cites increases in salary for graduate students as an example of its usefulness, but it fails to mention the costs incurred in the long run that far outweigh these benefits. When labor achieves market power, it is free to drive the wage above the market rate through coercion – the threat of a strike.

The benefits come to those currently in the industry – e.g. graduate student employees – and who carry political clout. The students who are denied funding because the GEO has made funding each person more expensive suffer the costs.

If the GEO had not intervened and wages stayed at the market rates, more students could be funded for the same cost.

Without the GEO, graduate employees would be paid the market rate for their respective disciplines. If the university paid below the market rate for that field of study, students would be attracted to other institutions, subsequently forcing the university to raise the wage. The income disparities across fields act as a prioritization of the disciplines that offer the greatest potential for society's advancement.

As a graduate assistant, I urge readers not to support the GEO's attempt to bully the university and inflate the union coffers.

BROOKS SCHAFFER

Savoy