ADD YOUR NAME to the faculty letter of support for AICWU
(to be released publicly on September 9th, 2021):

As faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, we support our staff colleagues who are forming their union, the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United (AICWU) as part of AFSCME Council 31.
 
Staff are the backbone of our school. They play an active and central role in supporting students at SAIC and are often the first point of contact for students and prospective students. Through their work in SAIC’s workshops and labs, galleries, library and collections, health and academic services, career development, and technical services — among many other areas of the school — staff are fundamental to our students’ education and well-being, and are fundamental to SAIC’s mission and values.
 
As faculty, we support staff’s desire to work in a more equitable, fair, sustainable, and transparent environment. We support their right to self-organize free from employer interference. We urge senior leadership to stop diverting resources from SAIC’s mission to pay anti-union lawyers and public relations consultants. The school cannot truly become the more just, anti-racist, and compassionate institution it claims to want to be until all workers at SAIC have a true voice in, and agency over, their working conditions. We support our colleagues, SAIC staff members’ efforts to form their union.  

Sincerely,