Status Update: July 8, 2025
We’re off to court — and the bargaining table!
ISU is challenging the union & labor board in court
We prevailed in our petition before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board to establish the Lab School Education Association at Illinois State University. While that should be the end of it, ISU is seeking review of the IELRB’s decision in the Illinois Appellate Court, Fourth District (located in Springfield) — the last avenue available to them.
We don’t know yet exactly which issues they plan to appeal, but we can assume they will continue making the same arguments they’ve been making (and losing) throughout the process, including attempting to separate our union and carve out categories of employees.
Both the labor board and union are parties to the litigation. The labor board will be represented by the Illinois Attorney General’s office. We will continue to be represented by IEA’s fantastic legal counsel. ISU will no longer be represented by their in-house attorney. They’ve hired outside counsel — at a significant cost — to handle the case.
Timeline
The AG’s office has until August 7 to supply the Court with the record of the IELRB proceeding. ISU will then have 35 days from the date the AG supplies the record to file their brief, and then we and the Illinois AG will file our respective briefs. After that, ISU gets to write a shorter reply brief. The Court may then order oral arguments, which will be held in Springfield. After that, the Court will render a decision.
The university still has a duty & obligation to bargain with us
And we are preparing to do just that!
Most importantly, none of this impacts ISU’s current obligation to bargain with the union. They can’t avoid bargaining as a result of their decision to appeal to the courts. We are moving ahead as planned. We’ll be putting together our bargaining team, preparing to go to the bargaining table, filing our demand to bargain with ISU and heading to the bargaining table to negotiate our first contract!