#UAWonStrike
More on power, solidarity, and the largest strike in the history of American Higher Education.
Yesterday, I walked the line with fellow part-time faculty members at the New School.
It was heartening to feel the collective power of the workers, and I was super jazzed to hear a bit of what Christian Smalls had to say. Smalls is president of the Amazon Labor Union, which is independent and worker-led.
I was even more heartened to wake up today to see the solidarity growing. NYC area part-time faculty are pledging not to teach for the New School if it asks. When someone “covers” a striking worker’s class, it’s not a favor, it’s scab labor, and it’s not cool. It makes the strike less effective, and it hurts us all. Please sign the pledge here, and circulate widely. And don’t scab!
As if all this early morning heartening weren’t enough, I also woke up to learn that full-time faculty in the UC system are beginning their own work stoppage in solidarity with the bargaining units that are striking their work! Please pass this one around too, sign the letter if you’re eligible, and donate to the strike fund if you can.
But this post isn’t just about me feeling positive for a change. It’s about the power of collective action and how these acts of solidarity can snowball.
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that the UAW has been focused on grassroots organizing in higher ed. These strikes are the fruition of that work, and they are growing in strength. Year after year, semester after semester, workers on these campuses continued talking to each other, continued pushing their administrations to do better, and now they’re out there fighting for all of us.
But isn’t it illegal for teachers to strike, you ask? American labor law is complex to say the least, and I don’t claim to be an expert, but here’s what I do know. It’s pretty standard to have a “No Strike, No Lockout” clause in any union contract. At WPUNJ, it’s Article III and it reads:
The UNION agrees that it will refrain from any strike, work stoppage, slowdown, or other job action and will not support or condone any such job action. The STATE agrees that it will refrain from locking out its employees or from any threat thereof.
The New School contract has one in Article XXVII, which is a bit longer. The first clause says:
The Union agrees that it will not, nor will it permit any member of the bargaining unit to, call, instigate, engage or participate in or encourage or sanction any strike, sympathy strike, sit-down or stoppage of work.
Wowza. That’s pretty restrictive, so what gives? How can they be on strike?
First things first, the New School is a private institution, so it’s covered by federal labor law. Since my primary focus for the last 15 years has been the public sector—small state colleges like WPU—let’s take a look at the (public) University of California contract. For them, it’s Article 19-No Strikes:
During the term of this agreement or any written extension thereof, the University agrees that there shall be no lockouts by the University. The UAW, on behalf of its officers, agents, and members agrees that there shall be no strikes, stoppages or interruptions of work, or other concerted activities which interfere directly or indirectly with University operations during the life of this agreement or any written extension thereof. The UAW, on behalf of its officers, agents, and members, agrees that it shall not in any way authorize, assist, encourage, participate in, sanction, ratify, condone, or lend support to any activities in violation of this article.
So, again, I’m not a lawyer, but I am trained to read and analyze text, and the UC contract is interesting because it specifies that this clause only applies “during the term of this agreement or any written extension thereof.” Ok. And UAW 2865 has been bargaining with UC since 2021 so they are technically without a contract. But that’s slippery. The contact provisions are also supposed to cover them during bargaining. It’s a grey area. And I’m willing to bet that a good labor lawyer would know how to use it to the workers’ advantage.
The coalition of Unions conducting the California work stoppage, FairUCnow, has a page dedicated to Unfair Labor Practices, or ULPs. When an employer engages in a ULP, it opens the possibility for a strike. Why? Because the FIRST principle of labor relations, whether you’re talking about those governed by State or Federal laws, is to bargain “in good faith.” If one party isn’t doing that, the entire contractual agreement is called into question.
So, if these strikes are deemed to be illegal, could there be consequences for the union? Sure. What would those look like? Primarily they would be fines, and possible jail time for union leadership. Does that mean 20 years in a federal prison? Not likely. When Roger Toussaint led an illegal transit strike in NYC in 2005, he spent 3 days in jail after being sentenced to 10. Not fun, I’m sure, but also not a life sentence. Was it worth it? Abso-fucking-lutely. According to a NY Magazine article at the time:
Toussaint wrangled two key concessions, neither of which had been on the table before the strike. In addition to an 11 percent wage hike over three years, he secured lifetime health insurance for retirees (crucial to those retirement dreams) and a refund of previous pension contributions that, according to union calculations, is worth more than $150 million to 22,000 union members.
I was a UFT member in those days, and we were also without a contract. But, the President of my union wasn’t willing to engage in the solidarity of withholding our labor too. It was especially frustrating given the fact that the UFT was first recognized as the result of a strike in the early 1960s. I often think about what we could have achieved together in ‘05, and how much city workers would have ultimately gained from the Bloomberg administration.
Nowadays, I just hope that the other unions with a role in Higher Ed are watching the UAW in action. There are so many rank-and-file members at colleges and universities across this country who are organizing for power.
It’s time for leadership to put something on the line.
EDIT TO ADD: Just in case you think the bosses of the world aren’t trying to attack unions in whatever way they can—today’s NY Post includes an OpEd by Mike Pompeo about how the AFT Prez is the most dangerous person in America. (not gonna link to it)
The strikes are working and we need to keep up the pressure.