UC - AFT NEWS

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How UC-AFT members may support CUE

SOLIDARITY NEEDED NOW!

Dear UC-AFT Colleagues,

Here are suggestions for ways in which UC-AFT represented librarians and lecturers can respond to a strike on campus. This advice is intended to help you

• 1) manage your classes to meet the educational needs of your students and
• 2) provide solidarity with our union brothers and sisters without violating the Unit 17 or Unit 18 MOU (librarians’ or lecturers’ Memorandum of Understanding = contract) or risking your job.

Importance of Solidarity with fellow UC unions

As you know, the success of our strike with CUE two years ago was due not only to our union’s collaboration with CUE but also to the enthusiastic support of the other unions: UPTE, AFSCME, UAW and the building trades. The improved contract we were able to negotiate the following summer shows why solidarity is key to all UC employees’ success in winning and maintaining fair and professional wages, benefits, and working conditions. So we urge all of you to do everything you can--short of violating our MOUs--to support our fellow UC union members.

Sympathy strikes barred by contract

Why should we be concerned about violating the MOU? Both the librarians’ and lecturers’ contracts make it illegal for our members to withhold their labor or for the union to urge members to withhold their labor because of another union’s strike. If a librarian or lecturer violates this provision, the University can impose sanctions both on the union and on the individual involved, and the union will not be able to do much to protect that employee.

But there are many legal ways to support fellow unions and fellow UC employees when they go on strike. Precisely because our lecturer and librarian MOUs bar us from sympathy strikes, we strongly encourage all our members to engage in legal support activities that do not violate our MOUs.

Freedom of expression protected

Nothing in our MOUs requires you to give up your free speech rights under the U.S. and California constitutions. You are free, on your own time (work breaks, lunch time, before and after work or classes, or any other non-work time), to join picket lines and rallies, make speeches, write and/or distribute leaflets, flyers, or posters, and wear buttons, tee shirts or other items expressing your views on campus labor issues or (for that matter) any other current event.

Educating our campus communities is one of the more important forms of support we as academics can offer the other UC unions. Many faculty make and allow students or visitors to make announcements or pass out non-course materials before class. Many faculty engage their classes in discussions of the issues raised by the strike, when appropriate and relevant to the course. Such actions do not violate the terms of our MOUs or any other University policies, so long as you do not urge members of our units to stop doing their jobs. We will do our best to inform you about the issues leading to a strike so you can share information with colleagues and students.

Responding to the picket line

We also have some suggestions on how to respond to sanctioned labor picket lines. Again, librarians and lecturers may not simply refuse to go to work or to carry out assigned duties unless you can credibly argue that your personal safety (not simply your comfort or values) is placed at risk by crossing a picket line. However, librarians and lecturers have some degree of freedom in deciding how to respond to a strike line.

Lecturers are officers of instruction at UC. In the absence of instructions to the contrary, it is your right and responsibility to determine how best to offer your students instruction. If you feel that a picket line will limit your students' ability to attend your class, you might, for example, decide to have your class meet off campus. (This is, of course, more difficult if the weather is bad and you have a large class.) If you are teaching a course in the arts, humanities, or social sciences where a visit to a strike line would be appropriately related to your course topic, you might hold class at or near the picket line (of course, not requiring any of your students to join in picketing). Alternatively, if the strike is brief, you might decide to avoid the attendance problems that it is likely to cause by rescheduling your class to another day. And of course, you may choose to discuss the strike issues with your students, as appropriate, and perhaps its implications for higher education both present and future, as well as the immediate issues the strike raises for class attendance, rescheduling, etc.

Most university librarians have some flexibility in their work assignments as well. In some cases, so long as you complete your assigned duties, you may be able to work an alternative schedule, come to work before a picket line is set up in the morning, work from your home or another internet location, etc. Some librarians may be able to take earned vacation time rather than come to work during a sanctioned strike. Note, however, that if your vacation schedule must be approved by your supervisor, you must not take unauthorized vacation.

Do not withhold labor

There are, no doubt, other creative ways to respond to a strike by other campus unions without requiring either you or your students to cross a sanctioned strike line. However, please be very clear that you have no right to refuse to work, fake illness, take unauthorized vacation or otherwise withhold your labor in sympathy with other unions on strike. If you must cross a line in order to go to work, you can express your support of the strike by what you wear (buttons, teeshirts), by what you say, by taking time to discuss the issues with students and colleagues when appropriate, and most importantly, by returning after work or during breaks to join the picket line, offer strikers refreshments and moral support, etc.

If you have questions, please contact either VP for Organization Mike Rotkin or Executive Director Karen Sawislak.

Mike Rotkin, VP for Organization
UC-AFT