Students of color join the fight
Workers unite to win contract at U. Mass
By Bryan G. Pfeifer
Amherst, Mass.
In a historic show of unity and solidarity, a first-ever
all-union membership meeting at the University of
Massachusetts-Amherst Sept. 18 sent a clear message to the
state and administration.
Responding to Acting Gov. Jane Swift's veto of pay raises
for thousands of union members at all 28 state colleges and
universities in July, the over 800 union members in the Student
Union Ballroom demanded: "A deal's a deal: fund the
contracts!"
Over 250 dining commons workers were barred from attending
the noontime rally because supervisors said they were needed to
serve students lunch.
The five unions at Amherst and others at statewide campuses
have organized under the coalition "Higher Ed Unions
United."
"Solidarity is necessary across the state," said Donna
Johnson, president of the University Staff Associates, a union
of clerical and technical workers. "Unions are only as strong
as you are, because you are the union," she declared.
Those in attendance unanimously agreed by voice vote to a
unity resolution to take "whatever actions are necessary" to
get the contracts funded and to respond immediately to attacks
from the administration against rank-and-file employees
supporting their unions.
Unions at campuses in Massachusetts bargain separate
contracts with respective campus administrations. They are then
passed on to the governor for consultation. When the
legislature votes in the necessary funding, the governor
approves the contracts.
Traditionally, once the legislature allocated funds for the
contracts, the governor signed off on them. Swift is believed
to be the first Massachusetts governor to have vetoed contract
funding for campus unions.
The five-campus UMass system is struggling with $28.5
million in state budget cuts imposed last spring. The Amherst
campus has taken the brunt. Faced with $17 million in cuts,
Amherst has cut seven varsity sports, reduced childcare,
increased class sizes, introduced speedups with less resources,
jacked up student fees, cut academic programs, phased out jobs.
About 400 workers were forced to file for early retirement,
including 100 professors. Only five will be replaced.
Students of color protest
Immediately before the all-union meeting, about 75 students
of color held a demonstration responding to the gutting of
advising services and other support programs for oppressed
students in June. At that time the vice-chancellor of African/
Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American affairs
(ALANA), who was sympathetic to students, was fired. Other
staff members were "restructured" or fired; advising for
students of color was restructured, taking out many cultural
components.
The ALANA students are demanding restoration of all these
programs, rehiring of staff and faculty fired and adequate
funding for future services. After their rally on the steps of
the ballroom, they marched inside to join their sisters and
brothers at the all-union meeting.
When James A.W. Shaw, president of UAW Local 2322, asked the
floor to recognize the oppressed students, they received a
standing ovation and prolonged applause. The students proudly
held their placards aloft emblazoned with messages like "Stop
the racist attacks against Third World students."
The all-union membership meeting followed numerous actions
by campus unions, including picketing administration meetings,
leafleting and walkouts.
On Sept. 5 the semester of resistance began with 10-minute
"community coffee breaks" at numerous Massachusetts campuses.
At Amherst, union members met at four points on campus and then
converged on the Whitmore administration building to press
their demands. About 3,000 participated.
Next on the agenda is a one-hour "community lunch break"
Sept. 25. At all 28 campuses statewide, workers will be closing
offices, stopping classes, and leaving their work sites from
noon to 1 p.m. At Amherst, demands will include calling on
House Speaker Thomas Finneran to call the legislature back in
session to override Swift's veto and a call for the
administration to support the funding of the contracts.
To date, Amherst's new chancellor, John Lombardi, has
ignored union demands to press Swift and the legislature to
fund the contracts and reverse the cuts. Instead he's spending
his time begging private contributors to increase Amherst's
$70-million endowment and to increase corporate and Pentagon
research grants.
If the contracts aren't funded, unions and rank-and-file
members are proposing increased system-wide actions, including
a possible statewide walkout.
"We strongly urge our fellow workers to commit to more
forceful actions and we declare our intention to join in those
actions," graduate workers in the Economics Department declared
in their statement, "Our Commitment to Fellow Higher Education
Workers."
For more information on support activities visit www.geouaw.org or www.uaw2322.org or call (413)
545-5317.
Pfeifer is a graduate student in the Labor Studies
Department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
o
Reprinted from the Oct. 10, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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