BY MARTIN KICH

This Labor Day, I would like to take the opportunity to thank again all of the members of AAUP and other unions nationwide who supported the Wright State chapter during our three-week strike in January and February of this year. Your letters of support and contributions to our strike fund made a big difference in the public perception of the strike and in the morale of our members.

More narrowly, I would like to thank all of our colleagues at the other AAUP chapters in Ohio and the OEA and OFT, as well as the members of the unions that are part of the Dayton-Miami Valley Labor Council, for their many demonstrations of support—which included their joining us on the picket line in all sorts of extremely inclement winter weather.

I would also like to extend a special thank you to our retirees, our alumni, and our students who demonstrated by their very visible and vocal support that we were, indeed, fighting to preserve the academic mission of our university and the value of the degrees that our students are earning and that our alumni have earned.

And, lastly, I would like to thank our chapter members who sustained the strike, who found a new and deepening solidarity, and who, in the months following the strike, have remained committed to a shared vision of what our university should be. Our administration and Board clearly underestimated our unity and resolve, but, as I said at our first chapter meeting following the strike, I myself underestimated us. Each day of the strike, I was repeatedly inspired by my colleagues, and I remain profoundly grateful for the way in which they trusted our determination to do the right thing even though it was clear, especially as the impasse dragged out, that there were no real models for us to follow.

These are two photos that illustrate the cohesion that insured that the strike was successful: the first is from late in the second week of the strike, when we made an effort to extend the picket line from one campus entrance to the other; the second is from late in the third week, when there was a march to “take back our campus.”

Photo by Noeleen McIlvenna

Photo by Jim Vance

At the other end of the spectrum, the following post to our chapter’s Facebook page provides a very succinct personalization of how the shared experience of the strike impacted many of our individual members:

Our leadership and our members have already demonstrated their determination to reciprocate the support that we received during our strike. This past month, members of our chapter, including many in our chapter leadership, joined members of the Professionals Guild of Ohio in informational picketing after a judge had issued an order putting a stay on their planned strike.

The last of the three photos that follow features graduates of Wright State’s Social Work program who are now members of the Professionals Guild of Ohio. So, in a very real sense, our union’s activism continues to be student-centered.

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