POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This holiday is not as well-known as May Day, Memorial Day, or Labor Day. But, especially during this pandemic, when many non-unionized, low-wage workers are in the “front lines” with insufficient personal protections and insufficient healthcare and paid sick leave, this day seems more “essential” than ever. The commemorative day was…
BY HANK REICHMAN The situation at the University of California at Santa Cruz has escalated. On Friday the university administration announced that 54 graduate students who are withholding fall grades were fired from their spring appointments. This number may in fact be as high as 80, as some students did not get dismissal letters but…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of a statement in support of the union representing non-tenure-track faculty members, or lecturers, in the University of California issued today by the Berkeley Faculty Association (BFA), which includes tenured and tenure-track professors (so-called “senate faculty”) at the University of California, Berkeley. BFA is affiliated with…
BY JOERG TIEDE The AAUP released a report on the dismissal of Jane Harty, a part-time faculty member with forty years of service in the Department of Music at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU). The report found that the PLU administration had acted in violation of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure when…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday I posted a piece about the outsourcing of work in the University of California (UC) and a pending strike by members of AFSCME, the union representing many staff employees at the university. But UC Berkeley sociology professor Michael Burawoy has reminded me (and others) that UC’s non-tenure-track lecturers, represented by the…
BY HANK REICHMAN Two years ago state auditors rebuked the University of California (UC) for not following its own policy for outsourcing jobs. Now the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299, which represents some 26,000 university employees, has filed six charges with the California Public Employment Relations Board against UC’s…
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…
BY HANK REICHMAN In Fall 2017 the California Faculty Association (CFA), an AAUP-affiliated union representing nearly 28,000 California State University (CSU) faculty, librarians, counselors, and coaches, and CSU management agreed to extend their collective bargaining agreement. As part of that agreement, the sides agreed to continue negotiations over academic freedom and intellectual property with the…
BY STEVEN VICKERS Twenty visits to a doctor, thirty-two tests or screenings, six doctors, and countless pills: this is my new reality. In the summer of 2018, I began feeling flushed and nauseated. I would wake at 3am and run to the toilet to empty the contents of my stomach. I would go purchase diapers…