The California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches, began a five-day strike that will affect nearly 460,000 students who attend the nation’s largest four-year public university system
I'm on #strike along with the rest of #CFA because the #CalState would rather underpay faculty and raise tuition while sitting on a pile of cash and overpaying admin. #Solidarity
"Faculty Working Conditions Are Student Learning Conditions"
"Like many [California State University] campuses, CSUSB ranks among the nation’s top universities for social mobility. Nearly 80% of our undergraduates are first-generation college students, 77% are underrepresented minorities (including 69% Hispanic students), and more than half receive Pell Grants, which are for low-income students."
"#Labor struggles are not only about objective facts—they’re also emotive & embodied challenges. By engaging w/ the heart, we remind the brain of other reasons why striking is important. It’s one thing to “know” that strikes can deliver improved working conditions + greater workplace #power, but equally important to witness the transformative power when fellow #workers come to terms with those truths via each others’ energy and passion."
"Sometimes the most important thing a teacher can do is model what it means to be a professional in their discipline. For example, #faculty demonstrate through their own principled actions what being a #professor is all about—being a responsible learner, being reflexive and critical about information, being creative and precise. Another thing that faculty should model is self-respect and how to assert their right to #worker#SelfManagement."
"It’s just not enough to say we’re willing to strike. (And it may be even worse to admit "we don’t want to strike".) We must be willing, maybe even eager, to flex those muscles when necessary. Our solidarity is a living, breathing thing. It requires our energy, attention, and #love. And a #strike is the ultimate performance of #solidarity."
"Labor #unions do many things, but the most important thing is bring workers together into a collective project. The work of a union is to build #solidarity among its members and to expand that solidarity into the rest of the workplace, then ultimately, globally throughout the entirety of the #WorkingClass. Like all great athletic feats, the creation of an international #LaborMovement requires lots of boring exercise."
"Being compelled to contribute dues in the past was a false form of #solidarity; a perverse proxy for the hard work of building a #union. Let’s acknowledge that the more important resource is the people themselves. If the #labor#movement can win over #workers directly, then unions will still have the economic resources they need to fight the bosses, and have a more activated & rebellious membership that is ready for that fight, too."
"Faculty don’t need bosses to do their work: they can #teach their classes and conduct their #research without any interventions, thank you very much. And, there’s no reason why #democratic self-governance and confederation can’t facilitate all #university decision-making. But, #administrators often convince themselves that the faculty are “out of control” and require discipline, which they are more than happy to offer."
apropos nothing, I learned today that the faculty #Union at my school (#CSUN, and the entire #CalState system) are conducting a strike authorisation vote because the administration is still continuing to not come to the table in good faith over some really important issues. #Solidarity#1u
The #CalState is raising #tuition, but of course they're not offering any pay raise for faculty. lol Just another day in a country that doesn't respect educators. Anyway, rallies are inevitable, and a strike is possible.