To quote our own Labor Education Service's tweet "weather hot, ice cream cold, union strong" We served ice cream to our co-workers to show appreciation for how hard they work as the University no longer has a staff appreciation day.
This was not all about cool creamy calories though, we also had a fun way to let the University Administration hear from us about our current contract negotiations. We had President Kaler available in cardboard cut-out form for some one-on one. First up here is my local's (AFSCME 3937) former president, only former because her department was shut down this year. More of these below the fold.
The ice cream social was a joint effort by all the unions on campus, AFSCME Locals 3800, 3937, 3260, 3801 & 1164 and Teamsters Local 320. Our next whiteboard gets right to the reason we are all here, the students. We are proud of being part of providing a quality education.
Here we have the issue of inequitable parental leave. Professional staff get 6 weeks of paid leave; unionized staff get only 2 weeks. You can't even put your infant in licensed daycare until they are 6 weeks old! A quote from one of our flyers:
The recovery process and time needed to bond with your newborn is not a matter of employee relations, it is BIOLOGICAL and could not possibly vary between employee groups. The current parental leave policy is a complete insult to me not only as an employee, but more importantly as a woman and a mother.
The next three have a common theme, long years of loyal service rewarded only by a declining standard of living. I'm the woman in the middle photo with the weird sunglasses ($1 at the thrift store!) and the mountain of credit card debt.
This one can be understood 2 ways- 1) the majority of members of the AFSCME locals are women 2) the U of M's athletic director just resigned after accusations of sexual harassment.
These next two have discovered their jobs at the U don't pay a living wage. They need either help from family or a second job to get by.
Some of us ARE the primary breadwinner for the family though.
The U of M seems to be able to find plenty of money for raises for athletics coaches, but for those of us supporting the academic mission, not so much. Current offers for the cost of living increase are .25% to .375%, depending on which union. That would be around $4 per paycheck for many of us, so figure an annual increase of about $100, not even close to $400.
A group of students show their support.
Some of us workers are tryiing to continue their education, too, but it is tough with low wages and reduced tuition benefits from what we had in the past.
Our last photo is a simple wordless message, I'm going to call it Union Strong!