One of the more popular chants of today's action was "President Kaler, hear our call! Your crummy offer is way too small!" The offers from the University of Minnesota to the unions have not changed since I last wrote, still at insulting lows, .25%, .375% or .75% depending on which local.
So AFSCME 3800 organized a petition drive, other U of M AFSCME locals and the Teamsters joined in. The petition states:
We, the undersigned U of MN faculty, students, staff and community members, support unionized workers who are fighting for raises and respect. We call upon the U administration to agree to wage increases that allow all staff to provide for their families and live with dignity. We also call upon the Administration to increase paid parental leave for unionized and civil service staff from the current two weeks to six weeks, which would give parity with the leave provided to P&A employees and Faculty. Further, we call for the Regents Scholarship to be fully restored. We call upon the Administration to close, rather than increase, the divide between haves and have-nots at the University. We want one University that works for all!
We collected them online, promoted them via social media, and got many physical signatures too. Today we delivered them.
More photos of our action below the fold, about half are mine (AFSCME 3937 member) and half from Missy Bernard of AFSCME 3800.
Those of us donating our lunch breaks to this cause began gathering on Northrop Plaza, nice hot sunny day for it!
Tanith Broom got us going with some chants. I especially liked "Hey, hey, beep, beep, the U of M is way too cheap!" felt like it had a bit of a dance beat, and I'm confident no one thought we were talking about tuition!
Then we listened to AFSCME 3800 Pres. Cherrene Horrazuk, AFSCME 3937 Pres. Mary Austin, and other co-workers speak out about the struggles to make ends meet and the disrespect encountered at the U of M. It was also brought up that the U has huge sums of money available for top administration and coaches, though several of those have been in the news lately for sexual harassment charges and corruption.
Mick Kelly of Teamsters 320 telling us they are ready to fight.
We also had supporters as well as workers present. Courtney Gildersleeve of Students for a Democratic Society told why we frontline workers are valuable to them.
Then it was time to take the petitions inside to the President's office. We were not a large crowd, but very loud, and did we ever echo through Morrill Hall!
We did not get to see Pres. Kaler, but were greeted politely by his chief of staff.
Then we marched to deliver some more to VP Kathy Brown, chanting loudly all the way. Another chant that resonated for me was "Less than 1% won't pay the rent!"
Cherrene had to ring the bell for service, though they surely heard us coming!
VP Brown accepted the petitions, but from a spot where it was difficult to get a photo. Cherrene told her that thanks are nice, but we want to see genuine good faith in negotiations.
Then we left the building and Cherrene reminded us of the next rally in 2 weeks, on Sept. 29. That will be the big one!
Fri Sep 18, 2015 at 6:52 PM PT: a final group shot has been uploaded