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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Dear Colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Some of you may already know about this matter because you’re on
the Concerned Faculty list-serve, but for those who aren’t I just wanted
to direct your attention to a one-day system-wide strike by AFSCME (the service
workers’ union) that will take place this Thursday, April 14, and to urge
you to support it in any way(s) you can. I myself will be on a plane
headed for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">South Bend</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">Indiana</st1:State></st1:place> that day so I won’t be able to
participate in person, but I will certainly be there in spirit and am hoping
that this communication (and others like it) will encourage many of you to get
involved. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Members of the Concerned Faculty met last Thursday with the leadership
of AFSCME (as well as the leadership of CUE [the clerical workers’ union]
and UPTE [the lab and technical workers’ union], all of whom are facing
an intransigent UC system that refuses to engage in good faith in collective
bargaining. In the words of Edna Bonacich (spokesperson for the Concerned
Faculty), “<font color=black><span style='color:black'>We learned about
worker hardships, how a fact-finding group found in favor of a union’s
contentions, how some of our employees require food stamps and to work double
jobs [just for basic survival].”<o:p></o:p></span></font></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>AFSCME workers would greatly appreciate
our doing one or more of the following, to express our solidarity with their
cause:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:black'>1. Inform students about what is going on, and urge them to
join the picket line. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:black'>2. Invite union reps to make a brief presentation to your
classes.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:black'>2. On the day of the AFSCME strike, come to the picket line
yourself. It will start at (gulp) 5 a.m., when the first worker shift
begins. There will be a rally at the bell tower at noon, so that would be
a good thing to attend. There are other events all day—you can
check out their website.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:black'>3. Send e-mails in support of the workers’ demands for
a living wage to major campus administrators, including (*especially*) the
chancellor.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:black'>4. ***Boycott campus food services for that day, and urge
students to do the same. Let’s show that the entire campus is
behind our employees.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>I’d just like to add here that I
believe we should take these actions not (only) for the service workers but for
ourselves as well, in a spirit not only of worker solidarity but also of
enlightened self-interest. As we’ve seen in recent months, ALL of us
are having to contend with a profoundly reactionary, corporatized
administration that treats all forms of productive labor (whether manual or
intellectual) with contempt and that privileges ‘the bottom line’
over all educational and human considerations. Any blow we strike for the
service (or clerical, or lab) workers is also a blow we strike for ourselves,
and for the values we regularly give lip service to but all too often fail to
act on.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>One final afterthought: Those of us
who bring politically-progressive approaches to our treatment of literature in
the classroom (via marxist, postcolonial, critical race and minority studies,
etc.) have an opportunity on Thursday to demonstrate to our students that there
actually is (and SHOULD be) some connection between theory and practice –
which just might be the most important lesson we can teach them. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>In solidarity,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Carole<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> </span></font> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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