Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 15:36:37 +1000
Subject: AUT: strike at syracuse uni


From: awald-AT-umich.edu (alan wald) Date: Mon, Aug 31, 1998, 11:46am
(MDT+2) To: RDaniels-AT-orst.edu Cc: mlg-ics-AT-andrew.cmu.edu Subject:
Information on Syracuse University Strike 
---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 08:27:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: Joel Reed <joreed-AT-syr.edu>
To: FSGroup-AT-umoja.syr.edu
Subject: GET THE WORD OUT 
I've sent this letter to my friends and colleagues across the country to
help build national pressure on the university--others may want to do
something similar (feel free to use the text of my note in your own). 
j. 
************** 
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 08:08:56 
To: 
From: Joel Reed <joreed-AT-syr.edu>
Subject: STRIKE at SU 
Cc: 
Friends, 
Please forgive the form letter, but I'm writing to get the word out that 
750 members of the Service Employees International Union, Local 200A at
Syracuse University have gone out on strike this morning. 200A
represents 
food service workers, custodians, groundskeepers, parking service
workers, 
librarians, and skilled tradesworkers; issues the union wants negotiated
in 
the new contract are familiar to anyone who has watched corporate
union-busting strategies across the country: reduction in use of
temporary 
workers, elimination of 'outsourcing' or subcontracting, simplification
of 
job pay-scale and zone-management systems, inclusion of all union
members in 
a single contract; additionally, pay equity for the librarians at SU,
who 
suffer from incredibly low wages (not coincidentally they suffer from a
very 
gendered system of pay inequity). 
The university is taking a very hard-line against the union and its 
supporters, paradoxically asserting to local media its willingness to
negotiate and its entrenched commitment to a "final offer" only
cosmetically 
different from the offer it initially presented the workers last June,
and 
is busing in replacement workers (lowly paid temps with no benefits, of
course), stationing guards around campus, threatening to fire student
workers who sympathize with the strikers, and vaguely threatening
students 
who leaflet for the union with legal action and loss of scholarships,
fellowships, TAships, and other financial support; faculty and
non-unionized 
clerical staff have received an ominous communique from the
vice-chancellor, 
threatening that they'll be replaced or their pay will be cut if they
honor 
picket lines. Since last spring a Faculty Support Group has been working 
with the union, beginning by collecting hundreds of signatures on a
petition 
supporting SEIU which were submitted to the chancellor in a meeting, and
a 
second attempt to meet the chancellor (frustrated when the chancellor
refused to meet the FSG representatives). Last week we demonstrated our
support for the union at convocation; many of us will be cancelling our
classes or meeting them off-campus during the strike; a teach-in to
educate 
students about the issues is being planned for Weds. 
What we need now is NATIONAL pressure on the university that will get
them 
worrying about their reputation among academics (and among the parents
who 
pay SU tuition!). Please e-mail or write 
Chancellor Kenneth Shaw at 
macarlso-AT-syr.edu (Shaw's secretary's e-address: his own address is not
listed...) 
or 
300 Tolley Administration Building
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY 13244 
and urge him to cease threatening supporters of the union, and to sign a 
contract with SU's employees that respects their dignity, maintains
their 
job security, and provides them liveable wages. For more information,
write 
me, and/or look up the Faculty Support Group's web page (which contains
strike plan updates and the 'official' threatening memos), at: 
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/maxpages/faculty/merupert/SUlabor.htm 
Please also forward this note to your friends--thanks for your support!
-- 
*********************************************** 
Alan Wald, Dept. of English, 3271 Angell Hall, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, Mi. 48109   tel: 313-995-1499 
e-mail: awald-AT-umich.edu 
***********************************************  




From: FURRG-AT-alpha.montclair.edu (Grover Furr)
Date: Tue, Sep 1, 1998, 11:27am (MDT+2)
To: mlg-ics+-AT-andrew.cmu.edu                  Subject: Syracuse strike
article from CHE 
This article is from _Academe Today_, the daily email from the CHE. 
         
Clearly Syracuse is using its legal right as a private university to
control and suppress 'free speech'. 
         - Grover Furr 
         * * * * * 
Tuesday, September 1, 1998 
          700 Syracuse U. Employees Strike Over Use of
Non-Union and Temporary Workers 
         By JOYE MERCER 
          About 700 Syracuse University service employees
went on strike Monday, the first day of fall classes, to protest the
university's use of outside contractors for some work and its prolonged
use of temporary employees to fill in for absent workers. 
          Members of the Service Employees International
Union Local 200A include custodians, groundskeepers, plumbers,
electricians, carpenters, food-service workers, library technicians, and
parking-lot attendants, all of whom had been working without a contract
since a three-year agreement expired on June 30. During the strike,
their work is being done by managers and temporary employees who are not
union members. 
          Kevin Morrow, a university spokesman, said the
university had made every effort to avoid the walkout, but had also
prepared for "the eventuality that a strike would occur," so that thus
far, students have not been affected by the protest. For instance, he
said that the dining halls and library remained open. 
          Negotiations continue between university and
union officials, but in the latest talks, on Monday, the dispute was not
resolved. 
          Among the other issues that divide the union and
the university is the system for allocating overtime work. The union
says overtime work should be equally distributed among employees, but
the university says the union really wants overtime to be allotted based
on seniority. 
          In an advertisement that will appear in a
Syracuse newspaper today, the union accuses the university of "the kind
of sham bargaining and disrespect that the powerful reserve for the
weak." 
          Marshall Blake, president of the union local,
said the group had last struck against Syracuse in 1973. He said the
university and the union, which was organized in 1966, have had a
difficult relationship: Twice in the past 20 years, the union has come
close to striking. 
          Union officials said they had been troubled by
what they say are the university's attempts to silence students who
support the strike by not allowing them to disseminate pro-union
literature on the campus. Instead, he said students may only register
their support by working through "recognized student organizations" --
if those groups as a whole support the strike. 
          "This university claims to be student-centered,
but it clearly is more interested in tamping down dissent and
criticism," Mr. Blake said. 
          On Monday, some faculty members said they
planned to honor the union's picket lines, which were set up at about a
dozen spots on the campus's perimeter. 
          Mr. Morrow said faculty members who honored the
picket lines by not teaching risked a loss of pay, although the
university has no problem with "teach-ins" or similar activities. He
added that he had not heard of any classes' being canceled by professors
sympathetic to the strikers' cause. In addition, he disputed the
contention that students had been dissuaded from showing their support
for the union. 
          "Students have the same rights as faculty and
staff when it comes to voicing their opinions and distributing
literature," Mr. Morrow said. They cannot distribute literature inside
buildings, but may do so outside. 
          In a letter to the campus dated August 28,
Kenneth A. Shaw, chancellor and president of Syracuse, said he was
concerned that a strike could "fracture this community of faculty,
staff, and students who are committed to learning and growth." He said
the university had made "every effort" to avoid the strike and had
participated in several bargaining sessions with union officials.
Syracuse put several offers on the table, he said, all of which had been
rejected by the union.


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