BabyBoomerBlog

11 Students stop eating to support U Strikers.

U of MN Workers Strike continues to week three.

Last week students interrupted a Regent's Meeting, and this week a small group of students and one professor have started a hunger strike.  The Star Tribune reports:     September 17, 2007

'Eleven  university students  began a hunger strike in support of striking clerical, health care and technical workers. The students -- who are also being joined by one professor and a university civil service employee -- will drink water and juice, but they vow not to eat again until the university settles the contract dispute with the AFSCME-represented workers.

The university calls "unfortunate" a decision by students to go on a hunger strike in solidarity with clerical, health care and technical workers. A professor and a U employee joined the students.

As the strike closes in on the two-week mark, both sides remain steadfast in their requirements to end the dispute.

The union says the university's contract offer of a 2.25 percent annual raise for clerical and technical workers and a 2.5 percent raise for health care workers isn't sufficient. The U's position is that when combined with step raises for experience, most AFSCME represented employees will receive raises of at least 8.5 percent for the contract's two years.

On Friday, the union turned down an offer in which workers would have received a $300 lump sum during each year of the contract while keeping the base increases the same.

"Our members have told us many times that lump sums don't have any lasting impact on their wages," Walker said.

AFSCME has said that if the university bumped the salary increases to 3.25 and 3.5 percent, the strike would likely end.

Wolter declined to comment when asked why the university would not apply the money for the lump sum toward increases in base pay.

The two sides continue to dispute how large of an impact the strike is having. The union said that picket lines at loading docks across campus have interrupted deliveries and that the university "isn't operating as business as usual."

The university said that the number of strikers returning to work is increasing. About 1,000 of 3,100 workers represented by the AFSCME contracts walked off the job on Sept. 5. The university said Monday that number has dropped to between 900 and 950."

StarTribune.com   Jeff Shelman •

Other local websites that have been reporting the strike include:

http://cheek.blogspot.com/

http://skybluewaters.org/blog1/

http://www.norwegianity.com/

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/09/07/regentsprotest/

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php

and Star Tribune.com

Strike at the University of Minnesota

 

University of Minnesota AFSCME workers went on Strike on Wed., Sept. 5th,  2007.

Elizabeth Edwards, on a stop from the campaign trail, spoke at a noon Rally

"AFSCME members said the first day of their strike against the University of Minnesota had a "tremendous impact" on operations. Thousands, including the wife of a presidential candidate, turned out for a midday rally on campus.

"The strike is having a tremendous impact all over campus," the presidents of the four striking AFSCME locals said in a news release Wednesday afternoon. They cited the following effects:

• The Veterinary Teaching Hospital and Clinics are virtually shut down, and are only accepting emergency patients. At least half of the veterinary technicians walked off work, leaving some 15 specialty clinics and the animal hospital open only for emergency calls.

• Without AFSCME Local 3260 dental assistants, lab technicians and dental hygienists, two floors of School of Dentistry clinics in Moos Tower were consolidated to one floor.

• With clerical staff on the picketline, the Bursar's Offices on the West Bank and St. Paul campuses are closed for the duration of the strike.

• Anderson Library on the West Bank of the Minneapolis campus was cleared of technical and clerical workers. Anderson holds eight special collections and archives units and is the central office of the MINITEX Library Information Network. Staff at Wilson Library, the main West Bank library, was significantly reduced. No books leave a U of M Library without touching an AFSCME worker, the unions said.

• Without AFSCME dispatchers, the university police cannot handle the computerized dispatch system. City of Minneapolis dispatchers, also members of AFSCME, are handling 911 calls for the university only. Normal dispatch operations cannot be fulfilled.

• The Facilities Management emergency call center is cleared of employees. The call center answers problems with building maintenance such as elevator malfunctions and electricity failures.

University Vice President of Human Resources Carol Carrier disputed the union's claims, saying two-thirds of the staff represented by AFSCME had crossed the picketline to work.

"Despite the start of a strike, classes are being held as scheduled and day-to-day operations - from facilities management to information technology to food service - continue at the highest service level," she stated in an e-mail to all university staff.

Wages are the key issue in the walkout, which began at 7 a.m. Wednesday. The university administration has offered 2.25 percent increases for clerical and technical workers and 2.5 percent for health care workers. AFSCME said these increases fall short of keeping pace with inflation and are below the 3 percent offered to Teamsters at the university just last week.

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, lauded the strikers for their bravery and said their cause was just.

"If they (university administrators) respect you and believe in your dignity, they're going to provide you with this raise," she said to cheers from the crowd.

U.S. Senate candidates Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson Pallmeyer also spoke and Senate candidate Al Franken joined workers earlier in the day on picketlines. "   

from  Workday Minnesota. org

My Academic Update.  I have been accepted into "Final Project" and I am currently editing my Thesis under the direction of Jack Johson, Program Director of the Master of Liberal Studies.  My graduation will be December 14, 2007, more details to come.