UC Union Workers One-Day Strike!

(If you want my opinion on this, read far below.)

What happened:

There was a one-day strike in the University of California system. All the union workers striked, and asked us not to go to class, or ask out professor to cancel or move the class to a different location. The reason for the protest is naturally they want wage increase. Also, compared to California State University, they got 24% less pay, and compared to the community college, it's 40%. Picket lines! Fun. They asked us to skip class, or ask the professor to either cancel class or move it to a location off campus.

How this affected me:

In my class:

When I was in my organic chemistry class, a young woman who must have been sitting in the classroom suddenly stood up telling everyone to walk out of the class. She talked angrily about how UC workers get such low wages and don't earn enough money to support a family, and about how the UC administration wasn't negotiating fairly. The professor asked her nicely, "I'd like you to leave, please." She replied, "I'll leave when I finished talking." The professor rebutted, "No, right now."

But she simply walked up the auditorium and kept talking loudly. The professor said, "It's time to go--anyway, we have the two methyl groups, so it's called N,N-dimethyl benzamide--I'm going to keep talking here, so you guys can decide whether you want to listen to her or me. Any of you are welcome to go, if you'd like. But you also paid to be here." He smiled as if slightly amused, and then tried to talk through the microphone louder than the woman, but he was visibly distracted. The talking woman's high pitched voice was audible, and she kept asking us to leave the class. Nobody left. Eventually the woman left, to which the professor responded, "Thank you," but naturally, he lost his bearing. In an attempt to get back to his original train of thought, he answered a student's miscellaneous statement with, "A little distracted today? I can't imagine why."

In the cafeteria:

There were visibly less people working. Most are janitors, and without people to help clean up, they started using paper plates--they usually use real plates which are washed, but without janitors, they had to use paper plates that are thrown away. What a way to waste the environment.

On campus:

I saw a big rally as people marched around and chanted loudly. Exactly what, I couldn't here. But, I'm very sure it rhymed.

My opinions:

I support the workers. It shocks me that they can barely support their family and that they never had a wage for two years, but I understand that the public education, and public universities themselves, are very poor in California. Even as students protest against tuition hike, workers protest against a stagnant wage.

The strike hasn't affected me too badly. In fact, there was a quirk. I had a class from 5-6, and usually at around 5:30, the janitor locks the emergency doors and turns the alarm on. They keep it open during the day so that students like me can have a quicker access to the classroom. Since they were on a strike, the door wasn't locked, so I could simply get out a quicker way.

The strike was very exciting. Especially the rally, but I had things to do and errands to finish, so I couldn't stay long and talk with the people picketing and holding signs.

It wasn't exactly the first time I have been through this. One time, in this delightful California public education system of ours, I was in 10th or 9th grade (I can't remember, I only remember a world history class), I think I had the world teacher who was also one of the leaders of the work-to-rule strike. She was a woman who exhibited a certain pride and strength.

Although the teachers didn't strike, the work-to-rule worked in such a way that it directly hampered on the senior class's enjoyment of their final year. Because the teachers would only teach, and do nothing else, they wouldn't chaperone a senior cruise, and thus caused it to be canceled, they wouldn't be advisors to clubs and parties, and thus students meeting amount to little. Working to rule meant that they would not volunteer their time doing anything else. They also would not buy any additional paper, pencils, or other accessories that they usually had to use their own money to purchase.

Did it work? I don't know, but I know that it made some senior students rather pissed off that their last year of high school was being ruined simply because of disagreement between the teachers' association and the administration.

I've talked too much about how we depend on these workers for all our essentials. Keeping the restroom in as sanitary a condition as possible is a thankless job. And I've talked too much about the American Dream as something that should mean more than "owning a house and a car." I've talked too much, indeed, about why Americans shouldn't need to strive to be doctors, bankers, architects, simply because they're prestigious occupations, because we need workers that work in "jobs no Americans want," as so eloquently stated by President Bush. We should be thanking these workers.

If you've ever watched the Fight Club, you would understand that these poor workers have a great inner power. If you've ever read 1984, you would understand just as clearly as I do what Winston saw in the proletariats, and how, if they could get out of their ruts, they could overturn the oppressive government of Inner Party and Outer party, and cast off the double-speak of the Ministry of War and Peace.

Did I skip class to join them? No, I am much too in fear of my grades falling to ever join, and besides, the news article stated what I much suspected, that students skipping classes don't care as much about workers' wage increase as about a chance to skip classes and do something else to alleviate their boredom.

And yes, when I was walking by, I met a friend of mine, with whom I talked, and he told me that he didn't go to class. Yet, I didn't see him holding a poster, or joining the rally. I knew that he simply wanted to skip class, and he found a chance to hide that desire under the veil of supporting workers' rights.

I may sound cynical, and I know that there are many students who do support the union workers. But I simply wanted to point out that reality is much more complicated than a simple case of a mob of people striking, and a mob of students walking out of class.