Thursday, November 21, 1996
PARTICIPATION:
SAGE members need support, protection of a unionBy Steven
Leider
The purpose of this letter is to relate my frustration in being
forced to make a decision between honoring the SAGE/UAW picket line
or attending the classes for which I have paid so dearly in time,
effort and money. After agonizing over this decision I have decided
to honor the teaching assistants’ picket line for the following
reasons:
1. As an older "returning" student I have had occasion in the
past to work for organizations where management took advantage of
its lower level employees for the sake of corporate expediency.
After talking with a number of teaching assistants over the last
few weeks, those both currently honoring as well as defying the
picket line, I have formulated the opinion that the university is
adjusting to its reduced operating budget by terminating lecturers
and other non-tenured teaching staff so as to replace them with low
or unpaid teaching assistants. This policy is unfair to both the
non-tenured teaching staff and to the teaching assistants whose
uncompensated labor is being exploited. The argument offered by the
administration in support of this policy is that it saves money and
prevents tuition fees from going up. I know I haven’t seen my
tuition rates lowered as a result of this policy and I would be
extremely surprised if this were to ever actually become the
case.
2. As a former union worker at a federal agency, I know how
important the support and protection of a union can be. Without
that protection, workers with little or no bargaining power are
little more than slave labor, reduced to begging for the crumbs
that management throws them. I don’t mean to suggest that unions
hold all of the answers to workers’ problems, but without a union’s
weight and resources behind them, employees are almost always at a
severe disadvantage in any bargaining situation. This point is well
borne out by SAGE’s experience of your administration’s failure to
recognize or negotiate in good faith with their union
representatives.
I am aware that educational institutions, such as UCLA, whose
primary focus is research would prefer to not have to deal with
undergraduates or the teaching assistants whose uncompensated labor
provides the vehicle for their education. However, I still believe
this university has a duty to honor the principals it teaches to
those undergraduates: the principals of fairness, justice and
community. It is for these reasons that I honor the SAGE/UAW picket
line this week.
AARON TOUT
SAGE members continue to strike this week at Bruin Walk.