Let me start with MY overview: it was a great experience! We had a membership meeting last night (Friday) where many people talked about the friends they had made, friends they had reconnected with and that next time they were asked to authorize a strike, or even do it, it would be an easy call.
IT WAS A WHOLLY POSITIVE EXPERIENCE.
[late addition: my string bag items for first day]
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| LHU hat, hand cleaner, REAL drugs, mini-speaker, "schmoo" (hi-tech drink thing), minor drugs, breath mints (a la lobbying school), recharging battery...umbrella & gore-tex pants followed |
My role was a picket captain. When I signed on, I asked if I got a captain's hat; I was told "sure." (Liars!) But I "found" a hat. Here's the picture from day 1:
And, if you missed it, that IS a parrot on my shoulder (more momentarily). Because every captain in the movies has a parrot on their shoulder -- right, matey? My two shifts called me "Cap'n Graybeard" because, I was told, "Captain Steve" just sounded so...well, not nautical.
BTW, you can see Mark Cloud, in his blue APSCUF shirt, in the background.
I texted both my "crews" (we had 2-hour shifts and we told to take 2 each), supposedly at "5:30 on Wednesday" (it was really 6:30) to make sure they knew we were out & we'd see each other soon. They all responded with something like "aye aye, captain." LOL.
I wrote an email about being on faculty strike that I never sent, from my experience in 2011 in California (in two days, I got tear-gassed and then picketed -- an interesting experience. I love LA!), that said it was a lot of walking, some bonding, and a lot of boredom. Back and forth, back and forth. I logged 39,000+ steps in 3 days -- I only took 56K ALL WEEK last week. There hasn't been enough ibuprofen.
But get this: the one member of my crew, Kate from Rec Science (you'll see that she's both "young" and fit) did 50,000 steps on Thursday!!!! I think she did 4 shifts. Inspiring. And tiring.
#EATING OUR WAY TO A CONTRACT
Since this blog often focuses on food, I can move to that via the students -- they kept bringing food on Wednesday. And Thursday. I put in pictures in order...
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| Crew member Paul with Wed quick lunch -- MacD's (a terrible theme; BTW -- the president's office is in that building in the background) |
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| I thought we had MacD's in last picture! |
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| Warm snickerdoodles. I can resist anything but warm cookies! |
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| My lunch Thursday (there was a meeting so I was in "the Temple") -- that's a cheesesteak & donut. #heart healthy |
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| My vegan officemate Tracey posing taking a freshly baked muffin from one of our English majors |
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| President-elect Matt Girton wanted this shot taken of him finally eating something healthy -- brought by wiser students :) |
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| Finally for brunch on Friday, yes, that's moist chocolate cake with a heavy layer of peanut butter icing on it. |
If you can't tell from the pics and food above, the students were great. I wasn't doing numbers (gee, I'm an English professor) but on Wednesday there were lots there, bringing food, just saying hi and talking, and many picketing with us.
(Side story: I talked to a colleague last night -- I knew everyone in the room, OC -- who had his daughter on the line with him yesterday, aged about 12, who wanted to bring her great grandfather's miners helmet and did. Generational unionism. Awesome)
They also went into the admin building and had a sit in around noon Wednesday. The President didn't even stick his head out of his office. (this in stark contrast to my friend the president at West Chester, who was pictured on Twitter out on the line, shaking students hands and talking to them -- the caption said "this is what leadership looks like.")
We were especially warmed by our (English) majors -- many, many, many came by, stayed and chatted, some brought food, some walked the line, including Meghan, our English Major of the Year two years ago, who walked multiple shifts over multiple days. Props.
Frank
At some point I was inspired by my parrot to name him/her. When the shit hit the fan on Tuesday night, and the system was no longer talking, I realized the parrot's name should be Frank.
Frank became famous, of course. My favorite point on this was running into the HR director, who was friendly back before she got this gig (she worked as the provost's AA) and I was just a faculty member signing a temp contract every year. She looked at the parrot and I said "his name is Frank" and she said "I don't want to know." On her return from Starbucks (no, she didn't get me one...so close and so far) she overheard me give Frank's routine: "I expect them to take birdseed...I stopped talking on Tuesday..." She said "I don't want to know, I don't want to know..." I yelled out his Twitter address.
Frank made the paper (it's a long story but here -- http://www.lockhaven.com/news/local-news/2016/10/faculty-strike-at-lhu-across-the-state/) but here was Frank's reaction --
Toy effing' parrot! What what what?! Frank. My name is Frank! D*****t! I'm famous! For my color. For my early bedtime! For not talking!
I got a lot of mileage out of Frank. As I should. His last tweet, after the settlement, complained about the lack of mention in some of the press releases and that he decided he'd just go back to Florida.
LOL.
HOME
I think everyone reading this, or on the original distribution list at least, know I live in a mixed home: I'm a union officer and my wife is in HR in the system. I can say, after the strike, we are still married! I know many wonder how that has happened AT ALL for 35 years, but we are actually speaking lovingly this morning. But it was a rough week. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we competed to see who could get out the house earliest (I won Friday...someone was losing energy as the week progressed), and Wednesday and Thursday she worked till after 8 PM. She said "just the normal 14 hour day."
And this gives me an opportunity to grouse about the system's management (I mean Frank, mostly, and his predecessors) and their strategy on our contracts. The only time we've gotten one on time since Jim White and Jim McCormack wrote one on a napkin in the mid-nineties (I've seen the napkin), was when we said we weren't working without a contract in 2007, and most of us know how well that went on the union side. They waste huge amounts of human energy with this -- the last week the number of hours of meetings, of work in HR offices, is just ridiculous. Moving off campus, contingency plans, having someone go to classes to take attendance, it's all just a big waste and no Chancellor for 20 years has seemed to care. I guess it's Marxist: those who make the decisions really don't care what it does to those of us proles in the trenches, on both sides.
I feel for those in those offices around the system who had to grind all this out, and still will have to put it all back together. Not so bad as to not strike, but bad in the big picture.
The Organization and the Finish
One question is always "how (not can) do we pull this off?" It seems having had two strike workshops was beneficial (I'm here taking credit for the one in 2013 being helpful) because the mobilization chair, our assistant chair, PR chair, spokesperson, and student liaison did great jobs. And the equipment put together -- like bullhorns -- was right. It was smooth as you could expect. The one thing I missed from California was a port-a-potties (CFA hired a consultant to put their strike in '11, with solar powered phone chargers, pop up canopies, coolers and nutritious snacks and high quality sound systems) -- but we all survived, though I'd hate to be the person who cleans the bathrooms in the three homes we used for 3 days.
As I arrived Friday morning (about 830), Rep. Mike Hanna, who is on the Board of Governors, pulled up to our picket station and said that an agreement was close at hand and to hang on and he thought there'd be a deal by noon. Word spread. When asked, I said, we picket till we're told not to -- more than one "almost agreement" has slipped into days, weeks, to nail down.
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| My heroes (and friends) -- our negotiating team: from left, Ken (Mr President), Mary Rita, Jamie (VP with the lights over her head -- ironically angelic????), Amy, and Chris, with Stuart (our hired gun) in front signing. |
But Friday we had weather. In the night Thursday night the area had 4-7" of rain (my source is a guy in a tee and shorts in Sheetz Friday morning); it was overcast and spitting all morning. Then, around noon, the wind started howling. A student had come by and brought a tarp and hung it between trees with real ship knots and we scrambled to untie it and cover our signs. We used a cooler and folding chair to hold it down, somehow in the meantime using someone's "stuff" (including keys) as the trashbag. She scared us more than the storm yelling at us. LOL.
So all the picketers gathered in the Masonic Temple downtown, our temporary off-campus on Main St., and they had homemade vegetable soup (never got there) and then more MacDonald's (yes, at one point I had a cheeseburger).
We had decided to have an all member meeting Friday evening to look at the last proposals and get everyone psyched up for Monday morning -- thinking we wanted to be strong if we went to week 2. We had slideshow, prepared of course by Mark, ready, but knowing that there was stuff in the air -- Stan (our chapter president) had another conference call at 3:40. He came out saying it was over -- then the official message came from the state office. & Mark started working on the slide show of the agreement. I bought beer.
It was quite the celebration -- I counted 100 there at one point and some people came and went.
Many people spoke. One recurrent theme was our solidarity, and the help and support of so many students. Many walked the line, many brought food, many were supportive by honking as they passed, some wrote emails to our president, the real Frank, the Governor and representatives. And they didn't overdo going to class -- we'll spin it positively that they supported the faculty who told them they'd be out on strike.
It was one happy group in that room last night. We talked about how easy it'd be next time -- and we're willing for there to be a next time -- and how close we felt after all going through all this. One of the scabs came and gave a painful speech about how he screwed up and was too weak and knew he didn't deserve the benefits we'd gone out for but he knew that now and he'd be there from now on. He got some applause. No one wanted any downers. (one funny story, one Exec Council member, who might be a bit intense ran into the Starbucks on East Campus [I teach 2 classes there this semester] to yell "scab, scab, scab" at a guy as he got his coffee and then tried to get to his office and, the next day, said he saw another scab a block and a half a day went running after her yelling "scab" but he said "she's faster than I am." LOL. Some people will have a tough time ahead. Just sayin'. I don't remember there names -- right?
And, so, today, I'm home, not picketing, with a good TA, and a great experience.
And here's my departmental colleagues (the ones left at the end of the meeting, rocking the blue T-shirts & one Hogwarts scarf):
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| From left Nicole, David, Gayatri, Lisette, me, & Rick (the radical) |
