Sisters and Brothers:
I am glad to have reconnected with some of you and to have met some of you for the first time. There are others of you, obviously, whom I look forward to meeting. I wanted to encourage you to get involved in solidarity work on behalf of the University of Minnesota workers who are on the verge of an historic strike. For the first time, all four AFSCME locals are standing strong together. They are demanding wage and benefit increases that would enable them to maintain their standard of living,in the face of University management offers of a 2.5% increase. These workers, more than three quarters of whom are women, have been falling behind the cost of living, on the one hand, and well behind the compensation provided for administrators and faculty, on the other, despite their unionized status, since the early 1990s. They could well be poster children for the impact of neoliberalism, yet they are standing up now as poster children of the resistance to neoliberalism.
This struggle is an important opportunity for all of us to say NO! to further cuts in higher education, NO! to the corporatization and privatization of higher education, NO! to the protection of privilege which has shaped institutions like the University of Minnesota (and my own Macalester College) for far too long. It is important for a broad-based movement to cohere around these workers who are prepared to strike. Please come to this rally, come to the solidarity committee meetings on Saturday mornings (which are very action-oriented), and hit the uworkers website for more info. Thanks.
Love and Solidarity,
Peter Rachleff
Countdown to Strike
SUPPORT U of M WORKERS BANNERING IN SOLIDARITY!
Wednesday August 29, 2007 4:30–6 pm
Washington Ave. & Union St.
University of Minnesota, East Bank Campus, Minneapolis
Four AFSCME Locals (3260, 3800, 3801, 3937) representing 3,500 campus workers in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Crookston and Duluth voted last Thursday to authorize a strike. Come to the Wednesday, August 29 bannering to show campus and community solidarity with the AFSCME workers and to call on the University administration to offer them a fair contract.
Initiated by the U of M Strike Support Committee www.uworkers.org (612) 234-8774
Join us on Saturdays at 10 am at Strike Support Headquarters in the University Baptist Church,1219 University Avenue SE
PLEASE ALSO ATTEND:
Solidarity Rally will be held at Noon on Thursday, August 30, 2007 on the front steps of Morrill Hall on the U of M East Bank Campus.
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