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After the strike: what's next?
June 22, 2005
After the strike: what's next?
After CUE's statewide labor actions last week, members want to know -- What's next?
Answer: Continue building our momentum! We sent a clear message to UC that their rejection of the Fact-finding panel's report and recommendations for 2003-04 bargaining was unacceptable. Many hundreds of employees around the state sacrificed pay, and some even risked their jobs to make this statement loud and clear!
CUE's energy level has never been higher, and we must channel that energy into additional ways to make our point. We must take our message to more legislators, and to taxpayers, local governments, religious & community leaders and our neighbors. With these allies, we will continue to build the pressure on UC President Dynes.
What else did CUE's strike accomplish? It's too soon yet to add up all the gains, but some of them are clear.
Our message went to the state legislature, where CUE is finding allies in our struggle to force UC to pay us fairly. Remember, UC's artificially low wages depress local economies up and down the state. During our strike, many elected officials abandoned the usual neutral rhetoric ("UC and the union must both behave themselves and bargain fairly"), and criticized UC for its shameful pay policies.
We're building a culture of solidarity, which makes UC very nervous! This spring each of three major unions at UC went on strike and at each strike, many members of the other unions participated -- often making huge personal sacrifices and, again, even risking their jobs! These coordinated strikes represent a historic first for UC unions, and they have been the first step toward future joint union actions.
Finally, UC broke the law in many ways during our strike and the previous ones this spring, by threatening clerical workers with discipline and dismissal for engaging in protected activities like honoring legal picket lines or engaging in a legal strike. We are confident that CUE will prevail in unfair labor practice charges, and that UC will be forced to back away from their illegal practices. The result: stronger union bargaining power and better contracts for UC's hard- working clericals.
With this strike, UC clericals have made great strides toward the wages that we need and deserve. But until each one of us can take a fair pay check to the bank every payday, we must keep up the fight. What is clear is that the June strike actions have launched a fight for economic justice that will, sooner or later, benefit us all.
-- CUE Statewide Executive Board