Letters to the Editor: UC defends its contract offer in labor talks to avert a strike
“UC President Janet Napolitano said she would veto any contract that would allow a strike to take place that would damage student interests and that if the unions refused to negotiate, it is possible they would strike anyway.”
This is the same tactic used by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) which is trying to negotiate a contract extension without an agreement by locking out the majority of UT’S faculty from the bargaining table. How do these two unions expect to bargain with the same group of faculty that has been locked out?
We have had a strike in our midst for a day and a half now because of the fact that UT’S leadership has refused to negotiate a contract that the majority of our faculty would accept. How is this not the same type of lockstep action that our American Federation of Teachers is in the process of engaging in? Do we wish to return to the days of the “one union one vote” days?
When we were in the 1980’s, the AFT was locked out of bargaining with the University of Maryland, College Park, and only the university would talk to it. This same thing is now happening with UT’S faculty. The only group that UC is talking to is the students, and the students are offering to negotiate, but it all sounds like a farce to me.
In this day and age, there are always new and different ways to attack a problem before it even occurs. We have never seen an attempt to go to the students before us, and have never seen any plan from the students that we accept. I have yet to see even a small idea from students that we do not already know how to get their hands on.
I am afraid that this is only the beginning of the battle to keep students from UT’S campus. UC has given itself great authority and is completely unaccountable to anyone. This should not be the path that we choose, so we have got to make a better