Strike ends, struggle continues for U of MN workers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.fightbacknews.org/2007/09/uofmstrugglecontinues.htm

By Brad Sigal

After being on strike for nearly three weeks, workers at the University of Minnesota returned to work on September 21. They went back to work still angry at the U administration, but better organized and determined to carry forward the struggle for economic justice. University clerical, health care and technical workers in four unions struck after the U administration refused to give them the salary increase that other state workers received and that the state legislature had budgeted for them to keep up with inflation. Members of AFSCME Locals 3260, 3800, 3801, and 3937 went on strike all over the state on the second day of the school year, September 5, after months of negotiations.

Lasting almost three weeks, the strike mobilized over 1,000 workers. Daily strike rallies mobilized thousands of strikers and supporters in the first week. In the second week of the strike, picketing focused on cutting off supplies coming in on trucks to the U’s loading docks. Many truck drivers are union members who won’t cross picket lines. By picketing the loading docks, strikers were able to turn away and delay many trucks, causing chaos inside the U. Many picketers spoke joyfully of defying one of the U’s top lawyers, who spent days running around the loading docks trying to intimidate picketers. The strike brought the rank and file members of all four U of M AFSCME unions together for the first time. Union members were transformed during the strike, becoming much more organized and disciplined on the picket lines as they saw that disciplined picketing could seriously affect the U’s operations.

The striking workers received large amounts of support from students, professors, state legislators, other unions and community members. A Labor and Community Support Committee organized daily actions to support the workers during the strike. Over 20 academic department heads wrote letters to U of M President Bruininks supporting the workers’ demands, as did thousands of students and professors. During the first week of the strike over 100 students marched into the U Board of Regents meeting on September 7 to talk to them about the workers’ demands. The regents walked out of the room and had five protesters arrested.

In the second week of the strike, eleven students, a professor, and two workers launched a hunger strike in solidarity with striking workers. Two days later 40 more people joined the hunger strike for a day. The hunger strike lasted until the end of the strike, with one student going to the hospital with dehydration while another got walking pneumonia. The U administration appeared unprepared to respond to the hunger strike. On the third day of the hunger strike, a U spokesperson announced they would send a nutritionist to talk to the students about proper nutrition. According to hunger striker Tracy Molm, “the administration pretended to care about our health by sending out a nutritionist. At the same time they were ready to jeopardize the health care coverage of thousands of striking workers by allowing the strike to drag on past when workers’ health benefits would expire. And if they cared about the hunger strikers’ health, they could have just settled the strike, which would have ended the hunger strike too. The administration doesn’t care about workers or students.”

Hundreds of students marched on various parts of the sprawling U of M campus in almost daily marches and rallies supporting the strike. When students marched by picket lines, a popular chant was “workers and student will never be defeated!” On one night, a labor fundraiser raised over $20,000 from other unions to support the U workers’ hardship fund. Members of other unions in the area joined the U of M picket lines and rallies.

Prominent state legislators wrote open letters to U of M President Bruininks, saying they had budgeted more money for workers’ raises and criticizing him for giving workers less.

FULL story at link.