A group of Ithaca area labor leaders have announced their intention to support the upcoming strike of Ithaca College Contingent Faculty / SEIU Local 200, slated for March 28-29, should a negotiated agreement not be reached before then.
(Ithaca) A group of Ithaca area labor leaders have announced their intention to support the upcoming strike of Ithaca College Contingent Faculty / SEIU Local 200, slated for March 28-29, should a negotiated agreement not be reached before then.
"There's a basic belief we have that no one should ever cross a picket line," said Mark May of Teamsters Local #317 which represents UPS drivers. May explained that UPS management will sometimes put supervisors in trucks during a strike, because union members won't deliver if it means crossing a picket line.
Jason David, President of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local #2300, represents TCAT bus drivers and Cornell University building and maintenance workers, food service and other service workers had this to say: "The UAW, as we have in past by walking picket lines, shouting out to the community, and brainstorming with the Ithaca College Contingent Faculty, will continue to support IC Contingent Faculty in their struggles in anyway possible."
Other local union leaders also expressed strong support for the IC Contingent Faculty Union, including Adam Piasecki, President of the Ithaca Teachers Association. "We are fortunate to live in a community that values education and having talented, dedicated educators for all students from the early childhood years through post-graduate work. But this value is only real when it is extended to those educators that work tirelessly everyday for the students in the classrooms. We believe that the educators' working conditions are the students' learning conditions. Equity, dignity, and respect for the profession of teaching are real factors in providing a quality education." Piasecki added that many members of the ITA are IC graduates and mentor the pre-service teachers in the IC programs. “We stand in solidarity with the IC Contingent Faculty Union members in their continued fight for a fair and respectful contract," he concluded.
“The refusal by Ithaca College’s administration to respect its faculty is weakening the college’s good standing in the community and reveals the administration’s lack of commitment to providing the teaching and learning conditions necessary to support high-quality education,” said United University Professions President Frederick E. Kowal, Ph.D. “We stand proudly in solidarity with the Ithaca College Contingent Faculty Union."
At its February meeting, UUP’s Executive Board passed a resolution calling on the Ithaca College administration to address the union’s demands for fair pay and job security. UUP, the nation’s largest higher education union, represents more than 42,000 SUNY academic and professional faculty and retirees.
Additional support for the pending strike action was voiced by Sena Aydin, Chair of the Organizing Committee of the Cornell Graduate Students Union, whose own union certification election is being held next week, and Anne Marshall, the Registered Nurse who led the union organizing campaign and was fired by Cayuga Medical Center. "My own experience showed me that employers want to keep total control," stated Marshall. "But unions are necessary to create a check on that unilateral power, so that employees don't live in fear.” Just this week, a federal district court injunction ordered Cayuga Medical Center to reinstate Marshall and another fired nurse, Loran Lamb, while they face National Labor Relations Board charges of retaliatory firing.
Tom Schneller, a member IC Contingent Faculty Union, responded on behalf of his colleagues, saying "The prospect of solidarity actions by the Teamsters and other unions opens up a whole new dimension to this strike. Imagine what message this sends to the IC admin and the Board of Trustees regarding the power we have as a campus community. In having this two-day strike with all the solidarity actions could represent a major event in the history of this college, and set the tracks for years to come in terms of the power dynamic between the administration and the rest of us."
