2011 UCW-CWA Convention a roaring success

This past weekend scores of campus workers spent their Saturday at our union's second annual Convention. Members run this union, and we use this annual state-wide meeting to set the political direction of the United Campus Workers. Members came from all three grand regions of the state, representing higher education employees at a dozen specific universities and community colleges. The day began with members giving shout out to "our people": the custodians and grounds workers; the tenured and tenure-track faculty; the clerical workers, office assistants, administrative professionals and secretaries; the craft workers; the contingent and adjunct faculty; our friends, families and all working people.Because we know that knowledge is power, members participated and lead workshops discussing grassroots lobbying, power at work, grievances and organizing.

During the afternoon session members moved and voted on a motion that affirmed the issues brought forward by literally hundreds of campus workers over the past months as the central components of a Campus Workers Bill of Rights. Over the coming weeks union members will continue the important work of drafting this Bill of Rights so we can better educate our campus administrations, elected officials and the general public.

The vote included such important issues as Living Wages, market value pay and pay equity; affordable health care, real due process rights, and a halt to corporate privatization schemes that harm our institutions of public higher education and the essential staff that make our campuses run day in, and day out.; and an end to discrimination on campus and our right to organize. Our program will demand that all Tennesseans have access to quality, public higher education, and that workers are treated with dignity and respect. After all, we know that our working conditions are the learning conditions for our students, both within and beyond the classroom to the dorms, grounds, libraries, offices and shops on each and every higher ed campus. Convention attendees repeated over and over again: these are not simply a list of demands, these are our rights to be treated as human beings with basic decency.

Our movement has made real progress in the last year, winning the first pay raise in 4 years with flat dollar minimums across both UT and TBR systems. Our power has grown as our membership expands to every public university and community college. In closing Convention union members joined hands as we sang the old labor hymn "Solidarity Forever" to proclaim that "The Union makes us strong!"