I badly need moral support.

[readmoreoften]

Hey everyone, I'm pretty much a wreck.

I was just hired to work as a teaching assistant at a major private university where the teaching assistants are about to go on strike. A union established three years ago. Three years ago people in my situation only made $10,000 dollars a year for sometimes up to 50 hours a week of work-- no benefits. After we fought for unionization, pay went up 40% immediately (we are now at 80%), workloads were cut to 20 hours a week, we got health benefits, tuition remission, security and protection.

Then Bush appointed more conservatives to the National Labor Board and they voted that public universities did not have to recognize our union because we weren't really workers. Mind you: 50-60% of ALL courses are taught by teaching assistants at this particular university, where undergraduate tuition is about $40K a year. Even though our job title is 'assistant', the majority of us seem to teach our own classes outright. I know I do.

Now that we lost our union and our security, we are going to strike. We are not asking for more money, we are only asking for the university to continue recognizing our union.

Compared to people in other departments, I am on a fast track to a better job at the university. I probably won't be an 'assistant' long enough to even reap the benefits of what I'm fighting for. I'm striking because it is the right thing to do, because I won't cross a picket line, because I have to carry the torch, because I have to fight for the ones who come after me.

While up to 95% of the people in many departments are striking, I am one of only two people in my department who will be striking- about a rate of 2%. While my colleagues reap the benefits of what people fought for just three years ago, they will not lift a finger to do what's right. They won't educate themselves on the situation. Even if they are sympathetic and knowledgable, they are avoiding the issue and they are avoiding me.

My boss is supportive. While he disagrees with my decision, he understands my principles and will not retaliate against me.


So, I went out with some colleagues last night right after a union meeting. These are people I've known for about a year. In fact, I actually thought about my one colleague and his wife-- she works as a waitress and has no health insurance because, as teaching assistants, her husband and I do not get partner benefits. I've thought about how important it is for people in her position to be able to have access to benefits and I was really proud that I was fighting for what's right. I thought about how my partner and I will be in the same position when she loses her insurance in May. Obtaining spousal/partner benefits was the next thing on the union's agenda.

So I meet my colleagues and their wives at a restaurant of their choosing. It is an expensive, trendy, candlelit type of place. My colleague's wife (the one with no health benefits, who I was so worried about) downed plate after plate of oysters. I watched her eat her perfectly pan-seared tuna and laugh in the candlelight. As I talked to her husband about union issues (he is torn about striking) I watched her scowl. When he went outside to have a cigarette with my girlfriend, I gestured towards his wife to console her about the strike. I said, "Don't worry, if (husband's name) decides to strike, he won't lose his job. Our boss is being really protective. This is going to be really beneficial for us, if we win you won't have to worry about your health insurance anymore (and so on.)"

Well, with this horrible smug and contemptuous look on her face, she just started to spit out words. She called me a liar, she called me 'greedy', she accused me of not caring about my students and then finally... said with absolute hate in her voice and a smile on her face said:

"You know, nobody cares. Why don't you just SHUT the fuck UP?"

I left with tears in my eyes as she cackled and walked away to go laugh with the others.

My girlfriend and I left.

So I will be out on the picket line. One of two people in my entire department, risking my job, constantly agonizing, fighting for benefits for people who won't lift a finger to fight for their own.

I'm fighting for people who despise me for doing what's right. For parasites who spit on the those who fought to get them the little that they do have.

For people who tell me they just want me to shut the fuck up.

I'm risking everything for her candelight dinners and her plates of oysters and her pan-seared tuna and her carefree laughter.