NEWS & EVENTS (BenOrtiz.com)

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

CITY COLLEGES of CHICAGO STRIKE: Day II

“…the eternal fate of the noble and enlightened: to be brutally crushed by the armed and dumb.”
--America: The Book, A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction

…such, at least, were my worries last night when I fell into a dogmatic slumber, replete with the acrid drool of sleep apnea and the caffeine horrors. You know we’re a teachers’ union because we are doddering wackademics whose bones ache after a mere 12 hours of the picket line. And so, with sorely afflicted eyelids and chickenlegs, I scraped this carcass out of bed a’morn at six and marched, shouted, pop-locked up and down the block in front of Truman College.

On strike with Local 1600 today: Truman faculty, part-timers, students, adjuncts, adult ed teachers, friendlies from the hotel across the street, Northeastern Illinois University students, an elderly couple who broke into a shimmy with our salsa, and one puppy dog.

Even the security guards got a piece when we cranked some Beyonce with our rigged-up streetside discotheque. In all, it felt better today. Even if it still sucked being out there. Yes, it sucked something awful.

Why? Because this strike has gone on for another day of the administration sucker-punching us with their misinformation, ordering students to report to class so they can break the strike; yes, they continue feeding a truly sorry local press lies that are repeated just about verbatim by lazy reporters sometime after the lead story that bleeds like The Passion of the Christ. THIS IS A NATIONAL STORY – see an article at the end of this post from The Chronicle of Higher Education…

I shouldn’t be so harsh, though. In addition to taking a clear stand on student attendance all of a sudden, the administration not only secured the exits/entrances but also instituted a Campus Beautification Program that’s sure to stampede the students on back to class, as the front hedges and trees are now covered with vomit-orange rubber-chickenwire. The Campus Beautification Program includes blood-red OPEN signs trumpeting tacky desperation – and they don’t realize how it looks from the street, like they’re boarding up the windows that once let everyone see a school, like they’re walling themselves up into a crypt.

A former student once gave me his honest opinion of Truman College as an institution. He said that Truman just wants student money, that they roll people through there like cattle. ADMINISTRATION: I implore you to help us prove him wrong by not doing your job with such gusto against the strike. As Jon Stewart said on Crossfire:

“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.”

But among today’s many highlights: Cook County College Teachers’ Union President Perry Buckley visiting campus for a rallying cry; many, many students joining us and bringing noisemakers plus an entire stereo system; nursing students with the Halloween gear; “Rapper’s Delite”; political chit-chat with the bored security guards; mucho horn-honkers; veggie burger; the chair of my department busting loose like a will o’ the wisp on some Rolling Stones; and, unfortunately, more than a few students telling me I was lying, walking away laughing, heaping scorn with angry eyes as they crossed the picket.

“We’re dying in here” (Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon). I tried to keep that thought out of mind. The spirits were better and turnout bigger today, after all. And yet I still feel a deep sense of disgust and dread over how it’s all come to this.

Come out with us tomorrow, if you can. I’ll be there at 7am. Ouch.

--B

And here's the article I mentioned above:

Professors Walk Off Their Jobs in Workload Dispute at City Colleges of Chicago
By SCOTT SMALLWOOD
(c) 2004 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

Full-time professors went on strike on Tuesday at the City Colleges of Chicago, prompting the cancellation of many classes at the seven-college system.

Administrators said that the colleges remained open and that 70 percent of the classes are taught by part-time instructors who are not on strike. But Perry J. Buckley, president of the striking union, scoffed at that number, saying that college officials must have counted every possible class -- "adult ed, yoga, candle making, GED, and ESL."

As he spoke from his cellphone while walking a picket line, Mr. Buckley said he had just met with a student who was told that six of his seven classes would not be held. "Then he went to the one, and no one was there," said Mr. Buckley, an English professor.

The City Colleges and the Cook County College Teachers Union Local 1600, which represents about 500 professors, have been negotiating for 16 months, including 5 months with the help of a federal mediator. The professors' previous contract expired in July.

While the sides have disagreed on several issues, the main sticking point is workload. Administrators want the professors to teach 15 hours per semester, or five courses, as community-college professors around the state do. At the City Colleges, about half of the full-timers teach 12 hours per semester, or four courses.

"This is a fairness issue," James C. Tyree, chairman of the colleges' Board of Trustees said in a written statement. "They should teach the same schedule as everyone else in our system and in the rest of Illinois. It's hard for us to make the case for greater funding from the state when half of our professors teach less than everyone else."

Newly hired professors already teach 15 hours a semester, Mr. Buckley said. "What they're saying is that they want everyone to be overworked," he said.

While some professors at the City Colleges of Chicago do teach fewer classes, they supervise more students than do other community-college instructors because of the large class sizes, Mr. Buckley said. The union is pushing to lower the class-size limits, from 35 to 30.

In the colleges' statement, Wayne Watson, the chancellor, said the institution has been "very flexible on salary and health care, and we've offered to compromise on workload."

Mr. Buckley suggested that the union, which is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, was digging in for a long strike. "We'll stay out a month if we have to," he said. But he also said that city officials, concerned about the disruption to polling places, would probably pressure the colleges to settle the contract before the November 2 election.

Mr. Buckley acknowledged that it was the union that had walked away from the bargaining table after the two sides had seemed very close to a deal over the weekend. He said he had given the chancellor his home and cellphone numbers.

"I have nothing to say to the man," Mr. Buckley said. "Whenever he's ready to talk, he can call."

Posted by Benjamin at October 20, 2004 08:58 PM