[PEN-L:11746] Discussion on UPS strike heard at U. of Illinois

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What follows is an absolutely truthful and accurate story!
Names have been changed to protect identities.


I am sitting at a popular coffee-shop in Urbana this morning reading
the latest issue of LinguaFranca and sipping a cup of coffee, when my
ear starts tracking the conversation at a neighboring table.  It's a
discussion of the UPS strike among three grads, one of whom (let me
call him Bob) I recognize as a person who has refused to join our
Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) --our grad union at the
University of Illinois.

Bob is arguing that President Clinton should intervene and stop the
strike because the Teamsters "have gone too far."  He knows UPS workers
who make a pretty good living because of how generous the company has
been.  One person he went to high school with works at UPS  in
Chicago and earns over $40,000 per year.  Bob is obviously not very happy
at this.  He feels that his friend is making way too much money for a
person with just a high-school education.  Bob has a bachelor's degree
and a master's degree from good schools and he will be finishing up a
Ph.D. in a year or so at the University of Illinois.  He has been working
as a teaching assistant making no more than $10,000 per year even though
he busts his tail to do a good job for his department.

Bob feels that "it just ain't fair" for a high-school graduate to be
making $40,000 when he is barely getting by.  Besides which, what are the
prospects for the future?  Not so great.  In his particular field chances
are about 50/50 that he will be able to land a tenure track position
within 5 years after getting his Ph.D.  Even then, the starting salary
will be less than the $40,000 his high-school classmate earns working for
UPS.

Bob is understandably bitter this morning and his friends are not making
matters any easier for him.  One of them --I'll call her Ani-- argues that
UPS workers make a good living NOT because of the "generosity" of UPS but
because of the collective bargaining power of the Teamsters (mind you, I
recognize Ani as one of the hundreds of GEO members that joined to
improve the lot of graduate employees).  Ani calls Bob an "elitist" for
arguing that the labor of a working-class UPS employee is not nearly as
valuable as the labor of a graduate employee and/or of an academic.

The other participant in the discussion --I'll call her Rosa-- has
trouble understanding what Bob's point is.  Does he want the salary of
the UPS worker to be scaled down or would he rather be better-paid himself?

Bob is not quite sure...
He is just "pissed-off" at all the fuss that the Teamsters are making.
UPS workers are lucky to have the jobs they do.  There are millions of
people around the country, and billions around the world that would be
happy --"truly ecstatic"-- to be making half what a UPS worker is making!!!

Rosa says that Bob is a hard worker and that he is being exploited by
the University of Illinois, but this doesn't mean that the UPS worker is
some sort of culprit for his penury.  If Bob wants to be pissed-off about
someone he should be pissed-off at the administration that is exploiting
his labor and the labor of more than 5,400 graduate employees at the
University of Illinois.  One more reason for him to join the GEO!

Ani agrees with Rosa and adds that scapegoating a UPS worker because his
union has managed to provide him or her with a pretty good contract is not
the way to go.  Bob should join the struggle waged by the Teamsters to
stop the down-hill tumble that the working-class has been in over the
past few years.  "The corporations are part-timing America to death and
they are turning one worker against another so that they can fatten their
wallets and to hell with the rest of us!  We better wake up and demand
radical changes."

"Yeah," adds Rosa,"there is a reason for the saying 'Workers of the World
Unite!'  If working people unite then we might be able to even the
playing-field a bit. But, you see, the people with their hands on the
levers of power don't want this.  So, they find ways to divide us.  In
your case, you barely need any prompting!"

"Besides which," adds Ani,"I know a full professor in Mozambique who makes
a hell of a lot less than we do as teaching assistants.  She has a full
teaching load and she barely makes ends meet for herself and her two
children.  By your logic she would be fully justified to argue that YOU
do not deserve to make what you make because you have nowhere near her
education and experience."

I have nothing to add, so I put my LinguaFranca away and walk out of the
coffee-shop.  Maybe Bob will wake-up and smell the coffee:-)

It is interesting to hear a discussion like this.  What I see coming out
of Bob is insecurity, an insecurity that he translates into disdain for a
UPS worker who might be doing better than him.

Of course, there is a lot more that can be said about what has transpired.
But I won't bore you with my analysis.  Besides which I have a GEO action
to go to.  The IBEW has put up a picket outside a campus building because
the university won't let telecommunications installers to unionize.  The
GEO is going to be out there within the next hour picketing with the
electrical workers.


Solidarity!
Dennis Grammenos


 _____________________________________________________________
| Dennis Grammenos                      dgrammen@xxxxxxxx     |
| Departments of Geography &                                  |
| Russian and East European Studies                           |
| University of Illinois                Phone: (217) 333-1880 |
| Urbana, IL 61801                      Fax:   (217) 244-1785 |
|_____________________________________________________________|










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