Fighting the Cuts at UVM
The following is a lightly edited transcript of a talk given for the CVDSA Webinar, “Fund Vermont’s Future: Join the Fight for Public Education” May 6 2020
After endless messages thanking us for our hard work and dedication during these challenging times, last week the administration at the University of Vermont announced budget cut plans that show nothing but callous disrespect for the lives and work of faculty.
The cuts are billed as reasonable “shared sacrifice” in face of inevitable looming crisis: as my dean said, “these measures will impact nearly every member of our community in some way.”
But nothing about this plan is fair or reasonable or equitable. Like the worst of regressive taxation, it protects the university’s wealth, while imposing undue hardship on those who earn the least. It would inflict great harm on educational quality, because it targets faculty—award winning, experienced, beloved faculty— who teach multiple sections of courses that are essential to students. For example, in my department, English, we would lose more than 20 course sections next year. And even on their terms, it makes no financial sense, because the positions being cut are so low paid, relatively little money will be saved
It is very clear that the impact of the cuts will not be evenly felt. Our dean and some other top administrators will “take an 8.3% reduction in salary.” This is in line with an earlier announcement that the University President would forego his pay for the month of April. President Garimella’s “generous” sacrifice is on a base salary of $480,000—plus stipend and benefits. My dean’s salary is $270,000, plus a stipend of an unpublished amount. At the same time, all Non-Tenure Track faculty—typically lecturers who teach four courses a semester—are slated for an involuntary reduction in their workload to 75 percent.
Now I want to take a moment to read from yesterday’s Burlington Free Press, quoting President Garimella: "The university has not imposed any pay cuts on any faculty," he said, explaining this is the time of year when each college assigns workload based on anticipated need. "It's a question of change in FTE (full-time equivalency), which is, you know, the amount of time they teach. It's their workload and it's not a pay cut."… However, he acknowledged reduced workloads will correlate with less pay.
In case there’s any confusion: when your workload is reduced, so is your pay. So, to be crystal clear, this will mean is a 25 percent pay cut for lecturers. And this would bring the average lecturer’s salary in the college of arts and sciences down to below $43,000.
So, after this “shared sacrifice,” lecturers will be below a livable wage, pushing many of them and their children into food and housing insecurity, while the president will be making more than ten times their salary and the dean more than five times. And at the same time the budget plan imposes a hiring freeze on staff and part time faculty. As a result, non-teaching staff, many of whom already earn well below livable wage, will face further uncertainty and precarity.
Part time professors are a vital sector of the university who routinely teach essential courses for little compensation, keep programs running and ensure continuity for students. Part timers are paid between $6000 and $7000 per course, without benefits, and contingent on enrollment. So, the savings for the university here are paltry. As one of my colleagues wrote on our union discussion list: “If you think of the budget as a container of large boulders, they are frantically picking out the pieces of gravel.”
The Rutgers University faculty union came up with the perfect name for this approach to budget uncertainty: “Maximum pain for minimum gain.” While the cuts hit non tenure track and part timers the hardest, they are bad for all faculty. First, because they mean that tenure track faculty will take up the slack and work more for less.
Second, because they will have a devastating impact on the university as a whole. For example, the administration plans to take away course releases and cut stipends held by faculty who run programs. Those programs include Jewish Studies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, and Sexuality, Gender and Women’s Studies. So much for the university’s commitment to equity and diversity.
And third, because these cuts are just the beginning; more are coming, as can be seen in other universities, such as Ohio State. As a faculty member there put it: “we are canaries in a very toxic mine. Many other schools are probably going to go through this.” If we accept the logic of these cuts now, it will be harder for us to stave off worse attacks in the future.
Although the pandemic is the catalyst for these measures, they are part of a far longer pattern, and in that way are something of a wish list for the administration. The faculty union, United Academics, has documented consistent underfunding of education, and along with it squeezing of faculty at all levels, in favor of administrative bloat, marketing and branding, expensive amenities, and any number of boondoggle initiatives. Their “budgetary crises” are really a question of misplaced priorities.
And this continues to be the case even in the context of a genuine crisis for higher education. The university is a microcosm of the broader capitalist system: the staff and faculty who do the most, struggle to make ends meet, while board members and the president and a phalanx of vice presidents—and no one is quite sure what they even do—rake in six figure salaries. The university has a reported endowment of $467.7 million, yet they are eliminating part time faculty who make less than $6000 per course. As a petition against the cuts launched by students puts it “the university apparently has enough money to pay millions in branding and consultants, but no money for its students or faculty.”
The logic of austerity is that there is not enough to go around, so we are forced to compete with each other for the crumbs, rather than demanding more access to the wealth that is there. And that logic constantly pits us one against the other: Tenure Track against Non-Tenure Track; full time against part time; and on a bigger scale, K-12 education against state colleges against the University of Vermont.
We have everything to gain by standing in solidarity with each other to defend public education at all levels. For all these reasons and more, we at the University of Vermont have just launched a public campaign against the cuts. Inspired by the faculty, staff and students of the Vermont State Colleges, we refuse to accept that “there is no alternative.” There were 55 people at our first meeting, and we are planning a car protest to coincide with the next Board of Trustees meeting. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know that if we do nothing, we will all lose, but if we fight back, we might win.
Dr. Edgar Rivera Colón on the Latinx Community, Sexuality, and the Churches
Dr. Edgar Rivera Colón sobre la comunidad latinx, la sexualidad, y las iglesias
Justice for Ahmaud Arbery
The Metro Atlanta DSA mourns the tragic death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was senselessly murdered while jogging through his own neighborhood in Glynn county three months ago. No parent should have to watch their child be slain in such a disgusting way, for no reason other than racist hate. There is no question about it: this was a modern-day lynching.
This murder, and the subsequent refusal of the capitalist state to take action against the killers, reflects the despicable systemic racism that plagues our whole country. The fact that this crime has gone unaddressed for 3 months provides a glimpse into what black americans face in an environment built on racial profiling and white supremacy.
We unequivocally stand with the NAACP in demanding the resignations of District Attorneys Jackie Johnson and George Barnhill. We echo their call for justice for Ahmaud Arbery. We encourage our members and supporters to participate in the distributed Dedication Distance Run planned for this Friday, May 8th, in his honor.
REST IN POWER
What is a Strike? Reflections on May Day
You’re listening to Revolution Per Minute on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting at 99.5 FM and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com. You can find us on our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com or on twitter @nycRPM
May Day 2020: Atlanta Car Parade & Protest
Every Human is Essential
On May 1, 2020, Metro Atlanta DSA joined with a massive coalition of Atlanta-area unions and activist organizations to put on a car parade and protest against the unacceptable handling of COVID-19 by the Georgia state government.
Protesters’ demands included:
- State-funded paid sick leave for all essential workers
- State-funded hazard pay for all essential workers
- Expanded unemployment benefits
- Expanded medicaid coverage
- Expanded food stamp subsidies
- Moratorium on rent
- Decarceration of jails and ICE detention facilities
The showing was incredible! Upwards of 100 vehicles participated in the caravan.
DSA members erected a mock guillotine along the parade route and in front of the state capitol building. Their signs read, “WE ARE NOT PAWNS FOR YOUR PROFITS.”
“Cars in the caravan all drove by blasting their horns with their fists raised, as did quite a few people who were not demonstrating,” said DSA member Rachel K, who worked closely with other organizers to make the mock guillotine stunt a reality.
More photos from the car parade and protest:
Atlanta’s 2020 May Day demonstration was organized and sponsored by:
- Concerned Members Of ATU Local 732
- United Campus Workers Of Georgia
- Shift Change Atlanta
- Southern Workers Assembly
- National Nurses United
- Black Alliance For Just Immigration
- Community Movement Builders
- Atlanta Industrial Workers Of The World (IWW)
- Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists Of America
- Science For The People – Atlanta Chapter
- Georgia Detention Watch
- Black Workers For Justice
- Workers World Party
- Georgia Peace And Justice Coalition
- Georgia Workers Alliance
- Housing Justice League
- New Orleans Hospitality Workers Alliance
Get involved with Metro Atlanta DSA
Never forget — the wealthy elites need us more than we need them. Without our labor, they would have nothing. When we stand together, we are unstoppable.
JOIN METRO ATLANTA DSA — SUPPORT OUR WORK
Berkshires DSA STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH ESSENTIAL WORKERS
Berkshires DSA stands in solidarity with the true heroes of our community during the COVID-19 crisis.
While most of us are working from home, furloughed, laid-off or were even unemployed before COVID-19, there are a great many workers who are on the frontline of this crisis supporting the lifelines of our community in the grocery, sanitation, utility and healthcare industries.
Local journalists have investigated concerns at Berkshire Health Systems and shared the struggles of individuals around the county. Stories are percolating through the community about how essential workers: aren’t being effectively protected from the virus (not receiving PPE or being told not to wear it in the case of some grocery workers) and feel unsafe—and they are.
While the Berkshires community has shown gratitude to essential healthcare workers in the area, Berkshires DSA is interested in supporting efforts to thank ALL essential workers, by helping them (and their unions) to demand proper safety equipment, pay adjustment for working in hazardous conditions and a raised level of pay and respect after social distancing.
It’s unacceptable that the richest country in the world doesn’t have the equipment needed to protect the backbone of our nation in a time of crisis. It’s unacceptable that in the wealthiest country, we cannot provide healthcare for all.
Berkshires DSA demands #PeopleOverProfit.
As we look at ways to provide aid to our community and organize with local unions, we ask members of the community to share your story. Send us your story (anonymously if you prefer) about how your employer at a deemed essential business is not protecting you or someone you know from COVID-19, and putting profit over people.E-mail BerkshiresDSA@gmail.com with your stories and we will share them. Let’s speak up. Let’s get loud! Solidarity!
Rent Strike! featuring Marcela Mitaynes
You’re listening to Revolution Per Minute on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting at 99.5 FM and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com. You can find us on our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com or on twitter @nycRPM
Starbucks Workers Organize to Stay Home, Stay Safe and for Continuing Pay
The CVDSA Covid-19 Response Working Group interviewed Scarlett Moore, a barista at Starbucks in downtown Burlington, about how the store is responding to the pandemic and what workers are doing.
In a recent letter to “partners”, Starbucks says it is committed to “ensuring your safety and well-being, supporting our public health and government officials and being in service to our communities.” How has Starbucks lived up it commitments?
When the pandemic broke out in China, Starbucks closed stores and they didn’t have an option not to. When the pandemic came to the United States I think that Starbucks response was so delayed that workers had to take action on their own to demand the types of environments we think are safe to work in. So when Starbucks originally promised store closures and catastrophe pay for 30 days, that was the result of workers organizing, mostly online across many stores, thousands of workers demanding that stores shut down. Starbucks had to respond to that. We certainly benefited from that in Burlington. Starbucks did provide pay (called “catastrophe pay”) when stores closed. There were problems with the way it was calculated, but it has been really helpful to a lot of people.
What about working conditions in your store?
Because of its location in a mall, my store in Burlington closed right away. Other stores like the one in Essex Junction, Vermont with drive-throughs stayed open longer. They did not however provide PPE to workers who were working at the windows within 6 feet of customers, where you still could contract the virus. So, what I heard is that when the rest of the Starbucks closed down, the customer load increased so much that it was impossible to complete recommended measures like washing hands and sanitizing between each transaction because of the level of production workers were being asked to maintain by managers. Eventually, that came to a head, and there weren’t enough people willing to work in those conditions. People won’t work when our lives are lives are on the line for $11/hour.
Workers at your store wrote a letter to management. What were they asking for?
On April 16, when we read the letter from Rossan Williams, the Exec. Vice President of Starbucks U.S., it was like getting whiplash. The letter to us read that we were being pushed back to work in unsafe conditions on threat of losing our jobs, whether or not it was cloaked in compassionate language. So we read that and were immediately concerned that the company was prioritizing its profits over our lives. We knew we had the ability to do something about that, and so we should. We wrote a letter to our manager and to our district manager, which essentially said that we would not be returning to work until the Vermont stay at home order had been lifted. We asked them to extend our catastrophe pay until that point. One of our main concerns is that baristas are not essential workers. Serving coffee is not essential work. There is no socially useful reason we should be asked to return to work. It’s all about restoring the profitability of the store, and that’s just not acceptable. Our lives are worth more than that.
So we wrote a short and sweet letter to management saying that we had made the decision on our own that our store was staying closed, regardless of the priorities of the company.
How did Starbucks respond?
We gave the letter to our manager during a Zoom meeting with our store’s staff. We discussed our concerns about our safety in being asked to return to work. Another concern on the call was that our location was on Church Street, an area of non-essential services largely for upper middle class people, and that by opening the store we were actually encouraging people to step out of their homes during a stay at home order and come to a shopping district. We felt that was not only unsafe for us, but also creating unsafe conditions for the rest of our community as well.
Although the manager said he was proud of us, the letter and our concerns were to the best of our knowledge passed up to the district manager and to upper management. This was something that we were ready for. We did not hear back for another 48 hours. And then a @StarbucksHelp account responded to one of my tweets saying that the store had never intended to open before the stay at home order was lifted. This message was given in individual calls to all the baristas at our location by the district manager and store manager the following morning. A few days after that we had a meeting where management didn’t mention our letter at all, but reiterated that the store was never going to open until the 16th. They told us that because Starbucks serves food, it is an essential service, and that it was their choice to have been closed this whole time.
I would say this type of response is an attempt to gaslight workers and distract us from what we won. Getting an extra 12 paid days off is a real victory that comes out of solidarity and comes out of community. And I think the response we’ve gotten is to convince us that we didn’t win anything by our coming together, and that our action was superfluous and didn’t have a concrete benefit for all of our lives. We know that’s not true. But it is true that my store is staying closed until the stay at home order is lifted, while every other store in the district to the best of my knowledge will be opening up May 6.
What are lessons that you learned?
Everything that happened took place in a very short period of time, about 24 to 36 hours.
It is inspiring to see how store workers could come together in such a short time. We’ve seen an enormous political shift in the last few years, and many of the people I work with are looking at a job market that is really terrifying. The economy seems to be crashing down all around us, and we are having to respond in the best ways that we can. That is always going to be through solidarity in our workplace. This is a feeling that has been building for a long time. Problems always exist in our workplaces. We are asked to work for wages that are lower than what we deserve. Never mind the pandemic, we are put in situations that are unsafe at work. We face sexism, and LGBTQ+ discrimination and racism in the workplace all the time, and we don’t have a company that stands up for us. We learn over time that we have to stand up for each other.
Night School: The Tyranny of Structurelessness
Friday, May 1, 2020 7pm – 9pm,
Join us in a guided conversation about Jo Freeman’s classic essay on organizational structure and how to build successful ones.
Join us online: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88498229836 and please e-mail marindemsoc@gmail.com for the password.
Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman.