Unions help workers govern their lives

Unions help workers govern their lives

Joining SAGE empowers employees in academia

By Sonja Gedeon

It’s really rather strange; our entire lives seem to be centered
around work. We work to help pay for school and we go to school so
that we will be better able to work. However, while the actual
activity of working takes up so much of our daily lives, we often
seem to treat it as if it were a completely separate aspect of our
identities. "I went to work, I did my job and now I just want to
forget about it."

The irony of the situation is compelling. Our very existence is
largely centered on how we earn money, and yet we often do not
choose to take an active role in shaping that unique social context
which largely determines our lives.

This lack of workplace consciousness is easily understandable.
After all, many of us were raised in a social environment which
equated anyone expressing concern with her rights as a worker to
being an "un-American, commie-loving" agitator.

Perhaps many of you are like me: The first memory I ever had
relating to unions was that of President Reagan firing all air
traffic controllers who were on strike. Surely, if the president
could blatantly disregard the rich tradition of workers’ rights,
then maybe that tradition was dead.

So why is it that I am now an active member of the Student
Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE)? Well, first of all, it’s
not because I am a teaching assistant, resident assistant, reader
or even a graduate student. I am a member of the association
because as an undergraduate tutor, I am an academic student
employee, and SAGE is the union which represents all academic
student employees.

Through a gradual but deliberate process, I have come to
understand the importance of exercising my right to govern all
aspects of my life. That definitely includes being a part of the
process which determines my working conditions.

Lately, many people have questioned – often antagonistically –
the reasoning behind my choice, and I’ve heard quite a few
arguments as to why tutors should not unionize.

I was first informed that as an undergraduate my voice would be
meaningless within SAGE, since most SAGE members are graduate
students.

Well, clearly, this person didn’t understand what the purpose of
a union is. Graduate students already have an institutional outlet
for graduate student issues: It’s called the Graduate Students
Association. A union is designed to facilitate solutions for
universal working place problems and issues. Some issues are as
mundane as parking, while others are as dramatically important as
cost-of-living adjustments and equal pay for equal work.

Another spurious anti-SAGE argument is that by forcing the
university to recognize tutors, we place our very departments in
jeopardy for funding. Since I work as a tutor in the Academic
Advancement Program, this particular argument seems to be a
favorite of administrators to scare tutors away from the union.

However, this objection misunderstands what an employment
contract is about: Certain amounts of departmental funding could be
included within the tutoring contract, for which SAGE would then
collectively bargain with the university.

The administrators would have us believe that with the current
threats on affirmative action, SAGE would actually be detrimental
for the Academic Advancement Program. In other words, they would
have us believe that organizing makes us weaker! This is an
absurdity: History clearly shows all progressive movements have
been won through strength in numbers and a conviction to succeed.
Are these administrators now attempting to rewrite history?

Both these objections are clearly based upon a misunderstanding
of the nature of a union. "S-A-G-E: A Union Means Democracy." This
is not empty rhetoric but an enduring principle upon which SAGE is
founded and attempts to foster. Together, the members of the
association decide upon the path of the union. With the
democratization of the workplace, we come that much closer to the
democratization of the university. And what exactly is so bad about
that?

The next SAGE general membership meeting will be held this
Thursday at 6 p.m. in Moore 100. If you are an academic student
employee, you are invited to become a member and attend the
meeting. Take part in shaping your own future!

Gedeon is a fifth-year political science/philosophy student. She
is also a member at large of the SAGE executive board.Comments to
[email protected]