It’s been one week since you looked at meCocked your head to the side and said, “I’m angry”Five days since you laughed at me saying“Get that together, come back and see me”Three days since the living roomI realized it’s all my fault but couldn’t tell youYesterday, you’d forgiven meBut it’ll still be two days till I say I’m sorry
–“One Week”, Barenaked Ladies
For those of you following this saga, it’s been not one week, but three and a half weeks since Dalhousie locked out its 1,000 faculty members, counsellors and librarians. We have held rallies every Friday, including a huge march today up and down University Ave. We have forced the Board of Governors back to the bargaining table not once, but twice. If any of you out there doubt the power of the people…
We still do not have an agreement with back to work terms, but little by little we are forcing the BoG to negotiate fairly and obey the rules of arbitration. We have been supported by 75,000 members of the Canadian Association of University Teachers and flying picketers from schools across the country. This week our students held a sit-in, teach-in, and march to support us. The Dalhousie Students Association, Indigenous Students Association, and many other student groups made signs and wrote on the pavement in front of the Henry Hicks building–not once, but three times. They rewrote their messages after the university power-washed the pavement, adding things like “You can’t power-wash your sins away” and “You can’t silence us”. A first year law student helped organize events: I cannot imagine having the wisdom and self-assurance of Rose Silivestru in my first week of graduate school. She started an Instagram account, @dallockedout, asked students what they thought of the lockout and learned, then taught, her peers about the bargaining and arbitration processes. These are the students who will be our lawyers, nurses, writers, and engineers in a few short years.
As a long-time labour supporter, it’s the first time I’ve been a member of a union that has been locked out or on strike. The insufferable greed of corporations and profit-maximizers has been particularly obvious in the past few years, and consequently we have seen more labour action. It has been humbling and inspiring to meet colleagues from across the campus who are working to organize picket lines, transport water and snacks to the different locations, lead chants at our rallies, and update the outside world with their social media accounts. Our corporate overlords really cannot fight this level of motivation, organization, and sheer will. We’ll be supporting our fellow unions the next time they’re forced to go on strike for better working conditions–as they have supported us (thank you CUPW, CUPE, NSGEU, ATU, and ILA, to name a few). Nova Scotia folks, here’s hoping you can support CUPE Local 3912 and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508 both of whom are negotiating new contracts now.
One observation I’ve made during all this is the lack of media attention, and when stories are published on the major networks they are very dry and focus on the salary component of the collective agreement. They are also weirdly publishing only the maximum salary for professors, which ignores the librarians and counsellors in our union (the salary scales for all members are listed in our previous collective agreement, in case you’re interested). Besides salaries, one major issue we are concerned about is short-term instructors who are underpaid and living contract to contract for 5, 10, even 20 years. We want to convert at least some of these short-term contracts into permanent ones, since 5+ years in a job can hardly justify a temporary contract. I haven’t seen a single article from the major outlets discuss this in any detail. Reddit, on the other hand, is filled with folks educating us about the arbitration process and labour law, correcting readers’ misperceptions, answering student questions, and discussing all kinds of other issues that have been virtually ignored in the mainstream media.
Another observation is from our American colleagues, for whom the Charlie Kirk shooting has taken over the conversation this week. Some of them have been fired or laid off for speaking about this incident, and the conversation generally seems to be, “Maybe don’t speak out on social media if you want to keep your job.” Barring hate speech (which is in effect why some of our colleagues have been fired over this particular incident), it is alarming how many universities in Canada are also cracking down on free speech. For those of you in the audience, this is exactly why tenure exists. Academic tenure is analogous to a free press. We need academics to be able to speak freely about politics, human rights, the law, climate change, corporations, and any other issue they feel is important to society. Academics, writers, and artists are the first targets of fascist regimes because they see the truth and are not afraid to challenge individuals and systems. Again, barring hate speech, which is illegal and dangerous.
Looking around at my colleagues and students at today’s rally, I am grateful that in Canada, unions and young people have the right to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. I also realized that this is exactly what people in power are afraid of. There are so many more of us than there are of them (@nooreosphotos noted they couldn’t even capture us all with a drone). We can think for ourselves and assemble on a moment’s notice. There are so many more of us, who understand, learn, teach, and mobilize. And now, it’s our time.
