Adjuncts Fight for 15K at Loyola University Rally... 'Normally people think of faculty at universities as people who are in a different class than Walmart workers or fast food workers. But, actually, the workplace at universities is in a sense devolving...'
On April 15, 2015, the same day of the big nationwide "Fight for 15" rallies, a related event took place at the Loyola University campus in Chicago. But it wasn't about fast food workers. It was a rally and march, organized by Faculty Forward Chicago, to end poverty salaries for adjunct college teachers. The event was not for just Loyola adjuncts, but was also attended by adjunct/part-time faculty from other Chicago-area schools, including NEIU, Columbia College, Roosevelt, DePaul, Oakton Community College, Dominican, and Concordia. Also present, notably, were fast food workers who were headed to the huge Fight for 15 march to a McDonald's in the Loop later in the day.
As more and more Catholic schools, hospitals, and other service operations adopt the same "business model" that drives Walmart and corporate "school reform," the challenges increase and the sophistry expands...The stories will be aired at:
Chicago - CAN TV Channel 19
Thursday, May 7, 9:30 pm
Friday, May 8, 4:30 pm Thursday, May 14, 9:30 pm
Friday, May 15, 4:30 pm
Loyola adjunct instructor Professor Matthew Hoffmann, an organizer for the event, explained the connection: "Normally people think of faculty at universities as people who are in a different class than Walmart workers or fast food workers. But, actually, the workplace at universities is in a sense devolving. A lot of this has to do with adopting similar models and policies as corporations, and as fast food."
After the rally at Loyola's main gate, there was a march to Loyola's Damen Hall to deliver a "Jesuit Just Employment" petition. It said that the administration should recognize "all campus workers� right to a living wage, fair and equitable pay and benefits, a safe and just work environment, and the freedom to organize to form unions without any employer interference or retaliation.� It also called for a minimum of $15,000 per course taught, plus benefits.
This Fight for 15K / Faculty Forward rally underlined implications of the expanding Fight for 15 movement. As well as increasing in numbers, its composition is evolving. The militancy of wage-slave minority workers is now putting into motion other workers who had probably begun their careers with middle-class and professional expectations. Workers from divergent backgrounds are being welded together by capitalism's global drive for profit. Profit created for the owners of the means of production, by getting fewer and fewer to work harder and harder for diminishing real wages. Permeating American university campuses for many years has been the given ideology that capitalism is the pragmatic future. Now the ideological assembly lines of academia may start breaking down as adjunct instructors -- comprising over 50% of college faculties -- are discovering that they too are wage slaves within a destructive economic system. Also can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/AvGLo-zqawM
Second Segment:
Farmers Fast Track Protest at Chicago Mercantile Exchange
On International Day of Peasant Struggle, April 17, 2015, members of Family Farm Defenders and allies gathered to protest Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in front of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. They see eliminating the Fast-Track trade authority as the way to stop the U.S. from signing on to the TPP.
John Peck (Executive Director of Family Farm Defenders) summarized what the TPP was: "The Trans-Pacific Partnership is basically like NAFTA for the Pacific...If TPP passes thousands of American dairy farmers will go bankrupt...It will also downgrade a lot of consumer safety standards, [such as] the right to know." We should also note that the AFL-CIO in discussing the TPP has said that "what is known is cause for great concern."
The TPP may get pushed through using the "Fast-Track" strategy. Wisconsin farmer Joel Greeno (President of Family Farm Defenders) explained that "in order to expedite that process Fast Track will grant the President full trade authority to present the trade bill and Congress... all they can do is vote yes or no on the bill, they cannot review the bill, they cannot change the bill...We feel that if Congress is given the opportunity to vote on the bill on its own the debate will shred it because there are so many things hidden it it...The key to stopping it is stopping the Fast-Track trade authority."
The C.M.E. was selected as the venue of the protest because it is the world's largest private trading clearinghouse. Speculators have only financial interest in the commodities they trade, rather than the effects these trades will have on the majority of the population. This has led to shady deals, and policies that negatively impact the public, including farmers and workers.
Reminding us of the steady diminution of family farms over the decades, Greeno explained various ways that this has affected industrial workers: "When John Deere is laying off thousands of workers right now across the nation because they know that they are not going to be able to sell John Deere farm equipment 'cause there's nobody left to buy it, and it's too expensive to buy, and there's not enough corporations left to buy enough to keep John Deere afloat...what does that tell us?"
Chicago Teachers Union activists have been pointing out that more funds could be raised for public education if there were a transaction tax at the C.M.E. John Peck pointed out that the C.M.E. traders are getting a big fat free ride at taxpayers' expense: "They get hundreds of millions of dollars in tax payer subsidies to run this outfit here. And they've threatened to move to Indiana if they don't get that from the City of Chicago. They're the largest, most profitable corporation in Chicago, so they should be paying their taxes...Why does the C.M.E. get tax breaks?" Also can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/irOO3jUj03I
Joel Greeno, President of Family Farm Defenders, in front of Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Photo: Andrew Friend / Labor Beat
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