Kudos to American Rights at Work, a policy and advocacy organization supporting workers’ rights, for soliciting endorsements from 850 college and university professors for a statement supporting the right of public employees to engage in collecting bargaining (link here to pdf). Particularly in view of the broadside I issued against standard-brand academic culture earlier this week, I’d like to share this with you.
Here is the lead point of the statement:
Federal and state elected officials are using fiscal crises as an opportunity to dismantle collective bargaining rights for public employees. As faculty and research staff from colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world, we are opposed to any efforts to revoke collective bargaining rights for public employees, including home care and child care providers.
Every once in a while…
I’m among the signatories to this letter. In recent years, I’ve avoided signing most such statements, as frequently they do little more than fuel professorial egos. After all, it’s not as if the rest of the world is hanging on our every word.
But this statement and similar ones are saying something important, and even if their impact is measured, I’m glad to see academicians standing up to be counted. This is especially true now that fellow professors are being harassed by those who oppose the fundamental human right to engage in collective bargaining, as I wrote earlier this week.
Minding the Workplace 