Update from the Temps Organizing Drive and Joint IWW/Student Meeting on Saturday

Hey everyone,

Here are the notes from Saturday's joint student/labor meeting. It
sheds a little light on what's currently happening with the campaign
and what we are planning over the summer. We're looking for students
to lend a hand in organizing. If you're interested, get in touch.

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Summer Strategy and Tactics for Temps Campaign

Organizers Present :
(Names Withheld)
- Industrial Workers of the World
- Students for a Democratic Society
- Graduate Employees Organization

Updates:

Contract Changes
Temps in the Business School are in the process of reviewing contract
changes for UM employees regarding the COI (Conflict of Interest) and
COC (Conflict of Commitment) clauses that HR is working on
implementing across campus. We were concerned about the effects the
contract changes might have on the organizing drive, as some of the
language could be construed to suggest that workers can't discuss
information about work-related issues outside of the job. Such a
far-reaching interpretation would be a violation of the Michigan
Employee Relations Act. We contacted Judy Roper from HR in the
business school, and were assured in writing that the COI and COC
won't affect organizing activity. We are prepared to ULP over the
issue if management attempts to implement the contract changes in such
a way. We have lawyers in the NLG looking over the contract changes
now. We are preparing a fact-sheet for workers regarding the contract
changes.

Expanding Organizing
Temps moved to expand their organizing at the last meeting. Different
members of the organizing committee took on various groups of workers
on campus for the drive. We recently held a candlelight vigil for a
fellow worker in the business school that died recently, in solidarity
with Sodexho workers on campus.

Strategy and Tactics:

Over the summer, IWW workers will be working on expanding their
organizing committee and solidifying its presence in other buildings
on campus. Wobblies in the business school will be working on
bringing management to the table over work-site issues. B-school wobs
have been contacting management and HR within the business school, and
through SDS, have also informed Mary Sue Colman about conditions on
the job and instigating changes and improvements. We are waiting for
the administration to get back to us on work issues. We expect that
they will do everything in their capacity to give us the run-around
and avoid meeting with us. We are planning on taking further action
after exhausting our administrative contacts. We've tossed around a
few ideas, such as informational pickets, using alumni to pressure the
administration, and other actions. Specific tactics are up in the
air. Some are best left out of these notes. We are going to meet up
with other groups on campus and in the community to try and find
common ground and develop solidarity in our actions. Wobblies will
meet up and discuss specifics at a later time with students and other
unions on campus.

Task List:

- Temps will contact labor-friendly regents before the 19th, when SDS
will conduct a follow-up on our behalf with the board of regents
regarding conditions on the job.
- Fact-sheets regarding the COI and COC need to be out to workers
before Thursday. We are waiting on feedback from our lawyers.
- Temps attempted to make contact with Dean Dolan of the Business
School, but were turned away by his secretary. We will continue to
try and get him to meet with us. We might use student contacts to
arrange a meeting.
- Unions and Students are going to try and organize a worker/student
forum on campus labor issues this spring. We are going to try to work
something out with AFSCME, GEO, LEO, SOLE, the IWW, and SDS to bring
everyone to the table. We are going to raise the issue at the next
All Campus Labor Council Meeting on April 18th. If you are
interested, drop on by.
- Student/Worker Dinner this spring. The IWW is going to discuss
putting on a student/worker dinner to discuss our campaign with the
student community.

If you are interested in lending a hand with the organizing drive over
the summer, drop the IWW a line : um.ewiu620@gmail.com