[lbo-talk] reform efforts at UAW 2865 possibly successful

[Carrol Cox]

Quite wonderful. I'm forwarding it to a couple local lists. I would like 
to add, in reference to the"far too few" successes currently that 
perhaps, in the light of Wisconsin, we should reconsider what we mean by 
"success." For example, "before Wisconsin" I would have characterized 
our local anti-war efforts (as well as the national effort) as a 
failure. But locally that "failed" activity did create a nucleus here of 
around 10 people, maybe a few more, as well as generating a number of 
connections that may be of great worth. And that may be the the case in 
many areas around the nation. I would like to hear from Robert whether 
or not he feels the atmosphere created by Wisconsin had any effect on 
the success of his union caucus.

Carrol

On 5/10/2011 7:16 PM, wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
> http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2011/05/reformers-win-california-grad-union-election
>
>       I haven't been involved in the life of the list as much as might have
> liked to because of our effort to reform our local grad student union
> over the past few months.  The top down nature of the union had led
> to passivity and apathy on the part of the rank and file.  In
> response to that, as well as the poor contract that was recently
> negotiated, a reform caucus was formed, AWDU (Academic Workers for a
> Democratic Union).  We managed to win the entire executive board as
> well as 45 of 80 seats on the joint council. However, this only
> occurred after simultaneous occupations of the UCLA and Berkeley
> offices after the leadership tried to stop the vote count when they
> realized that they were probably going to lose the vote. We're hoping
> to transform our union into a fighting union and get involved in the
> defense of public education going on in California right now.  I am
> now the Campus Unit Chair of the University of Irvine.  I thought I
> would put this up because there are far too few successes nowadays.
> Hopefully, it doesn't come off too much like self-advertising.
> robert wood
>
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