Oral History Interview with Allison Johntry
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This repository may contain outdated, harmful, or triggering terms and/or content- This is Gabriela Folsom and Allison Johntry on March 9th.
- I want to say on the quad, on AU's campus.
- We are interviewing today with an oral history about the strike, the
- AU Staff Union Strike over 2022.
- And Allison, is there anything in
- particular, you want to cover or anything You don't want to
- discuss? I'm happy to talk about anything
- and everything.
- So we'll start with, how would you
- describe your involvement in the union or the strike?
- So I got started in the union pretty much like right after I was
- hired at AU, which was about a year and a half ago at this point.
- I didn't know a lot about the union, honestly, when I signed up.
- I'm a senior administrator in CAS and a lot of my fellow other
- administrators, they were like, oh my goodness, you need to be part
- of the Union sign up, and I just trusted them, I was like, all
- right, let's do this, because they've been there longer.
- So if they felt like it was an important thing, I really trusted
- that and them.
- So, that's how I got in right away
- and ever since I've been doing my best to kind of like listen to
- everyone attend as many meetings as I can and just kind of like
- follow as much as I could.
- And why did you join the strike?
- At first? It was a little nerve-wracking.
- Honestly, the thought of going somewhere and not getting paid for
- week.
- That was a little... we were
- feeling nervous, but I knew it was important for the greater good,
- because the Union has spent years trying to get us basic things.
- Raises, better insurance, all of that, and it just felt like they
- weren't listening to us, of course, and I agreed that doing
- something drastic, like a strike was maybe the only way we can get
- them to listen to us and especially since it was important
- for as many people as possible to be there to like kind of show,
- like, kind of like the strength in numbers to kind of show AU that a
- lot of people, a lot of people care about it and if that there
- needs to be change.
- Can you walk me through what the
- week of the strike was like, for you?
- Yes.
- So I was there almost every day of
- the strike for a long chunk of the day, which is hard because it was
- painfully hot, but totally worth it.
- So, I was there every morning which was pretty nice because it
- was around maybe like 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. and you're there with all
- these, like crowds of people at Katzen and I've never seen so many
- people energized at that hour in the day.
- Truly like everyone is going around talking to each other.
- People I've never met or seen before in my life would just start
- talking to me both about the strike, life, just getting to know
- them, and it was just really amazing to see so many people just
- there together, who seemed to genuinely care about each other.
- Even though most of us were strangers and it just, they really
- wanted to take care of all of us.
- They were giving out signs.
- There was so much water for everyone and they're like
- throughout the day, they're like you need to hydrate and feeding
- us.
- And, so, it's just really cool to
- see how often like people cared.
- And throughout the day we're all
- like marching, striking, like listening to people's stories so
- it was just kind of incredible to see so many people truly come
- together.
- And, what do you consider to be
- the effects or the legacy of the strike?
- I think it really helped kind of bring so much of like AU staff and
- Community together.
- Sometimes it's hard to like,
- notice some of the tangible effects of the strike.
- Like, I know we did get raises and paycheck, sometimes you're like,
- how much did I really get out of this?
- So, there's definitely affects, but I know it's good.
- We have a contract, and that's important and all of that
- background stuff.
- So, I know it's definitely for the
- greater good, but me on my day-to-day, I work with mostly
- faculty in my department and adjunct faculty, particularly have
- benefited a lot from our strike and contract.
- They haven't...because of our agreement, they're getting more
- wages each year for the next couple years, I believe.
- So, it's been real, like, when I hire adjuncts, when I process
- their payments, it's just really great to see that they're getting
- more and hearing me being able to tell them every year.
- I'm like, oh right now you're going to be making more than the
- last time and of course it's not enough money and they should be
- getting more, but it's really nice to just know that they're
- benefiting from this as well, because I just see them all the
- time so it's nice to know people I know and care about are
- benefiting.
- And what was the most memorable
- part of the strike for you? For me, probably, when we'd end
- most marches at the LA quad and that's where people were like, we
- would all like sit there and just a lot of people were talking
- telling their stories kind of passing that like bullhorn around.
- And on move-in day for all the days that the freshmen were moving
- in.
- During all this, they like you're
- just watching because those are the Freshman dorms.
- So you're watching all these freshmen with their carts moving
- in with their family and friends.
- So, besides watching that general
- move in day chaos, it was incredible to see so many students
- still come out and try to support us whether like kids were walking
- by and being like, yes, like good job, glad you're doing this.
- And some would even just, like, stop moving in, like they throw
- their stuff into their room, not even unpack, but and then just
- come down for us.
- And that's incredible, because
- that's something we would never.
- I would never ask of a student in
- general, because this is our fight kind of, but it's nice to see the
- solidarity, and especially, like a freshman who's moving, probably
- from another state and feeling like the big a big moment in their
- life and they're almost like taking that away and prioritizing
- us which was incredible and something I could have never
- expected.
- What impact if any, do you think
- the student walkout at convocation had?
- I think it was a big deal because kind of like again convocation is
- this big memorable moment.
- I was an AU student, so I remember
- going to convocation and just the fact that just like move in,
- they're all pushing their experiences like aside.
- Like all those like first-year college stuff to prioritize with
- us and I know students were planning and you, kind of like
- heard that students wanted to do something.
- But the amount of students that did it, most students walking out
- within their first week of college, that was so powerful.
- And I, there were probably a lot of reasons that AU decided to give
- us a contract, but I think that really was a big one because it
- showed that not only staff and some faculty were supporting us
- but also a big chunk of the students.
- Is there anything else you would like to talk about that I haven't
- asked? The only thing for me is I just, I
- guess, while we're here, I just want to show my gratitude to the
- union because I've always just been kind of like a member kind of
- floating through which, I understand most people are but
- just like, I know so much work probably went into that.
- Even more than I could know, or imagine.
- So the fact that people are doing this on top of the jobs that
- they're underpaid for and probably don't have time for stuff, they're
- doing on their side on the side outside of work hours.
- So I guess I'm just really grateful for all these people who
- care so much, not only about themselves, but all of us.
- So I think that's really important and I'm really lucky.
- Thank you.
- So we're going to upload and
- transcribe these interviews, basically, just write out the
- words that you said so that they can be accessible to other folks.
- Yeah, this was really helpful and it's like really wonderful work.
- It's really helping us put some of these things into the historical
- record.
- Thank you so much for your time
- today.
- We expect to do the processing in
- the next couple of weeks.
- It probably won't be live on the
- website, at the AU Archives, until like later in the semester or over
- the summer.
- Whenever the staff can get to it.
- It will be soon, and when it's It's publicly available, we'll let
- you know.
- And if you have any questions in
- the meantime, anything you want to add, just let us know.
- We'd be happy to do that.
- Perfect.
- Thank you.