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