Sam Sadow Interview Part III

Okay, so we could have won more with a super majority strike, but I think we rung, to use a sports analogy, we left it all out on the field. Like we rung every bit of gains we possibly could have gotten from the power that we had with a 40% strike. And so that's, so, you know, I think the lesson is for next time around, you won't be here unfortunately, but although maybe, I don't know, you still be a graduate student? I don't know. Anyway, that we've gotta take these two years, the contract's two years, we gotta take these two years to build so that the next time around, we're ready to threaten a super, like, credibly threaten a super majority strike. Because if we had had a super majority strike, it might not have gone past Monday, right? We could have ended it on Monday. And I think that's a lesson for people who didn't go on strike, right? Like you made the strike, your decision made the strike longer for everybody else and one ultimately one less than we would have won with with a supermajority strike. And then yeah, so the, you know, our task for the next two years is to build the strength to that point where When you know in August 2024, we're ready to go When they come back when they're I have no faith that the administration will be any more conciliatory For having gone through this experience will have learned any lessons for having gone through this experience. So that's kind of where we're at. And I'll stop there. So that was it that's certainly a barrier. Turnover is brutal at AU. I mean, Maggie had just started, right? So there are, and we encountered lots of staff who had started that August. And asking people to go out on strike is a big ask under any circumstances. Asking somebody for whom it's their third week on the job to go out on strike is almost impossible. And we understood that. Even though they're protected, it's just hard it's a difficult task and so so turnover absolutely affects our you know the rapid term I mean a the staff unit turns over like almost 50% a year like it's ridiculous So that that makes it hard and it on the other hand like You know sometimes like you know, it's a shame to lose Anactivists, you know somebody who's who's supportive and active like yourself But then again you also lose people who weren't supportive and their replacement is an opportunity for somebody who is supportive. So it cuts both ways but in the main it is a barrier to building strength not a not doesn't help

building strength. I'm also curious as to whether you ever find out what Sylvia's reaction was when students walked out, she was at the podium.

So we heard she basically carried on, she kind of took a moment and then carried on as though nothing had happened, just delivered her speech and carried on as though nothing had happened.

Did she ever respond in the end directly to it?

No, so there was, if I remember correctly, there was a flurry of emails in the wake. One of them I believe from, at least signed by President Burwell, sort of acknowledging the difficulties and hoping for a, you know, productive, more happy future or something, you know, something anodyne like that. But no, she never responded in a human way, let's say.

I remember the email that they sent over the summer where they kind of hid at the bottom that staff members who were part of the unit would not be getting their plans and services. I remember that being a very big

galvanizer. Yes. So that helped us. Yeah, that was huge. I'm glad you brought that up. That was a big moment for us when they sent that out. Because one, it allowed us to make it a ULP strike. So, because that was pretty clearly an unfair labor practice. Like you cannot treat unionized workers different just because they're in a union. Even they're sort of saying, even saying because we are in negotiations, like that's not an excuse to not treat them, to treat them differently. The negotiations will lead to whatever they lead to, but in the meantime, you have to treat them the same. So that was both a big galvanizing thing, it also allowed us to make our strike an unfair labor practices strike instead of an economic strike and unfair labor practices strikes come with a few more protections under the law. I think you cannot hire replacement, not that they ever intimated they would hire replacements, but you cannot hire replacement workers under an unfair labor practice strike, I think. And then there's, I think it protects us, so it protects our jobs more. And I think there's, to the extent it's, I don't know the labor law, so I don't want to speculate. But I do know the ULP strike came with more protections than an economic strike which helped in term in explaining it to our co-workers and trying to build support for it definitely helped so that that was also a misstep on their like I don't know I have so many thoughts about where the university handled this poorly, but ultimately to no gain. I mean, maybe, I don't know, maybe they saved a couple bucks or something, but they certainly created a lot of bad blood between high-level administration and staff.

I'm curious as to what the most memorable part of the strike was for you.

It's easy for me. The students walking out kind of cemented it but that was the moment for me where I was like okay they are in total disarray. Like you don't send an email like that out to the faculty and risk and ultimately succeed in pissing them off if you have your ducks in a row. I was like, okay, they are in disarray. This is an opportunity for us to capitalize and win. So that's one and then also I hope I would never forget the the sort of down moments the doubtful moments like on that Monday and Tuesday were like Are they just gonna wait us out like we because we knew we had a week two days were already gone I was there were more like like are they gonna wait us out like and if they wait us out where does that leave us like what you know so I hope I never forget that and then also just the those first moments in the morning every morning when we were kind of rounding up and preparing to march wherever we were. I don't know, I just like so many people I met during those like finding people to carry the banners in the day like and I don't know just there was a certain like optimism in those like moments in the morning that like were really galvanizing and just seeing people like seeing people who I know have shitty bosses and you know are treated badly go on strike and come out and chant and feel powerful in a way that like their job never affords them like that I don't know those are cut like I so I'd say if there's one moment I think it's obviously the students walking out but like all of that kind of I want to make sure like I remember.

Is there anything else you'd like to talk about that we haven't asked? That we have against us?

No, I think I've kind of said it all. So yeah, I hope. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this archive. I stopped by the archives and special collections last night to talk to Austin and Gina. And Katie was there and she, so she joined in the conversation for a few minutes. She was on her way out, but, just the like, I personally, I think the larger union is like so grateful that like this is being done because it wouldn't have gotten done unless somebody like unless a group like you guys like took it up and actually did it like we'd all sit here talking about wouldn't it be great if we had like some kind of archive or history of this and like that it's happening is just like amazing

We'll be processing this interview in the coming weeks and transcribing your recording and then we'll share a copy of the transcripts with you. If you desire, you're welcome to make changes at that time. We're collecting these videos on behalf of the AU Staff Union. The collection will then be carried over to the AU Archives to be digitized and made publicly accessible for research with the exception of materials that the union would like to maintain privately. Your contribution was amazingly helpful. Thank you so much.

Yeah, no, I really wanted to do it and I'm happy to, it was, you know, there's a certain therapy value as well.

Yeah, I really appreciate it.

So, alright.