Jamie Boraks Interview
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- Can we start with your name and position at AU.
- Yeah, I'm Jamie Boraks.
- I am an administrative coordinator
- in the school of communication, undergrad office.
- And do I have your permission to record this function?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- Today is Monday, March 20th, 2023.
- I am Gabriela Folsom here on the
- quad at American University.
- It's around 1:30 and we're
- conducting an oral history interview for the Preserving the
- Picket Line AU Staff Union Archive.
- Thank you again for joining us.
- We'll start with how would you
- describe your involvement in the union or the strike?
- Yeah, so I started working at AU on August the 8th 2022.
- So, on my second day at work, our sort of strike captain in our
- unit.
- Because we were already at that
- point our strike captain in our unit was like, so you need to
- decide if you want to go on strike in two weeks, I need to vote and
- you need to do it today and so that was what I did on my second
- day of work so I was not involved in the Union at all before the
- strike, basically.
- I just like showed up here and was
- like okay well, we're doing this.
- And I had been, I did not know
- there was a union before I like started my position at AU.
- That was not something that was advertised at all and it wasn't
- advertised in the like, on boardings at all.
- So I was like kind of surprised to find out that was the climate that
- I was coming into, but I was also very down for it because we're
- like a big union family, like definitely saying that my family,
- my parents, my grandparents have all been passionate about.
- So I was really excited to be a part and yeah, then for the, like,
- two weeks in between, when I started and when the strike
- started.
- We were like on Zoom for like
- hours every week, like listening to the bargaining sessions, and
- like hearing, everyone's sort of grievances and that like had been
- building up since before I even came to AU and then whenever we
- were on strike, I went on strike for all five days and yeah, I
- don't really know how much to say about it because it's...my
- experience was not unique from anyone elses like particular
- experience.
- I like showed up in the morning,
- they fed us breakfast and lunch and that was really nice.
- I loved getting free food and I met my co-workers.
- Some of my co-workers, for the first time on the picket line
- having come to SSC like so recently even the person who
- worked in the office next to mine like I had never had a
- conversation with her before and now she's like one of my best
- friends at AU and like an actually like out of work friend.
- So my involvement was like mainly just like getting to know people
- and like, walking around and listening to everyone's stories
- and sharing.
- That must have been a very
- memorable first week.
- Yes, yes.
- So you spoke a little bit about how you weren't at AU prior to the
- strike.
- So I'm not sure if you could tell
- like, if there are any changes that have happened since but is
- anything that you've noticed, broadly, like morale student
- involvement, anything to that effect.
- I've definitely noticed.
- People taught, I mean I didn't
- know anyone before but I've noticed people saying that we're
- knowing each other more and having more conversations and there are
- people that I've been like meeting and knowing that I never would
- have known otherwise.
- And I know that like in SOC, maybe
- I would have eventually met all of our other SOC like co-workers but
- I definitely would have been meeting people from like the
- library and SIS and like OUR and all of these different departments
- on campus, if I hadn't done the strike and also some of the stuff
- that we've seen where things that were like, won in the contract
- negotiations are now being extended to all staff, definitely
- like I've noticed and been keeping up with and that's very cool to
- see, and like, definitely like, gives me some faith in AU as an
- institution to do the right thing.
- Yeah.
- Even when they're not being like literally forced to they're still
- like, choosing to extend those benefits to others.
- Right.
- Stellar, and what would you
- consider the most memorable part of the strike?
- I feel like everyone is going to say when the students walked out
- of convocation, but it really was very memorable.
- Like I was crying, like other people were crying and there was
- that moment when like students were walking out and we you never
- knew like I was like, okay, well, I guess they're done walking out
- now.
- And then it was like more students
- just like coming out of the auditorium and like standing with
- us was very memorable.
- I will also say sitting on the
- people's lawn, on Sylvia's, the president's house lawn when we
- were going into like our meeting with Larry where they were
- explaining like, how the negotiations were going.
- And when we basically like realized that it was all going to
- happen and it was all going to be like pretty close to what we had
- wanted.
- Like obviously you never get
- everything you want in a negotiation but like it came out
- better than people had been expecting and just like all
- sitting around on the lawn at eating Chipotle because our
- wonderful, like contact with SEIU, Chadwick had had literally said
- like I want Chipotle, so I'm ordering Chipotle, and it was
- like, this is so funny.
- But really memorable that we got
- like bags of tortilla chips and like guac.
- And everyone was like I can't believe they're giving us guac and
- just sitting on the lawn and it was the most beautiful day, like I
- don't remember, maybe it was hot, but I don't remember being hot.
- I just remember like sitting out there and being like, oh my gosh,
- like this is all going so well, and like, this is what we wanted
- have been hoping for and have been working for and then like seeing
- that come together I was not there by the end of the day when people
- are like walking out of the negotiations, I was not there at
- that point.
- I had to go home and cook dinner,
- but it was really special, even in the early afternoon, And I'm just
- curious.
- Were you on campus all five days
- or were you virtual? On campus all five days.
- Because I have a full presence job so it was literally like just
- doing the same thing I would have done anyway.
- Yeah, awesome.
- Is there anything else you'd like
- to talk about that I haven't asked?
- I knew that you were going to ask that because I looked at this
- paper before you started talking to me and I should have thought
- about it, but I didn't.
- So I guess I'm going to say no. If
- you think of anything later you can always add it back.
- Send us a note.
- Yeah and when we send you the
- transcription, too you can add some stuff.
- Ok cool, great thank you.
- Thank you.
- And thanks again.
- We really appreciate your
- contribution.
- Just so you know, the next steps,
- we will be processing this interview in the coming weeks and
- transcribing your recording.
- So we'll share a copy of the
- transcription with you and you're welcome to make changes of that
- time.
- We're collecting these videos on
- behalf of the AU staff Union and the collection will then be turned
- over to the AU archive, to be digitized and made publicly
- accessible with the exception of any materials that the union would
- like to maintain privately.
- So if you have any questions about
- that, feel free to email us and your contribution has been really
- helpful.
- So, thank you so much again.
- Thank you.