The AAUP is an organization devoted to academic freedom. At the UW, the AAUP has joined with the SEIU in an effort to unionize the faculty. This email was posted after the administration sent out a boiler plate message to all faculty making the usual statements about employee rights.
October 9
Dear John,
As a longtime labor activist, let me assure you that Cauce’s message is a classic example of intimidation.
First, many employees who receive such “helpful” communications are fearful that administration is watching them simply because they received the message.
Second, the comments about the difficulty of decertifying a union are loaded with insinuation that the union chosen by the faculty could turn into a “bad” union, in which case, no union is better (and whose interests are best served by having no union?).
When I was a librarian with the Pierce County Library system, we formed a union and, for the first time, had a grievance procedure–plus my salary went up $5,000 more a year (administration had been withholding the true share of the property tax money that went to the library system). During the 18 years a worked at Children’s Hospital in Seattle, administration regularly sent out memos such as Cauce’s and in general, employees of the hospital are, to this day, afraid of being terminated if anyone hears them even mention the word “union”.
Believe me, when the fox sends out a memo that the chicken coop does not need a lock, look out!
—Tamara Turner
