Statement of Support for Striking Workers
Dear readers and supporters of Insurrect!,
We are writing to broadcast our solidarity with striking workers in higher education, the publishing industry, and the cultural sector more broadly. In the past months, we’ve seen an incredible uprising among writers, researchers, teachers, editors, journalists, artists, curators, art handlers, and students fighting for better working conditions. These cultural workers are fighting against increased precarity in an on-going COVID-19 pandemic and in an environment with unprecedented health risks due to waves of flu and RSV cases. They are insisting that education, the arts, and humanities sectors deserve fair working conditions, because without such, we are even more vulnerable to the twin evils of fascism and white supremacy. Collective bargaining campaigns and strikes require critical thought and labor that allows the world to see itself unmasked.
Cultural workers are striking in solidarity with all workers, from coal miners in Alabama to baristas at hundreds of Starbucks locations. Together, they are combatting massive income inequality, low wages, inadequate healthcare, and gig-economy models for our labor. We are also writing to express solidarity across national borders—which our editorial board transverses—with similar efforts unfolding throughout higher education, healthcare, transportation, and public service sectors in the U.K. These struggles extend beyond pay and benefits; they model how we can collectively rewire the extreme labor inequality and job crisis in higher education and beyond.
To that end, we want to encourage our supporters to follow, donate, and educate themselves on the current labor uprisings. Further, we want to remind our supporters to never cross picket lines (whether physical or virtual), and to follow the guidance of workers first.
Compiled below is a resource round-up outlining how you can support, follow, and donate funds to ongoing campaigns. Please share updates, both wins and struggles, from the below campaigns to your networks. This list (in semi-alphabetic order) is certainly incomplete; please let us know of any other resources we can add and circulate to our followers:
Boston University Graduate Workers Local 509 SEIU
Petition in support of Boston University Graduate Workers
Field Museum Workers AFSCME Council 31
Petition in support of Field Museum Workers United
Fort Worth NewsGuild
HarperCollins Union UAW Local 2110 TOP
Please make checks out to Region 9A with memo “HarperCollins” to the address below:
ATTN Lunne Weir
Region 9A UAW
111 Founders Plaza, 17 Floor
East Hartford, CT 06108
McMaster University TAs and RAs CUPE Local 3906
Petition McMaster University Admin on behalf of striking TAs and RAs
Update: CUPE Local 3906 has reached a tentative agreement pending ratification vote by members
The University of Michigan Graduate Employees Organization (GEO)
New School Part-Time Faculty ACT-UAW Local 7902:
ACT-UAW Local 7902 has reached a tentative agreement with New School management; share the good news here.
Learn more about the tentative agreement and the history of the strike here.
United Academics of Philadelphia AFT Local 9608
Sign this petition to support sustainable working conditions for faculty and staff
Pittsburgh Newspaper Guild
Rutgers Faculty Union PTLFC-AAUP-AFT
The Labor Union for Graduate Workers at Temple University Local 6290 AFL_CIO TUGSA
Petition to Support Fair Pay for TAs & RAs
Starbucks Workers United
UC Student-Workers Union UAW 2865
UAW-UC 2865 Strike Fund; This is the official hardship fund of UAW 2865, UAW 5810, and Student Researchers United-UAW
UMWA United Mine Workers of America
1,000 Alabama coal miners have been on strike for 19 months
University and College Union
For details on the recent UCU Rising Action, see here.
In our current moment of overlapping crises, practicing solidarity is a means of breaking free from our own precarity and isolation. All cultural labor is interconnected, and we must recognize that what governs the least among us will one day govern us all.
In closing, we invite any cultural workers who would like to write about their experiences on the picket line or at the bargaining table this year to submit to Insurrect!. We would love to publish your critical insight within the context of Insurrect!’s editorial mission.
In Solidarity,
Insurrect!’s Editorial Board