U of M Labor and Community Strike Support Committee

To our dear Union Sisters and Brothers in AFSCME 3260, 3800, 3801 and 3937,

The Executive Board of United Campus Workers – Communications Workers of America Local 3865, with chapters at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and Chattanooga campuses writes to offer you and your families our best wishes and solidarity in your ongoing efforts for fair pay and justice at the University of Minnesota.

Public higher education workers are facing conditions in Tennessee that mirror the injustice your union is fighting in Minnesota. We are familiar with rising administrative salaries that vastly outpace any increases we see in our own pay. We also face two-tier raise schemes where some state workers get decent pay, while university workers are given the left-overs. We too have seen the value of our salaries consistently lose buying power as inflation continues to rise. Salary compression continues to eat away the little bit of security ten, fifteen, even twenty-five years of service to the state has afforded us.

Your struggle is our struggle; we know this. If working families at the University of Minnesota are not able to win just compensation, we know that our struggle for justice will face a setback. If your union is not able to hold on to previously won gains, we know that our struggle for career advancement, pay for seniority, and fairness across the wage scale at UT will be a longer and harder row to hoe. In the spirit of a maxim that has defined our movement for over one hundred years, we understand that “an injury to one is truly an injury to all.”

So we stand with you, union sisters and brothers, united in a common fight for fairness, decent pay and respect. Our thoughts are with you.

¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!

Thomas Smith, UT Knoxville Libraries clerical staff, UCW-CWA Local
President, on behalf of United Campus Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 3865’s Executive Board