Partners: Progressive Student Alliance, Tennessee Education Association, unions throughout the state, Workers’ Interfaith Network
United Campus Workers-CWA Local 3865 President Tom Anderson doesn’t sugar coat it.
“We have no contract, no protections, and no seat at the table. And in our employment-at-will state, the day we win a bargaining agreement seems a long way off. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight,” said Anderson.
“We know we can’t sit around and wait for someone to hand us a contract. If we want fair wages, payroll deduction, and a real grievance policy, we have to band together. Activism is central to our fight, and coalition building is vital to that.”
UCW-CWA represents 1,500 higher education workers in Tennessee. UCW members make their universities work everyday, and are building the union at University of Tennessee campuses, at Eastern Tennessee State University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Memphis, Tennessee State University, Tennessee Tech, Pellissippi State and others. UCW members work in physical plant facilities, as custodians, graduate employees, researchers, administration staff, instructors, faculty and more.
Over the past 11 years, UCW-CWA has built a dynamic organization of higher education staff and faculty, and works with other unions, faith groups, student groups and others to fight back against attacks on teachers, voting rights, public workers and more. “We’re standing with the teachers and with all workers who are being attacked, because when they get hurt, it hurts all of us,” Anderson said.
That’s one reason why UCW-CWA members from Nashville traveled hours on a bus to rally outside Verizon’s 2012 annual shareholders meeting in Huntsville, Ala. There they joined the 99 Percent Spring Coalition, college students from the University of Central Florida, Jobs with Justice, AFL-CIO, religious leaders and CWA members in protesting the company’s corporate greed and its attack on middle class workers.