I just recently watched Harlan County, U.S.A., directed by Barbara Kopple, about the mineworkers in Kentucky who endured a long and painful 13-month strike in 1974 to gain a contract from the mine operators. Kopple won an academy award for the film for Best Documentary Feature in 1976. If you want a quick introduction to the basics of organizing, this film instructs well, giving all the basic components: workers, owners, scabs, contract, union. It also got me to thinking about other films with a similar content that came readily to mind, like Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), Norma Rae (1979), and Silkwood (1983). It occurred to me that the 70s was a time for pro-labor films; and then I wondered what happened to that theme.

The 80s happened. Reagan happened. That’s what happened. What I had known as a young person, that Reagan turned the country markedly to the right culturally and politically, came back to me in a wholly new and fresh way. As the credits rolled on Harlan, I recursively reread the 80s; I always knew it was a reactionary time, but Harlan in retrospect drove home for me just how dangerously and consummately the 80s and Reaganomics effectively shut down a worker movement. In fact, even now, we reject the 70s as a horrible time for culture in general: disco and pop music, hairstyles, fashion all draw scornful laughter as we look back on it.

What if our disdain of disco duck and the Bee Gees and Saturday Night Fever is really born in the rejection of freedom movements? The 70s were, after all, the decade after the 60s. And freedom and civil and worker movements were gaining some real traction. Stonewall. Roe v. Wade. A look at 70s narrative fiction films attests to what is now for us an estranged discourse of social criticism and stories of the marginalized: The Deer Hunter, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, Shaft, Soylent Green, Dog Day Afternoon, Saturday Night Fever.

So what to make of this? Workers surged in the 30s in America and then they were put down in the 40s and 50s, then they surged again in the 60s and 70s. And then we were shut down. And have been since. So, I say, get out your Bee Gees albums. Or download Too Much Heaven and Staying Alive from ITunes, and listen to those groovy sounds. Dance naked in your house and sing to the dog. Maybe even read up on Stonewall, and watch a Village People YouTube video, if you’re brave. The gay, bad taste of the 70s is actually a pinnacle of artistic, political, and social achievement that deserves not our scorn but our earnest admiration and a sincere revisit. Watch Harlan County, U.S.A.

Valerie Holliday
Vice President
UFCT 1130

When Robin Meade became chair of the Moraine Valley Community College chapter of Cook County (Ill.) College Teachers Union, she had no idea she was putting her job—teaching business courses as an adjunct—on the line. When she said the college treats adjuncts like "disposable resources," she was sure she was within the bounds of her work as an advocate for better working conditions.

Governor Malloy announced last week a sweeping plan to overhaul the state's pension system as well as the desire to reduce the state workforce by 500 employees via attrition.

New Contact Information:

AFT - Oklahoma

2915 N. Classen, Suite 420

Oklahoma City, OK  73106

(405) 528-0801

aftokoffice@gmail.com

PATFA offered a formal comment to the draft version of the System's proposal for a new structure for its online teaching. The report, "Unified Online," dated October 2015, is in draft form and will be presented to the Board of Trustees later this fall.

While PATFA takes no position as to the proposed new structure, it noted draft language that called for creation of Online Faculty Ambassadors (a committee, really) to advise the System on online teaching. The language specifically said "full-time faculty" would be on the panel.

PATFA's statement, posted Nov. 2, 2015, reads:

We hope to see you on the bus heading to Lansing and later at the rally at the Fisher Building. Many union members have committed to participate in this day of action and I hope Local 2350 members will be there to be a part of the action and have your voices heard.

Please RSVP for a seat on the bus by calling the union office at 835-2699 or email detroitparasdj@ameritech.net so your name will be submitted to secure a seat on the bus.

Here's the outline of the day:

Boarding buses at 8:30 a.m. at DFT located at 7700 Second Ave. Detroit

Free parking for participants on Delaware Street behind Wellness building on Second Street.

Depart for Lansing at 9:00 a.m.

Arrive in Lansing at 10:30 a.m.

Meet at Capitol steps at 10:45 a.m.

Rally, guest speakers and meetings with legislators throughout the day

Depart for Detroit at 2:00 p.m. for rally at Fisher at 3:30 p.m.

Hope to see you there!

We're sorry for any confusion.  We have listened to YOU!  Many of you wanted to take this fight all the way to Lansing.  So, on November 3, 2015 we're going to Lansing and we'll end the day with a rally at the Fisher Buiding at 3:30 p.m - 4:30 p.m..  'The Choice is Yours'.    

To get on the bus for Lansing, call the union office to RSVP at 835-2699 or send your RSVP to detroitparasdj@ameritech.net.  

We'll see you in Lansing November 3, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. (Transportation and meet up location details will be forthcoming.)

Important Note:  November 3rd is a scheduled work day for professional developement.  If you choose to go to Lansing you must call in and use an available personal business day.

Gov. Malloy’s budget office told state agency heads to postpone cost-of-living increases and merit pay raises for non-union managers until Jan. 1, 2016.  In the same memo commissioners are instructed to review their agencies with the goal of identifying "core government functions". Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes said that as budget talks begin there will not be an adjustment to manager's merit pay plan salaries on Nov.

Please click on the following link to view the UCC Membership Luncheon photos:

http://33prime.com/gallery/UCCAFF_2015_Luncheon/