Instead of talking about video games, you get to hear my opinion about something that’s been on my mind: graduate students are on strike at my university right now (Oregon State University). I personally do not support the strike, and left the union because of the demands they were making. It’s been nearly impossible to discuss my issues with other students, so I figure I’d post it on here and forget about it.

Pulling the "Evangelical Christianity" Card

BELOW IS MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE - I think it’s an essential part of my point, because I don’t think anyone that wasn’t active in the union would have the credibility to critique it like I’m about to.

I was very active in the union this time last year, regularly went to meeting and bargaining sessions. My first impressions were that everyone seemed nice, it seemed like a good community, there were lots of young people (used to the old guys at the Teamsters meetings back home). I guess I didn’t really feel “welcomed”, trying to talk to new people they seemed pretty stand-offish, but I figured it was just a new environment.

Overtime, I started to pick up patterns (damn brain, always noticing things). The first thing that really stood out to me was a member of union “leadership” who was sitting in front of me at a meeting. She was sitting on the floor, playing with a cup, spinning it around on her finger. She was regularly interrupting the speaker, and seemed to act very immature in general. I started to think about how we were represented in the union. I understand that graduate students are young, and a for a lot of them this is probably their first “job”. However, there was an extreme lack of experience in leadership, and asking questions or bringing this up resulted in “word salad” (more on this later). I thought back to the church I was raised in….no disrespecting the elders.

Another thing I picked up was, for a union that prided themselves on “diversity”, there was actually very little regarding background. I was one of two people who ACTUALLY came from poverty, the other being very young and having a traditional schooling background (went to public school/was encouraged to apply to college by parents). I was the ONLY person in that room that had an “unschooling” background, was probably the only person that ever held a blue collar job, and probably one of the few with no parental support through college/grad school. Overwhelming, over all races/sexualities/genders, everyone was from a wealthy/upper middle-class family, did not have to work through college/was supported by parents, and this was their first delve into their “career”. Despite being very privileged, they seemed to be unhappy/always complained about things that I’ve never even thought to worry about (you can’t take a full week off in the middle of the term for a vacation? your advisor won’t let you take a full month off for “mental health issues”? seriously?). In fact, many of them were on fellowships - wtf??? What are you doing in this union haha (more on THIS later as well). This caused a large disconnect between myself and other union members: they seemed to pull issues out of thin air AND exaggerated things so, so much. Always the victims…the world was against you…although you are successful with a privileged background…just like church members.

Another issue was this dynamic that I’ve witnessed before. Union leadership loved to use poor/disenfranchised people as examples, but didn’t really let them have leadership positions or consult them for decisions. It was an air of “Ah, don’t worry, stupid poor people, we’ll tell you what you need :) you’re obviously uneducated and can’t think for yourselves, we’ll tell you how to think :) oh, you think this only benefits rich people like us? no no no, it’s for you :) just don’t ask any more questions okay :)”. They want to use us as examples, but not really listen to us. And I’ve dealt with this my whole life, so I know when to recognize it.

Eventually, the culture surrounding the union became so dramatic (immaturity abounding), that I stopped going to meetings. However, I had no problem still paying dues, I’ve always been supportive of unions, and not liking the culture was a “me” problem anyways. But then, the strike happened.

Pulling the "Poor Person" card

I caught wind of the strike/proposal long before the actual strike. It was just grad students taking about the proposed 50% increase in salary, I shrugged it off- it would never get past union leadership. They would understand the consquences of such a large, sudden raise for thousands of people, right?

After that, I watched the “strike” develop over a series of months. I started seeing early patterns (which I go into below) - people who seemed to want to strike for the “hell of it!”, a supression of opposing opinions, immature name-calling and actions (it’s funny that the union calls OSU’s actions “bad faith” - have you looked at the methods you use?). There didn’t seem to be a good structure or plan. I knew early what my actions were going to be - consult with union leadership, other students and faculty members, undergrads, and make my decision after that (probably more consulting that the union did!). After doing this, I withdrew from the union and decided I couldn’t personally support the strike. I have 3 main reasons.

Reason #1: The Union is Shooting Themself in the Foot

Making graduate students more expensive will cause faculty to take less grad students on. I’ve talked to COUNTLESS people about this point - I haven’t heard a rebuttal at ALL from anyone, let along a satisfying one. I’ve been told that it “isn’t the union’s problem” - WHAT??? I thought you were trying to support future graduate students?? And not just put more money in your own pocket without having to work harder for it like us “stupid” blue collar people? Oh wait, I wasn’t supposed to say that, was I?

So, the grad student market is going to get more competitive (or completely disappear, postdocs/RA’s have more experience and would be cheaper!), so people with background like mine won’t have a chance to get in at all. This is already happening in other colleges that gave their grad students raises in the same way our union wants to! But of course, the privileged background students don’t give a shit about this point, it isn’t something they ever had to worry about. Of course they were going to get in - mommy and daddy have money! And they always get their way because they’ve never been told no in their LIVES. Sorry, I’m emotional about this - it’s a big FUCK YOU to people that didn’t have the same education opportunities as they did.

I can tell you what is going to happen. There will be SIGNIFICANTLY less grad students taken on - and the existing ones will have more work with the same .49 appointment. But congrats, now you can afford your BMW payments.

Reason #2: The Union is Striking for the Wrong Reasons - and They're Weasely Little Liars Dude

If they were striking for the ability to work full time, I’d be right there on the picket line. This would fix ALL of their complaints - they don’t make enough money (this is BS anyways. I’ve lived on half of the income I’ve gotten as a grad student, this is the most money I’ve ever gotten in my life), and they are “overworked” and have to go over their hours. But, they would never do this. Why would you campaign to give yourself more work for more money when you could get more money for FREE? Who cares if you’re screwing over other people, it’s all ME! ME! ME!

Something that really makes me angry is the fact that they’re lying to undergrads/community members. Firsthand - grad students are NOT PULLING 60 HR/WEEKS REGULARLY!! NONE of them are!! They don’t understand the cycle of work in academia - more work one week/month, less work the next. We are seasonal workers. They also tend to blur lines on their own research/what their “work” is - sitting in your PI’s class playing coolmathgames.com is not the 3 hours of work that you’re counting. Also, personally, I feel no sympathy for the “I worrk so much!!1!” argument - I’ve worked double those hours, doing a HARD LABOR job, and got paid less. You people are spoiled. They’re also lying about their contract and their ability to hold jobs outside of campus.

Reason #3: Poor Leadership and Structure is Going to Make the Strike a CLUSTERFUCK!!!

Mark my words: this will turn into a shitshow. Personally, I don’t think the union is going to get the contract they want-their demands are ridiculous and they weren’t planned enough for the strike. The undergrads are turning against them, and they can’t get the number of grad students they want at the picket line because many students saw the strike = free vacation. Unorganized, shitty leadership, can’t get undergrads on their side - they were screwed from the beginning.

A huge part of the issue is the “word salad”. If you talk to striking members, especially leaders, they give you a scripted, inauthentic reply. This is a HUGE turnoff - it shows that they didn’t actually think about their decision, just are parroting what they were told (hmm, sound familiar?). They bring up irrelevant points (the stupid athletic department thing, the 2% statistic), and don’t have rebuttals or won’t think about arguments. When they do give authentic replies (I’ve only gotten these from members, never leadership), it’s very ME! ME! centric - wait, I thought you were doing this for the future students?

If you read all this, thanks - just two cents from a stupid, uneducated grad student :) I sure hope some rich Californian comes along and writes 6 word salad paragraphs about how I’m supposed to think.