The Campus Workers Withdrawing Their Consent
A conversation with student and graduate employees about why workers are simultaneously on strike at two universities.
Maximillian Alvarez
Right now, a majority of residential advisers at Kenyon College, organized with the Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee, are on an indefinite strike over unfair labor practices. At the same time, over 1,750 graduate student workers at Indiana University with the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition are on strike, demanding that the university administration formally recognize their union, pay graduate workers a livable wage, and eliminate costly student fees. In this extended mini-cast, we talk about these important struggles with three worker-organizers across the two campuses: Molly Orr, a sophomore at Kenyon College who works at the Kenyon Farm and the Writing Center; Nora Weber, a fourth-year PhD candidate in Sociology at Indiana University; and Anne Kavalerchik, a third-year PhD candidate in Sociology and Informatics at Indiana University.
Additional links/info below…
- Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition — United Electrical Workers website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
- Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee — United Electrical Workers website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
- Nora’s Twitter page
- Kenyon Strike Fund: K-SWOC-UE Strike Fund - Spring 2022
- Indiana Strike Fund: STRIKE UNTIL WE WIN FUND!
- Maria Carrasco, Inside Higher Ed, “Kenyon College Residential Advisers Go On Indefinite Strike”
- Hali Tauxe, Indiana Daily Student, “As Graduate Workers Contemplate Strike, Bloomington Campus Officials Announce Raises”
- Jeremy Hogan, The Bloomingtonian, “Gallery: Grad Workers Strike Tuesday, April 19, 2022″
Permanent links below…
- Working People Patreon page
- Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
- Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
- Jules Taylor, “Working People Theme Song
SPECIAL DEAL: Subscribe to our award-winning print magazine, a publication Bernie Sanders calls "unapologetically on the side of social and economic justice," for just $1 an issue! That means you'll get 10 issues a year for $9.95.
Maximillian Alvarez is editor-in-chief at the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, available at InTheseTimes.com. He is also the author of The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke.
