Cornell Graduate Students United demands university bargain with union over pro-Palestine international student’s suspension
by Gabriel Muñoz ~ The Cornell Daily Sun ~ Oct. 3 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2094
Approximately 180 Cornell Graduate Students United members and supporters gathered to protest for the University to bargain with CGSU over international graduate student Momodou Taal’s suspension. The graduate student union is demanding the University rescind Taal’s suspension under a Memorandum of Agreement reached in July 2024. The agreement gives CGSU the right to bargain over the effects of academic discipline of graduate students as long as it affects their working conditions. The union suspended Taal for his involvement in a Sept. 18 disruption of a career fair attended by defense contractors L3Harris and Boeing. If Taal is withdrawn from the University, he will be in violation of his F-1 visa status, likely leading to his deportation.
Julian Assange makes first public statement since prison release
Assange says he was freed after years of incarceration because he ‘pled guilty to journalism’
by SBS News (video) ~ Oct. 1 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2092
Julian Assange, the Australian WikiLeaks founder addressed the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, his first public remarks since he was released after spending five years in a British prison. He has been giving evidence to its Parliamentary Assembly, which includes parliamentarians from 46 European countries, on his detention and conviction and their effects on human rights. “I am not free today because the system worked,” he said. “I pled guilty to seeking information from a source … I pled guilty to journalism.”
Port strike ends, workers win $24 wage increase
Longshore workers are returning to work with big wage gains promised
by Jenny Brown ~ Labor Notes ~ Oct. 4 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2093
East Coast Longshore workers with the International Longshoremen’s Association are returning to work, after three raucous days on the picket lines. They received a promise of a $24-an-hour pay raise over six years, bring top pay from $39 to $63. The strike paralyzed shipping in huge port complexes like Newark, Houston, and Charleston, stopping loads of fruit, vehicles, and heavy equipment. It was the first coastwide strike for the ILA since 1977. The sides will return to bargaining on the other big issue of the strike, automation, extending the old agreement to Jan. 15.
Strike threat wins boarding and retro pay at American Airlines
The first flight attendants to receive boarding pay in a union contract
by Jenny Brown ~ Labor Notes ~ Sept. 24 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2090
Flight attendants at American Airlines were celebrating September 12 after approving a new five-year agreement by 87 percent, with 95 percent turnout. They won a big retroactive pay package and an immediate wage increase of 20 percent. They also became the first flight attendants to nail down boarding pay in a union contract. Flight attendants typically are not paid until the aircraft doors close. All that greeting, seating, sorting out problems, and assistance with bags is off the clock. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants’s three-year contract campaign included systemwide picketing, popular red “WAR” (We Are Ready) pins and T-shirts, seven marches on the boss, pop-up pickets at the White House and Wall Street, and last year, a 99.47 percent “yes” vote to strike.
The first wave of Florida’s post-tenure review results are here
The process continues to be a point of contention while sniffing out underperformers
by Annie Wang ~ Independent Florida Alligator ~ Sept. 24 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2089
The Florida Board of Governors applauded the first cycle of post-tenure review for its productivity and success. Gov. Ron DeSantis previously said unproductive faculty are a significant deadweight cost, and tenure (an indefinite appointment to a position that is guaranteed and can only be revoked in exceptional circumstances) should not be used to shield them from accountability. Since its inception in 2022, post-tenure review has been a source of considerable debate and controversy. The process requires 20 percent of tenured professors across Florida to be evaluated every five years for an assessment of their job performance. According to the board’s Sept. 18 meeting, 91 percent of reviewed faculty met or exceeded expectations, and 9 percent of faculty did not meet expectations or were unsatisfactory.
UF cuts sexual assault resources, outsources others, continuing Sasse agenda
Title IX and disability administrators now operate through out-of-state consultants
by Zoey Thomas ~ Independent Florida Alligator ~ Sept. 23 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2088
Fewer than 9 percent of cisgender female UF students reported feeling very safe walking on campus at night, compared to the national average of 19 percent, according to a Spring 2022 survey. Yet UF has recently renamed, outsourced and cut several sexual assault resources. UF hired a private California-based company to manage Title IX reports, stopped using two campus-wide violence prevention programs, and renamed and moved its gender equity office, all in the past two years. Also in the past year, UF ended its Green Dot Gators program, a bystander training aimed at reducing campus violence. The university additionally decided not to renew its three-year trial with uSafeUS, a sexual assault prevention and response mobile app, in June.