I was back on the picket lines today, completing my second week with 20 hours of official duties (basically not counting all the time spent post-processing photos from the strike).
After the day’s picketing ended, there was an informal meeting at the strike HQ where people discussed yesterday’s meeting, the prospects for escalation, and other general matters of concern. People are divided on all sorts of questions, but a couple stand out in particular. First, there is a disagreement between those who think escalation is necessary and desirable (either to secure a deal better than yesterday’s proposal, or even to secure the proposal itself) and others who are either personally unwilling to escalate or who think it would be counter-productive as a consequence of causing more inconvenience to other members of the university community.
People were also quite confused about the proposal from yesterday: particularly about whether it represents our new official bargaining position or whether it represents the absolute minimum the membership is willing to accept.
With no pickets on Sundays, I get a “break” tomorrow to work on coordinating the brief. Monday, I will out on the picket lines once more.
