Seattle Press on Line - UW Grad Students Sing a Striking Song

UW Grad Students Sing a Striking Song

By Tom Herriman

May 30, 2001 -- If University of Washington graduate students go on strike this June 1, as some have warned, they'll probably be singing some new words to the labor classic "Solidarity Forever" which uses the tune from the Battle Hymm of the Republic. Talal Hattar and Pete Hovde, graduate students in the political science department are the authors of this new UW fight song:

chorus:
Slaves of public education
Rise and wake a sleeping nation!
Break the chains of your privation!
For the union makes us strong!

Teaching assistants, readers, graders, and tutors are responsible for virtually all of the grading in lower-level undergraduate courses. Many teaching assistants have sole responsibility for courses.
Finals Week at the University is June 4-8.

We lead discussion sections
Answer questions and we grade
Overtired, undervalued
Overworked and underpaid
All the world knows how we've suffered
And by God we shall be paid!
For the union makes us strong!
(chorus)

The Graduate Student Employee Action Coalition/United Auto Workers (GSEAC/UAW) and the University have been negotiating since February.

It's not wages and working conditions so much as the question of getting an enforceable contract that is the biggest sticking point right now. The university says it can't recognize the union without an act of the legislature. The legislature, which is virtually paralyzed by a numerical tie and ideological rigidity, can't agree on much of anything these days. So the students are putting maximum pressure on the university.

We've heard McCormick's fast talk
And it's high time he resigned
And have met their snotty lawyer
And the AG has opined
We have heard their empty offers
And by God we have declined
'Cause the Union makes us strong!
(chorus)

"The university is still resisting agreement with us on several issues that are top priorities for our members," says Evren Damar, teaching assistant in economics and GSEAC/UAW bargaining team member. "Our members are willing to fight for a contract that is fully arbitable by a neutral third party."

We've endured their condescension
We have borne their snide remarks.
We have doted with attention
Like a dog that yaps and barks.
Well, we gently now remind them
They're the ones who taught us Marx
AND DROVE THE MESSAGE HOME!

"Our goal is to reach a mutually acceptable settlement by Friday," says GSEAC/UAW bargaining team member Larin McLaughlin. "No one wants to strike, but we will if we have to."

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