VOL 22 / 4
TOP STORIES
Strike impacts UMD students
Below is a message sent to President Bruininks by UMD student Jordan Schnaidt about how the strike is affecting him.
Dear President Bruininks, I am a freshman student here at the University of Minnesota Duluth. As a Hard of Hearing student, I make use of the services provided by the Disability Services & Resources department (formerly Access Center), particularly the sign language interpreters. As these workers are members of the AFSCME union, the three full-time interpreters and at least three interpreters (of a staff of three full time interpreters and four part time interpreters) were absent from the university starting on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007. These interpreters left behind a large hole to be filled by the DHH (Deaf and Hard of Hearing) Program Coordinator and the remaining part time interpreter, who found difficulties in obtaining the services of any freelance or agency interpreters to alleviate their burden.
Nancy Diener, the DHH Program Coordinator and a certified interpreter, and the various temporary interpreters, haver done their best to fill the spots left by the full-time interpreters. However, testimony from two of the other three students who receive interpreter services here at UMD clearly shows that the absence of the full-time interpreters has caused situations where there are no interpreters present for classes that require them.
In a normal situation, the full-time interpreter staff is able to read through materials and learn the information that is presented in class to be able to better convey the information to the students who utilize their services. During the strike, however, Diener and the other interpreters do not have the time to study these materials, or are not paid to do so, and as such, are not prepared for the course material that they are required to interpret in class. While it may not seem important, this can lead to misunderstandings over the material and can severely hinder the proper development of vocabulary and concepts presented in that class.
Despite the number of interpreters who have been hired as freelance interpreters, from the CSD (Communication Service for the Deaf, a referral service) or the one hourly interpreter who is willing to cross the picket lines, the interpreters working here are working much more than the regular interpreters do. The job of an interpreter is taxing both physically and mentally in a process that cannot be maintained continuously for more than an hour or so without causing physical and mental strain. This can lead to the reduced performance of the interpreter.
When speaking with Diener, she reported that she had been working at least eight hours every day, sometimes nine, from one class to the next with no more of a break than the period of time it takes to walk from one class to another. Now, let me make it very clear on whose shoulders the responsibility for all this falls. Diener, Penny Cragun (the head of our Disability Services and Resources department) and the temporary interpreters have been trying their hardest to make do with the resources they have. Those resources are limited, and it is through no fault of their own that this situation has occurred.
The only person with the responsibility, President Bruininks, is you. You and you alone have the power to end this strike once and for all, to give the AFSCME union workers their fair (and that means the amount that the Minnesota State Legislature provided to the university for the workers, allowing for a 3.25 percent increase in wages among all unions) wages.
President Bruininks, I urge you to go back to the AFSCME union and give them a fair contract. You have the money available, and it won't hurt the university's funding, their budget, the salaries of yourself or anyone else or the student's tuition. You lose nothing by giving the AFSCME union their 3.25 percent raise, and you gain back your clerical, technical and healthcare workers. The discomfort that you and your faculty are inevitably feeling, the discomfort that students are feeling and the discomfort that the AFSCME workers are feeling can be resolved immediately, if you would just give the AFSCME a fair contract.
As a student that utilizes the services of the Sign Language Interpreters, I have been very disappointed to see that four of my classes went without interpreters, a service that I need and a service that the university is required, by law, to provide. I am more disappointed to see that at least three of the four students here that utilize these services have also suffered a lack of these services, which, again, the University is required by law to provide.
While Cragun, Diener and the rest of the Disability Services and Resources department have done their best with the limited resources at hand, it doesn't seem like the university's administration has done anything to maintain their legal obligations during this strike. Should the strike continue, I would seriously consider calling the University out on the required services that it failed to provide and seeking legal action.
I would hope, President Bruininks, that this would serve as the proper motivation for you to return to the negotiation tables with the 3.25 percent raise that the AFSCME is asking for. I do not wish to go any further than writing this letter, but I will, should the status quo be maintained.
Legal action is not what I prefer, but sometimes one must do what it takes to get things done. I'm sure you dislike it as much as I do, so I would urge you to do what you must to offer the AFSCME union the 3.25 percent raise that was provided to you by the State Legislature, and end the strike.
Thank you for your time, President Bruininks, and have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Jordan Schnaidt
University of Minnesota - Duluth
