Strike care

Yesterday was day one of UIC faculty striking to get a contract. This is the first I’ve ever felt secure enough to participate in. The specific issues can be found at https://uicunitedfaculty.org/. We are moving into an era of common good bargaining that deserves more time later.

For now, many of us have will be facing situations that require collective action in one form or another in order to get the support that we need to live our lives and do our work. Strikes are a part of that. While I am very new to this arena, I am noticing similarities in this activity to others. One of my two themes this year is to make sure I’m taking care of myself well and the strike is certainly challenging that out the gate.

On the physical side, a strike is demanding. Nothing unexpected but I haven’t made my body work like this in quite a while. I wore comfortable supportive shoes, wool socks with synthetic liners because of the cold, brought high density, easy to eat snacks. I remembered to hydrate, but could have done better on that front. I dressed in layers and dug deep into my personal experience cheerleading to properly project and protect my voice. As I travel into day two, I feel good and able to put in a solid days work.

The mental side of this is a bit rougher. I’ve been told within the last few months that I talk about work too much in social situations. Issues at work have been consuming and in that moment I felt unsupported and my concerns trivialized by people that claimed to care for me. I hope that this media attention communicates the issues we’ve been facing better than I was able to do personally. I hope this brings back their sense of compassion.

Our strike group has been bolstered by the support we receive on the street as we march. It keeps our spirits up to see others in solidarity with us. But it’s hard not to feel crushed when the course coordinator who fervently supported the pre-strike activities a week ago then steps in to teach my class, outside of her area of expertise. I was tempted to sit out today to rest, but decided I needed the mental strength of my fellow union members to talk to about this issue. I don’t know what the consequences could or should be.

So as my train is about to put to the platform, I’m showing up, doing work, and hopefully together we will see change for us and our students. Showing up matters.