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UMass RA union balks at campus plan for reopening; says allowing students to live in dorms during COVID-19 is ‘suicidal'
MassLive.com ^

Posted on 07/28/2020 1:00:22 PM PDT by matt04

he union representing resident assistants at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst says the plan to reopen residence halls this fall while in the middle of the pandemic is “suicidal,” and says its members will have no part of it without increased precautions for their safety.

Members of the Resident Assistants and Peer Mentors Union, part of United Auto Workers, Local 2322, on Monday were nearly unanimous in opposing plans to reopen the residences calls with the start of the fall semester.

According to a statement, 95% of members voted to authorize the union’s bargaining team to formally refuse to work under the “dangerous conditions” it claims reopening will create. The number of actual votes cast was not disclosed.

The statement, authored by Nat Luftman, Alice Troop, and James Cordero on behalf of the union and published on the social media platform Medium, says that unless officials with UMass Residential Life meet the union’s bargaining team and hammer out a safe reopening plan, members of the union will refuse to report for work this fall.

“Your reopening plan has one fatal flaw: It completely ignores the safety of students, workers, and community members, in the interest of ensuring the University can collect dining and housing fees,” the statement reads. “Our lives are more important than your fees. We refuse to put our lives at risk for the University’s own revenue.”

(Excerpt) Read more at masslive.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: amherst; covid; uaw; umass; unions
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I must have missed the news of all the retail, hospital, etc. staff who died off by the thousands due to the CCPVirus.

Show up to work, wand wear a mask like you say is good enough for everyone else.

1 posted on 07/28/2020 1:00:22 PM PDT by matt04
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To: matt04

Keep that sh*tty school closed. I’m good with this argument.


2 posted on 07/28/2020 1:01:12 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Polls are no longer designed to measure public sentiment but to influence it.)
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To: matt04

Also, since when has the UAW started to represent RAs and colleges? I guess they killed off too many auto jobs and needed to find some more idiots to funnel money to the Dems.


3 posted on 07/28/2020 1:01:41 PM PDT by matt04
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To: matt04

No students? No need for any support staff. I guess they could find real jobs.


4 posted on 07/28/2020 1:03:01 PM PDT by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: matt04; Army Air Corps; AlaskaErik; Jet Jaguar; MadMax, the Grinning Reaper; EEGator; MeganC; ...
I've said it before and I will say it again.

I contracted the Swine-Flu when I was Air Force BMT in the Summer of '09.

When I went to sick call, do you know what they did? Gave me some Motrin, gave me a kiss on the head and told me to quick screwing around and get the hell back to my flight!

5 posted on 07/28/2020 1:04:39 PM PDT by KC_Lion
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To: Seruzawa

Good idea. They can either work or get fired and not get unemployment.


6 posted on 07/28/2020 1:05:16 PM PDT by matt04
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature
UMASS is like Berkley. A really, really leftist indoctrination center.

Shut it down and lay everybody off.

7 posted on 07/28/2020 1:07:10 PM PDT by Mogger
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To: matt04

I wonder if any of there RAs are math or statistics majors. The risk of healthy people of that age is minuscule.


8 posted on 07/28/2020 1:09:16 PM PDT by glorgau
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To: KC_Lion

My crowning achievement there was completing the PAST test for PJ’s in ‘01.


9 posted on 07/28/2020 1:09:54 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: matt04

What good is a Union if there’s no University


10 posted on 07/28/2020 1:13:31 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: EEGator

The RA’s have a union.


11 posted on 07/28/2020 1:14:42 PM PDT by Col Frank Slade
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To: matt04

I guess the union representative doesn’t know the actual definition of, “suicidal”. Suicidal would be if the students knew without a doubt they’d die if they entered a residence, and yet begged to be let in anyway.


12 posted on 07/28/2020 1:16:40 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (If 100% of us contracted this Covid Virus only 99.997% would be left to tell our story.)
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To: matt04

A union??? Opposing the reopening of schools*

I’m shocked...shocked!

*until after November 3rd, that is


13 posted on 07/28/2020 1:19:06 PM PDT by Walrus (I do not consent)
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To: KC_Lion

“Motrin?”

Where were you stationed? The drug of choice for any type of pain for the military, especially the Air Force, is just plain old acetaminophen (tylenol). The even gave it to me after I got out of the hospital after I was shot in Iraq. You must have been at a command base. Normal members don’t get motrin. Costs too much when they can get tylenol through troop issue (DeCa) cheap.

rwood


14 posted on 07/28/2020 1:25:27 PM PDT by Redwood71
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To: matt04

Resident Assistants have a union?! Aren’t RAs graduate students?


15 posted on 07/28/2020 1:25:59 PM PDT by captain_dave
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To: captain_dave

When I went to school in MA RAs were just regular students who got free room and board and a small salary to be a RA and reported to a Director for each dorm. The Directors were unionized though.


16 posted on 07/28/2020 1:30:24 PM PDT by matt04
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To: matt04

Only UMass would have a Union for grad student jobs. Bunch of losers. I guess the collective doesn’t have concern for the proletariat.


17 posted on 07/28/2020 1:58:31 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: Col Frank Slade
The RA’s have a union.

That's the first thing I thought of. Many RAs aren't paid, they take on that job to get free room n board for the year. What does their union possibly do?
18 posted on 07/28/2020 6:23:42 PM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Vermont Lt
Only UMass would have a Union for grad student jobs. Bunch of losers. I guess the collective doesn’t have concern for the proletariat.

That's not really a grad student job though. At least back when I was at SMU, most of the RAs were sophomores or juniors.
19 posted on 07/28/2020 6:25:21 PM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Svartalfiar

I went to a military college, we didn’t have RAs. Lol. We had Captains, and Lt Cols.

I think these are more the next level up—what used to be called Resident Directors. In the other schools these folks were the grown ups who ran the dorm or house.


20 posted on 07/28/2020 6:41:33 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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