AFT’s Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals (AGEL) was honored at the 2002 AFT convention, held in Las Vegas this July, with the Norman Swenson AFT Higher Education Militancy Award.  Swenson, thanked AGEL for "reminding us what can be achieved through intelligent and aggressive militancy" as he presented the award named after him to Alyssa Picard, the incoming graduate employee member of the AFT Higher Education Program and Policy Council. 

Swenson pointed to several recent actions by AFT graduate employee locals that earned them this award, including organizing victories at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and Temple University, as well as hard fought contract settlements at numerous locals.  As the lead negotiator for the Graduate Employee Organization / AFT at the University of Michigan, Picard helped lead one of those contract battles, which included a massive one-day walkout. 

Accepting the award, Picard talked about other activities at AFT locals, including the recent contract victory achieved by the Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Coalition at the University of Kansas.  Picard pointed out that the experience of these unionists demonstrates that direct action works. "When it is carried out in the context of a strategic corporate campaign--and increasingly when we deal with universities, we are dealing with corporations--direct action works particularly well, perhaps better than any other weapon labor has available to it today."

Learn more about the Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals/AFT.  [Craig Smith]

[August 8, 2002]