The bylaws of our local will set out the rules for our union’s daily operation, how our next bargaining will be, and, how we use our due.

January 17, 2024

By-law discussion

Hi everyone,

We are planning a discussion about union by-law this Sunday, 21th at 2PM. Agenda and zoom link is here: https://bit.ly/bylaw-usc We invited two international students from UC to talk about this amendment to their by-law and what problem it tried to solve. This is organized by rank and file union members, not an official union event.

We will also discuss other things for our by-law:

• Financial transparency: financial report at monthly membership meeting, posting annual financial report on union website, like UAW4121 did.
• Using due to hiring union staff: We found one union write into by-law that, the union staff’s salary rate shouldn’t be higher than the top paid student worker. (See article 20 of UAW4121)
• International student: we will discuss the demands failed to win and how to address. .e.g. For on-boarding support of incoming students, maybe we can allocate a budget in by-law. And also better representation of international students in bargaining.
• Future bargaining team election: there was some controversy for the last election, let’s discuss how to make it better for the future ones.

For the international student committee, we will discuss preserving the legacy and how to continue organizing for international students with our capacity.

February 23, 2024

Vote for a democratic by-law next Thursday

Please read this Google doc for the amendments we proposed, and feel free to add your comments!

https://bit.ly/bylaw-usc (We will continue updating this Google doc.)

Timeline

February 29th 5:30pm, we will vote on proposed amendments at the Membership Meeting (RSVP).

Add to your calendar (iCal, Google Cal) , join the meeting and vote!

Update

We passed 3 out of 10 amendments. It is very hard to change an organization and may take years of effort, but it is possible. Some reform caucuses have successfully changed their unions after years of efforts. Also, even if we failed any single campaign, we still made our voice heard and pushed union culture to a positive direction. We planted seeds in people’s minds. And, some current union leaders won’t take it personal.

Long term activism

Maybe we can learn from social justice campaigns, where people go to the street and do whatever they can to get people’s attention to social issues. The key thing here is to get people’s attention and let them realize there is an issue. There is no immediate effect. But after years and years of campaigning, the whole society may be changed. Just think about from the Stonewall in 1969 to the same-sex marriage in whole US in 2015. And now we are still fighting to protect trans kids.

We can do something similar in our union. Our goal is no longer to pass those amendments, but to raise question and let people think about alternatives. Once people start thinking, everything could be changed.

If we want the next bargaining (in 2027) to be more democratic, we need to encourage more critical thinking in future students.; The students to be admitted to USC won’t know what happened in 2023, it will be their first bargaining. We can make a difference by proposing amendments about democratic bargaining at every membership meeting till 2027. And during the debate, we can say what we think went wrong in 2023, so future students can prevent those mistakes.

March 30, 2024

Second round bylaw amendments