Labour claims Liz Truss’ £235 million Environment Agency cut ‘doubled sewage discharge’


Tuesday 23 August 2022 

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is accused over presiding over cuts that precipitated raw sewage discharges.

Credit: Still from video by @BEMatters / PA

Labour has accused Liz Truss of presiding over Environment Agency cuts that resulted in "doubled sewage discharge."

The 'savings' made during the Tory leadership contender's time as Environment Secretary significantly slashed funding for the Environment Agency - precipitating the recent raw sewage flows at the UK's beaches, the party claims.

Labour Party analysis of official figures shows that since 2016, when Ms Truss was in charge of Defra, raw sewage discharge more than doubled from 14.7 per overflow in 2016 to 29.3 in 2021.

This coincided with her cutting £80m of sewage monitors as part of a £235m Tory axe to the Environment Agency’s budget, which she branded “efficiency savings”.

Footage captures sewage being released into the sea at Bexhill, East Sussex, closing the beach. Video by @BEMatters

The Environment Agency works closely with water companies to ensure they are closely monitoring and reporting back on their discharge activity.

As Environment Secretary, Ms Truss justified the cuts, saying: “there are ways we can make savings as a department” citing better use of technology and inter-agency working.

Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said: “Under the Tories, the country is facing a crisis in our water supply. Our water infrastructure is at bursting point, with billions of litres of water being wasted every day and raw sewage being dumped into our waters.

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“The fact that Liz Truss was the one to cut the EA (Environment Agency) so severely, not only demonstrates her lack of foresight but also her lack of care for the detail, in recognising the need to adapt to the serious flooding that had just happened on her watch.

“Labour will address the challenges in our water supply system by strengthening regulation and ensuing that bosses of water companies are held to account legally and financially for their negligence.”

The Labour analysis comes as dozens of pollution warnings were issued for beaches and swimming spots in England and Wales following heavy rain that overwhelmed the sewage system.

Environmental charities have warned about polluted coastlines

There has been growing public outrage in recent years at the volume of raw or partially treated sewage pumped into the UK’s rivers and coastal waters.

Water firms are being criticised for not investing money back into the UK’s outdated water infrastructure, with mounting pressure on ministers to intervene.

On Monday, Number 10 said it was the duty of firms to put customers before shareholders, with a spokeswoman saying: “We have been clear that the failure of water companies to adequately reduce sewage discharges is completely unacceptable.

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“They have a duty to put their customers before shareholders and we would expect them to take urgent action on this issue or face fines.”

The spokeswoman added: “We continue to speak regularly with them. The Environment Agency undertake enforcement action and monitoring, which we have stepped up.”

Downing Street also said water companies were already facing legal action from regulators.


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The spokeswoman said: “Since 2015 the Environment Agency has brought 48 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies, securing fines of over £137 million.”

She added that since privatisation, the equivalent of £5 billion had been invested to upgrade water infrastructure, but the companies must “continue to take action”.

Sir Keir Starmer earlier accused the Government of having its head in the sand over the scale of sewage being pumped into British waterways.

Labour leader SIR Keir Starmer.Credit: PA

He said: “I think there is huge anger about the sewage situation, because we’re seeing yet again sewage pumped into our rivers and into our seas.

“What it shows is that the Government hasn’t been tough enough on the water companies and the enforcement against the water companies.

“Of course, at the same time they have been cutting money to the Environment Agency.”

Liz Truss’s £235m cut to Environment Agency ‘doubled sewage discharge’

Raw sewage discharge more than doubled from 14.7 per overflow in 2016 to 29.3 in 2021, when the future PM was in charge of Defra.

 by Jack Peat
2022-08-23 


Liz Truss presided over “efficiency savings” during her time as Environment Secretary that significantly slashed funding for the Environment Agency and resulted in “doubled sewage discharge”, Labour has claimed.

Labour Party analysis of official figures shows that since 2016, when the Tory leadership hopeful was in charge of Defra – raw sewage discharge more than doubled from 14.7 per overflow in 2016 to 29.3 in 2021.

This coincided with her cutting £80m of sewage monitors as part of a £235m Tory axe to the Environment Agency’s budget, which she branded “efficiency savings”.



The Environment Agency works closely with water companies to ensure they are closely monitoring and reporting back on their discharge activity.

As Environment Secretary, Ms Truss justified the cuts saying “there are ways we can make savings as a department” citing better use of technology and inter-agency working.

Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said: “Under the Tories, the country is facing a crisis in our water supply. Our water infrastructure is at bursting point, with billions of litres of water being wasted every day and raw sewage being dumped into our waters.


“The fact that Liz Truss was the one to cut the EA (Environment Agency) so severely, not only demonstrates her lack of foresight but also her lack of care for the detail, in recognising the need to adapt to the serious flooding that had just happened on her watch.

“Labour will address the challenges in our water supply system by strengthening regulation and ensuing that bosses of water companies are held to account legally and financially for their negligence.”

A senior consultant for the Environment Agency told the Guardian about the cuts: “They plummeted to the point it was impossible for the Environment Agency to know what’s going on.

“They had no control or monitoring capability that was meaningful. They ceded the control of monitoring to water companies, which ended up being able to mark their own homework. They take their own samples and assess whether they are being compliant.

“We saw that doesn’t work – look what happened with Southern Water, which didn’t declare its pollution incidents and ended up being fined by the EA when they were found out.

“There are suspicions this could be happening across the board. It has been left to citizen scientists who monitor and fill in the gaps.”

Mr Lewis added: “Lots of this would have happened under Liz Truss; she was there when some of those cuts were made. She was a poor minister and the Environment Agency has been cut to the bone, and it can’t monitor or regulate effectively.”

The Labour analysis comes as dozens of pollution warnings were issued for beaches and swimming spots in England and Wales following heavy rain that overwhelmed the sewage system.

There has been growing public outrage in recent years at the volume of raw or partially treated sewage pumped into the UK’s rivers and coastal waters.

Water firms are being criticised for not investing money back into the UK’s outdated water infrastructure, with mounting pressure on ministers to intervene.

On Monday, Number 10 said it was the duty of firms to put customers before shareholders, with a spokeswoman saying: “We have been clear that the failure of water companies to adequately reduce sewage discharges is completely unacceptable.

“They have a duty to put their customers before shareholders and we would expect them to take urgent action on this issue or face fines.”

The spokeswoman added: “We continue to speak regularly with them. The Environment Agency undertake enforcement action and monitoring, which we have stepped up.”

Downing Street also said water companies were already facing legal action from regulators.

The spokeswoman said: “Since 2015 the Environment Agency has brought 48 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies, securing fines of over £137 million.”

She added that since privatisation, the equivalent of £5 billion had been invested to upgrade water infrastructure, but the companies must “continue to take action”.

Sir Keir Starmer earlier accused the Government of having its head in the sand over the scale of sewage being pumped into British waterways.

He said: “I think there is huge anger about the sewage situation, because we’re seeing yet again sewage pumped into our rivers and into our seas.

“What it shows is that the Government hasn’t been tough enough on the water companies and the enforcement against the water companies.

“Of course, at the same time they have been cutting money to the Environment Agency.”

Scots salmon industry facing 'acute' worker shortages due to Brexit warn business chiefs

The body says the industry does not have enough staff across key skill areas due to workers returning to their homes in Eastern Europe as a result of Brexit

Lauren Gilmour

 15 AUG 2022

Salmon is a major industry (Image: Getty Images/500px)

Scotland's salmon industry is facing "acute" labour shortages due to Brexit, business chiefs have warned. In letters to candidates in the Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, Salmon Scotland has called for a more "enlightened" approach to immigration to assist businesses.

The body says the industry does not have enough staff across key skill areas due to workers returning to their homes in Eastern Europe as a result of Brexit.

Very low unemployment and extremely limited labour availability in areas where businesses have processing facilities, namely Rosyth near Edinburgh, Argyll, Fort William, Stornoway, Dingwall and three separate sites in Shetland mean processing factories are running 20% light on staff

A change to key worker definitions, changes to the salary cap level and a broader public signal that the UK is open to people and thus to business have been cited by the body as measures to improve the issue.

They have also asked candidates to take a "pragmatic" approach to trade negotiations with the EU, avoiding a so-called "trade war", with a "clear focus on the nation's export businesses who depend on a positive, professional relationship with France and the other countries of the EU".

Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland, said: "Our businesses are vital to the economic performance of the UK - not only in economically fragile coastal and rural areas, but across the length and breadth of the country in processing, engineering, science and technology industries.

The former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader invited Mr Sunak and Ms Truss to visit a facility if they were elected "at their earliest convenience".

UK
Record 1,295 people in one day cross Channel in small boats


Monday’s figure surpasses previous record from last November and brings total this year to 22,600

People are brought to Dover on a Border Force vessel on Tuesday. 

Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA


Rajeev Syal

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 23 Aug 2022 


A record 1,295 people crossed the Channel in small boats on Monday, heightening concern that the Home Office’s aggressive policies have failed to curb the numbers making dangerous journeys to the UK.

It was the highest number in a single day since records began in 2018, surpassing 1,185 on a day in November last year. The Ministry of Defence said 27 boats made the crossing on Monday.

The latest figures come despite increasingly aggressive and expensive policies from Priti Patel’s department. This year, she has struck a £120m deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, has asked Royal Navy vessels to rescue boats in UK waters, and has threatened to turn boats around and send them back to France.

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It is clear this government’s cruel and nasty plan to treat people as human cargo by sending them to Rwanda is doing absolutely nothing to stop people feeling forced to cross the Channel.

“That is because these dreadful plans fail to address the reasons people come in the first place. The very high numbers of people crossing the Channel are men, women and children fleeing war and oppression in countries like Afghanistan and Syria who have no choice but to make desperate, terrifying journeys to find safety.

“The government’s own statistics show that three-quarters of asylum cases are granted refugee protection here. These are people who have endured unimaginable danger and trauma and simply want to be safe.”

In Dover on Monday, the threats did not appear to have put off people from seeking refuge in the UK. Babies and several other young children, some wrapped in blankets and wearing woollen hats, were among the people seen being brought ashore. Life vests were pictured lying in piles on the Kent dockside after dinghies and other vessels were intercepted in the Channel.

A pile of life vests on the dockside in Dover on Monday. 

Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

The crossings came after a three-day hiatus between Friday and Sunday when no arrivals were recorded.

This year to date, more than 22,600 people have arrived in the UK after navigating busy shipping lanes from France in small boats such as dinghies, the figures suggest. At the equivalent point in 2021, the cumulative total was just under 12,500.

Patel has said the five-year trial signed in the spring with the Rwandan government will discourage asylum seekers from crossing the Channel. So far no asylum seekers have been sent to Rwanda, which has already spent an initial £120m handed over by the UK.

Patel and Boris Johnson have said Rwanda is a safe destination for people seeking refuge in the UK and that “tens of thousands” will be flown 4,000 miles and told to set up a new life in central Africa.

However, the high court in London heard this month that an official at the Foreign Office who had expertise on Rwanda raised concerns about torture and extrajudicial killings of political opponents of the regime.

“There are state control, security, surveillance structures from the national level down,” the official wrote. “Political opposition is not tolerated and arbitrary detention, torture and even killings are accepted methods of enforcing control too.”

A report from the home affairs select committee last month found that the rise in crossings “may be attributed to scaremongering from people traffickers that because of new regulations coming in across the Channel it will be much harder to access the UK in future, so they had better get on with it”.

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the two candidates to succeed Johnson as prime minister, have said they will stick with the Rwanda scheme. However, there is growing speculation that Patel will be replaced at the Home Office under the new prime minister.

A government spokesperson said: “Our new Nationality and Borders Act is breaking these evil criminals business model, through tougher sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country, with 38 people already arrested and facing further action since it became law.”

A New Film Documents the Immigrant Farmworker Journey


‘First Time Home,’ a short film created by American children of Triqui farmworkers, offers an unscripted, authentic glimpse into life for farmworker families—and why people choose to sacrifice their lives in Mexico for opportunities up North.


BY GOSIA WOZNIACKA
AUGUST 23, 2022

LONG READ

It seemed like a dream. The sisters grew up hearing about a village high up in the mountains, where their parents had once lived without running water or cell phones—a place where their grandmother made delicious food and grandfather eked out a living planting corn, where everyone spoke Triqui, an Indigenous language hardly heard in the United States.

Esmirna Librado and Noemi Librado-Sánchez, and their cousins Heriberto and Esmeralda Ventura were all born in the U.S. to farmworker parents. They only ever had seen relatives from their family’s village in Mexico in faded photographs. The children grew up together in overcrowded apartments, wondering if and how the American dream might apply to them.

In 2016, the four cousins, who were by then teenagers, decided it was time to meet the grandparents and see their parents’ ancestral village for the first time. In December of that year, a month before Donald Trump’s inauguration, they travelled together by truck from California to San Martín Itunyoso, Oaxaca, a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Seth Holmes, an anthropology professor and family friend, accompanied the youth.

They recorded their journey to the village and their two weeks in Oaxaca on video. Back in the U.S., they decided the footage was worth sharing with a wider audience. Six years after the epic journey, the cousins co-directed and released a 30-minute film called First Time Home. Unscripted and raw, it offers a rare, authentic glimpse into what life is like for farmworker families and the reasons why immigrants choose to sacrifice their lives in Mexico to pursue better opportunities up North. Earlier this year, the film won the award for Best Youth Film at the San Diego Latino Film Festival.

Civil Eats recently spoke with First Time Home’s co-directors Esmirna Librado, 22, and Noemi Librado-Sánchez, 18, about growing up with farmworker parents, how the trip to their ancestral village changed them, and their plans for the future.

First Time Home’s co-directors: From left, Esmeralda Ventura, 

Noemi Librado-Sánchez, Esmirna Librado, and Heriberto Ventura.


What was it like growing up in a farmworker family in the U.S.?

Esmirna Librado: Our parents were both very young when they got here, around 15-16 years old. They came because there were not enough well-paying jobs [in Mexico]. A year after they came, I was born, and they decided to stay so I could have a better future. But growing up was hard for me. Our parents picked strawberries and blueberries in Washington State and peaches and grapes in California. When my dad would go to work, we would be asleep, and when he came back, we’d be asleep. That’s how it was most of the time. We barely got to see him or my mom because they had to work in the fields to keep their kids fed, pay rent, and stuff like that.

Noemi Librado-Sánchez: My uncle—our dad’s brother—he’s the one who helped raise us. He took care of us whenever our parents were working really late. My uncle would do my hair or take me to church with him. He was my father figure growing up.

One thing that really struck me in the film was how incredibly overcrowded the living conditions were for your families. Multiple families lived in one small apartment.

NLS: Yes, it was quite a few people. Rents are really high and farmworker wages are low. Plus, undocumented people get paid less than regular Americans. Luckily, things have changed for us in recent years, but our families lived like that for a really long time. Living together was a way to make things work.

EL: It was the only way we could help each other out. When our parents went to work, the older kids would take care of the younger ones. That was a way for our parents to save up money. It was hard. When we got older, my dad decided that it was time to stay put and have a steady place. So, we stayed in Washington State, and that’s where I started school.

But we continued migrating back and forth between Washington and California during the picking season. [When we went to California,] it was hard to find a place to live right away so there were times when we would even stay in cars—we would be homeless for a week or so. But if we knew a family that had a house, we would go and rent with them. We eventually stopped migrating, but my uncles continued to go back and forth. Until last year, they were still doing that.


Working in the fields isn’t an easy job, but our parents have done it for years. And they had no other choice. . . . Farm work was the only way they can make money. They have to work outside in extreme heat and during wildfires to bring food to the table for their families.

NLS: Moving back and forth means having to change schools multiple times, and it can really mess up your education. Many children of farmworkers have this experience. My dad didn’t want us to go through that. That’s a major reason why our parents chose to stay in one place.

If you could tell Americans one thing about farmworkers’ lives, what would it be?

EL: Working in the fields isn’t an easy job, but our parents have done it for years. And they had no other choice. They have no education; most of our relatives didn’t even get to finish middle school in Mexico. They came here for better opportunities, but farm work was the only way they can make money. For many of them, documentation is an issue. They can’t go and get a more comfortable job indoors. They have to work outside in extreme heat and during wildfires to bring food to the table for their families.

When you made the journey to your family’s village, Noemi was just 12 years old and Esmirna was 16. What was the experience like? How did the trip impact you?

NLS: The trip felt like stepping into a story that you’ve been told multiple times. You could finally picture it all. When I was a child, my dad would tell us about walking through the dirt, the field of corn just beyond their doorstep, and the lack of running water. He would describe our grandma’s good food. And when we got there, everything was just like [he’d described]. For a moment, it felt surreal. Like, “Wow, I’m actually here. These are actually my grandparents.” Before I went to Mexico, I felt like the United States was the only place for me. Now, I feel like I have two places to call home.

The trip also taught me to think more about my decisions and to focus on how I want to live my life. When I think about what I’m going to do next and who I really want to be, I remember my time in San Martín Itunyoso. I realized that I want to do something to help people, whether it’s through writing a book, making a video, or some other way.

EL: Before I went, I was kind of lost. I’m Mexican-American, but I did not feel American, I didn’t look American. I also did not feel Mexican. Now, I feel I’m more connected to both [sets of] roots somehow.

Most people migrate here from Mexico to make a better future for their families. And for so many of them, that opportunity means having to live under the same roof as five other families and working from sunrise to sunset in the rain, the mud, or under the scorching sun.

In Oaxaca, I learned how hard life can be. In the past, I could see how hard it was for my parents in the United States. But now, I also understood how difficult it was for them to make the decision to come to the U.S. For so many immigrants—not just my mom and dad—living close to their parents or grandparents is what they give up to give their own children a better chance at life. They can’t see their parents grow old, they can’t be with their parents when they need them.

Just recently, my grandpa died and relatives here were not able to say goodbye or attend the funeral. None of them were able to go back. You hear a lot of stories on the news about people who do go back just to see their aging parents or attend a funeral and they end up getting kidnapped or killed while crossing the border back to the U.S. Our family didn’t want to go through that risk. But I know that not going back is something that weighs on them. I also imagine my grandpa leaving this world without having his children there for his last goodbye. It’s heartbreaking.

Why did you decide to make a film out of this very personal trip? What message did you hope it would tell?

NLS: After we had everything recorded, the footage felt valuable. It’s not like we scripted anything or filmed with the intention of using it later on. But around this time, Donald Trump was running for president and he was publicly saying that Mexicans came here to steal jobs, that they were criminals, and other horrible things. Since we had all these clips showing what it’s really like, we decided to prove that his words were not true, that you can’t blame a whole community just because one person might have done something wrong. Most people migrate here from Mexico to make a better future for their families. And for so many of them, that opportunity means having to live under the same roof as five other families and working from sunrise to sunset in the rain, the mud, or under the scorching sun.

EL: In the film, we show footage of people working in the fields and my dad saying [on camera], ‘Oh, you don’t see Americans here.’ It’s not that he wants to be rude. But everyone who works in the fields is Hispanic. Based on our family’s experience, there’s no way [Mexicans] could be stealing people’s jobs. White Americans don’t want to do the heavy work of harvesting crops. So immigrants like our parents have to do it.

During the trip to Oaxaca, you were the emissaries of your parents. You brought video letters for your relatives in Mexico. And you then returned home with recorded messages from the village. Why were these video letters so meaningful?

EL: We made video letters with our parents in California and Washington for our relatives in the village. It was a way for them to connect with each other. They’ve always had phone calls, but it’s not the same thing as seeing your relatives’ faces and watching them say something “live.” Even phone calls are rare since there is no phone reception or internet service in the village. It’s in the mountains. If our relatives want to talk to anyone here in the U.S., they have to go to a nearby town to make a phone call [from a phone booth in a store].

Esmirna Librado reviewing footage on an iPad with family.

Your film has been shown in several cities throughout the U.S. How do you feel about the reception that it has received?

NLS: I was pretty surprised. I flew out to San Diego to watch it during the film festival there and it was one of the coolest experiences. I think the film gives people a place to start a conversation. I was happy to see so many people who connected to it and who want to do something. We met with students who have the same feelings we do: they see their parents struggling and they want to help, but they can only do so much. This film builds a community outside the community, if that makes sense.

EL: A lot of people connected to what we recorded. I think people saw a more universal story about returning home.


I think the film gives people a place to start a conversation. We met with students who have the same feelings we do: they see their parents struggling and they want to help, but they can only do so much. This film builds a community outside the community.

Your film focuses on a community that many people don’t even know exists, Indigenous Triqui immigrants from Oaxaca. Can you tell us more about your community and the unique challenges it faces in the U.S.?

EL: As you know, Mexicans in the U.S. face a lot of discrimination. But being Indigenous and Mexican—having a darker skin color, being a little shorter, and speaking a different language than Spanish—brings even more discrimination [from both Americans and Mexicans]. Some of our people still don’t know how to speak Spanish. Our dad didn’t know Spanish coming here. The only language he knew was Triqui and he learned some Spanish while going to my mom’s prenatal checkups because the clinic only had Spanish translators. Triqui is still the language my parents and relatives speak at home.

I’ve worked for several companies and I have witnessed a lot of discrimination. People with the lighter skin color, those who [can pass as white] get the lighter jobs. And people who are darker-skinned have the harder jobs. I fit more into the darker-skinned crowd, so I was given a hard job. And I had to say to my managers, “Is there a way I can change that?” For me, it’s easier to ask because it’s fine if I get fired, I can get another job. But when I get into the shoes [of people who don’t have legal status], I understand why they don’t speak up.

My uncle and my dad are always saying, “Don’t let them put you down, because you have opportunities. This is why we came here.” And that’s another reason why we made this film. It gave us an opportunity to be able to speak up for the people who can’t speak.

NLS: The Triqui community here is very connected, though in Washington it’s not as big as in California. Our family was very close, united. We went to California every year to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s. In California, the Triqui community organizes parties and celebrates traditions from back home. It’s so beautiful, seeing so many women and girls in their huipils, a traditional garment worn by Indigenous women in Mexico.

Have either of you gone back to Oaxaca since your first trip?

EL: I have not gone back, but I hope to in the future. I have a 4-year-old daughter; I plan to take her one day and show her where my parents are from.

NLS: I went the year after. And that was the last time I saw my grandpa. I do wish to go back again, but my grandpa’s [death] deeply affected me. It makes me so upset to think that once I’m back, he’s not going to be there. There was this moment in the film when he and I just looked at each other. And every time I see it, I [get emotional].

In the film, your uncle says, “Tu historia vale mucho,” or your story is important. Do you hope to tell more stories about farmworkers and their families? How do you hope to shape your own future story?

EL: My uncle is right because each one of our stories is different, but they are all valuable. In the fall, I’ll start college again to study nursing. I had started and stopped going. Now, I plan to get to the finish line. My parents have inspired me to take up those studies because I want to do something to help people get better health care and better access to various resources.

NLS: I do hope to tell more stories. I’m going to be attending university and I hope to major in journalism and communication or psychology. I want to expand my storytelling, to talk about other serious situations that impact the Latino community and that aren’t talked about, including mental health issues.

Writing is something that I love to do, but I’m also fascinated with how the brain works. Growing up, I was always told that I was a rebel. I was a troubled kid, pretty much. But I felt that it was a lot more than just me being “troubled.” A lot of it had to do with being a kid who wanted and needed my parents’ attention. But obviously, because they were farmworkers and they were working so much, they couldn’t give it to me.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. All photos courtesy of the filmmakers.


Gosia Wozniacka is a senior reporter at Civil Eats. A multilingual journalist with more than fifteen years of experience, Gosia is currently based in Oregon. Wozniacka worked for five years as a staff reporter for The Associated Press in Fresno, California, and then in Portland, Oregon. She wrote extensively about agriculture, water, and other environmental issues, farmworkers and immigration policy. Email her at gosia (at) civileats.com and follow her on Twitter @GosiaWozniacka. 

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School Starts With a Strike at American University

Unionized staff at the D.C. university went on strike Monday after contract negotiations reached an impasse. Strikers say stagnant wages have made retention difficult and living in the city infeasible.

Liam Knox

 

August 23, 2022

Members of American University’s staff union kicked off a planned weeklong strike Monday by picketing at the law school.

 

(Liam Knox)

Monday was the start of Welcome Week at American University. Students and parents arriving at the Washington, D.C., campus were greeted not only by smiling university ambassadors but also a picket line of more than 100 members of the university’s staff union, gathered for the first day of a weeklong strike.

The strike, announced Aug. 11, was approved by 91 percent of the union, which represents over 500 professional staff members in a wide range of positions. They are mostly student-facing roles, including academic advisers, program coordinators, library staff and support staff in the admissions and financial aid offices.

They are demanding higher wages in contract negotiations, which started in May 2021 and came to a standstill this summer after the administration made concessions on benefits and working conditions but failed to meet them on pay. None of the strikers will receive pay for as long as the labor action continues

“I really hope this is the final pressure point required to bring administration to the table and finally settle this,” said Sam Sadow, a visual arts librarian who’s been involved in contract negotiations since they began last year.

Hoisting handmade signs and equipped with fans and water bottles to combat the heat, the strikers started by picketing at AU’s Washington College of Law, where first-year law students were starting orientation and returning ones had their first day of classes. Later they marched to the main campus to protest outside the residence of university president Sylvia Burwell.

Strikers marched to AU president Sylvia Burwell’s house to demand administrators re-enter contract negotiations. (Photo by Liam Knox)In a statement released to AU community members Sunday, Burwell said the administration’s latest position on staff contracts represented its “best and final offer.” That offer includes a 2.5 percent salary increase for all union members and a 1.5 percent increase to the university’s “performance pay pool” for merit-based raises determined by performance reviews. It also includes raising base salaries across the board to "reduce salary compression for long-serving employees."

Burwell added that recent financial setbacks—including nearly $100 million in losses during the first year of the pandemic—factored into the university’s offer.

“I want to assure you that the university has negotiated in good faith,” she wrote. “In this process, we have to consider the health of the institution. With our deep dependence on tuition, we must be thoughtful stewards of our resources.”

But the union says American’s offer doesn’t allow staff members to live comfortably in a city as expensive as Washington, D.C.—a problem that members say has hurt retention. The union’s contract demands include a 5 percent wage increase for all union-represented staff for the first year of the contract and an additional 4 percent the next

“If they say the market has shifted 5 percent and they need to pay new hires 5 percent more in a given year, then people who have been here longer should see those gains as well,” Sadow said.

Kelly Jo Bahry, an assistant director in the study abroad office, has worked for the university for over 15 years. She said she was surprised the administration wouldn’t meet the union’s demands and that she never expected to go on strike—the first time ever in her long career at the university.

“We’re not asking for the heavens and the stars,” she said. “We’re asking for basic wages.

Empty Cubicles, Stagnant Wages

The union, organized by SEIU Local 500, won its election in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, riding a wave of collective organizing in higher education. Sadow said the primary motivating factors for AU staff were low and flat wages, which drove high turnover rates in many student-serving offices.

“You look around AU and see empty cubicles all over, empty offices … Staff were leaving in droves, and the No. 1 reason was stagnant wages,” he said. “That really begins to affect services for students and faculty.”

Amanda Kleinman is an academic coach, helping struggling students keep their grades up. She said turnover in her office, which assists about 1,100 students each semester, has been rampant. A few months ago, two of her colleagues left for higher-paying jobs, making her the only academic coach left for AU’s entire undergraduate body.

“I am committed to student support and will do my best, but I’m only one person,” she said. “I can realistically only see about 40 students a week.”

A university spokesperson said all the affected departments have prepared continuity plans for the strike. But the first week of classes is a particularly disruptive time to withhold servicesStrikers march through the law school commons at AU while students prepare for their first day of classes. (Photo by Liam Knox) from students who might need help with class scheduling or course-load advising, or who want to attend an introductory program meeting.

“All of the staff are very much involved in move-in week … there’s a lot of welcome-type activities we help run,” Kleinman said. “This is a different kind of way to get oriented to the university.”

Strikers said the union knows this and chose Welcome Week specifically because it would maximize visibility and highlight what they say is the undervalued role of professional staff at American.

“I think it looks really bad for the AU administration,” Bahry said. “As a student, I’d be wondering what kind of institution I’m a part of.”

William Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College, is the co-author of a 2020 study on the prevalence of organized labor stoppages in higher education. He said that while there is a long history of union organizing among professional staff at colleges and universities, militant tactics have become more common in recent years.

“There’s been a marked increase in strikes at higher education institutions, and there’s also a lot more community and student support for those strikes,” he said.

That support has been apparent in donations to the union's strike fund, which had raised over $26,000 as of Monday.

Herbert added that most of the time, unions threaten to strike only to bring managers back to the negotiating table when talks reach a standstill. But he said the fact that this is the union’s first contract with the institution raises the stakes—and the odds of following through on the threat.

“Reaching a first contract in collective bargaining is one of the most challenging moments for both sides,” he said. “They are often very difficult to reach and end up shaping the development of the collective bargaining relationship moving forward.”

Strikers Speak Out

Bahry said she didn’t want to strike, and that taking a week without pay was difficult for her. But it would be even more difficult to keep getting by on her current salary, she said—or to explain to her children why she declined to support the union.

A striking AU staff member holds up a handmade sign. (Photo by Liam Knox)

Her family recently had to move from the city to Falls Church, Va., because her pay hasn’t kept up with the rising cost of living in D.C. When they did live in the city, she said, she and her husband shared a one-bedroom apartment with one of their sons for five years.

“My quality of life has decreased the longer I’ve been here because of wage stagnation. When I go into the grocery store, I have to make some hard decisions, and that is very difficult after 20 years of being affiliated with this institution,” she said. “I imagine anyone in AU administration living for one month on the wages they provide staff would be a big learning experience.”

Kleinman, who is almost 50 years old, said that in her four years working for American—and 11 working in higher education—she hasn’t made enough to afford to move out of her group house in Mt. Pleasant, where she’s lived for the past two decades.

“I love working with college students, but I never expected how flat and low the pay would be,” she said.

A university spokesperson said there are no current plans for administrators to re-enter contract negotiations.

Today, union members will gather again, this time outside the Kodos School of Business, for the second day of the strike.

“We will not give up,” Sadow told the crowd outside of Burwell’s house. “We will be back tomorrow, the next day, as long as it takes.”

Why teachers from one of Ohio's largest school districts are on strike

August 22, 2022
JACLYN DIAZ

Members of the Columbus Education Association rally earlier this summer ahead of their vote this past Sunday night to officially strike this week.

Columbus Education Association/Facebook

When children in the Columbus, Ohio, education system start their school year this Wednesday, they will likely be doing so online, as the school district's nearly 4,500 teachers hit the picket lines.

For the first time in nearly 50 years, the district's unionized teachers are striking, the Columbus Education Association (CEA) announced.

On Sunday, the union voted to go on strike after weeks of negotiations over new contract language with Columbus City Schools went nowhere. The union says it was pushing for guaranteed air conditioning, "appropriate class sizes" and full-time art, music and physical education teachers in the city's elementary schools.

Jennifer Adair, the Board of Education president, said in a statement that the decision by the union to strike is an "unfortunate situation" for families, the community and children.

"Our offer to CEA put children first and prioritized their education and their growth. We offered a generous compensation package for teachers and provisions that would have a positive impact on classrooms," Adair said in the statement. "Our offer was also responsive to the concerns that have been raised by CEA during the negotiations process. Our community's children are the Board's priority, and our offer reflected that fact."
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The fact that students will be starting the new year with online schooling "is not ideal," Adair said. "But," she added, "we have an obligation to continue educating and supporting students despite the current circumstances."

This strike comes as schools across the U.S. are scrambling to fill vacancies brought on by a teacher shortage. The country is facing a shortage of 300,000 teachers, according to the National Education Association.

After dealing with two years of illness and disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about school safety and a feeling of lack of respect, teachers have reported being burned out, demoralized and fed up.

Ohio teachers go on strike days before the start of school

Niko Mann
August 22, 2022

(Shutterstock.com)

The Columbus Education Association union voted to go on strike on Sunday, just days before the start of the school year, according to NBC4. Classes were to begin on Wednesday.

According to the Columbus Education Association, 94 percent of CEA members voted to strike for the first time since 1975.

"BREAKING: 94% of Columbus Education Association (CEA) members voted to reject the Board’s last, best and final offer and go on strike for the first time since 1975."

Union spokesperson Regina Fuentes said that teachers were striking over building conditions, class size, better pay and the lack of art and physical education classes.

“We understand that parents are in a difficult space right now, but we also want them to understand we are doing this for the students of Columbus, and we truly are making this sacrifice because we want the schools that Columbus students deserve," said Fuentes. "They need to come through with accountability to let our students, our parents know that they are actually going to fix these schools. We will continue fighting until we have safe, properly maintained and fully resourced schools in every neighborhood," she added.

Columbus Board of Education president Jennifer Adair said she was disappointed by the strike and called the union’s decision “incredibly disappointing."

“Our offer to CEA put our children first and prioritized their education and growth,” said Adair. “We believe we offered a generous compensation package for our teachers and provisions that would positively impact their classrooms and our students." Classes are still scheduled to commence on Wednesday despite the strike. Students will attend online classes led by substitute teachers, but all sports-related activities will be canceled for the time being. An emergency meeting will be held on Monday evening in Columbus. The Columbus City School District serves 47,000 students.