Not all TAs want a union


To the editor:

It was with a sigh of relief that I read March 28th's "Board rejects
TA unionization." Unlike the Graduate Employees Organization members
described in the article, I, who am not a member, was not disappointed
by the ruling because I am a teaching assistant who has no desire
to unionize.

I am an adult, and I am capable of managing my own life. I have
neither the need nor the desire to pay someone else to negotiate
the terms of my employment on my behalf. If I find something about
my employment to be unsatisfactory, I will handle it myself in a
civilized manner so that my employer and myself can reach an agreement
for mutual benefit. I refuse to use immoral labor laws to put a gun
to my employer's head to satisfy my whims by force because I live
my life directly and not through victims.

Now as the GEO refuses to tell anyone neither how many members it
has, nor how much money it has received from the teachers' unions
who are chomping at the bit to get a perpetual right to couple
percent of my paycheck, I am probably the only TA in town who doesn't
want to join a union. Yet, I find it ironic that in an era when
people champion the causes of "minority rights" that no one has
asked: What about the minority of one? What about the rights of an
individual man who has no desire to join a union?

You may be assured that this man will never voluntarily join any
union and will oppose the GEO at every opportunity.  Should TAs
unionize, I will become a research assistant as soon as possible.


Sidney Cammeresi
graduate student


--
Copyright 2001, Sidney Cammeresi.
All rights reserved.