Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Strike deductions under the radar

Jyotsna Kapur of C & P asked me to post the letter below, since the DE seems uninterested in printing it. I am happy to oblige.


February 2, 2012

An open letter to Chancellor Cheng

Dear Chancellor Cheng,

As expected, I noted along with others who had honored the strike, a cut in our February paychecks.  In my case, I expect another paycut next month.  What surprised me, however, was that the paycheck gave no reason for the cut—just a lower salary, that’s it.  Last time, you administered a cut in our salaries it was duly noted as the cost of administrative closure days.  I am sorry, I don’t have language suggestions for what you could call the strike days: dock days, fine for striking, ticket for loitering on campus, or simply--on strike.   But noting the reason for the salary reduction would be the transparent thing to do.

As far as money goes, there is little difference in the loss of pay between the furloughs you had imposed on us last year and the cost of going on strike this year.  But there is a world of difference in what it means for my self-respect as a faculty member.  The furlough days were imposed on us without negotiation and that is why the FA insisted on our right to challenge their legality in the current contract.  If we win, we will win back the loss of pay for all faculty and validate the principle of collective bargaining.  The cost for going on strike, on the other hand, was a price I agreed to pay.  So, I am not complaining about this cut, Chancellor but the discourtesy of not acknowledging the strike while making that cut.  Could you then please revise my salary statement for this month, noting the days I was on strike?  You may keep the money but I’d like to keep the record.

With best wishes for the New Year,

Sincerely,
Jyotsna Kapur
Associate Professor, Cinema and Photography

50 comments:

  1. Un. be. leevable.

    Is there nothing else for the perpetually-pissed to crab about this semester?

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  2. Nice letter Jyotsna. But why worry about getting Cheng's approval about this, or anything? Her approval/disapproval of what I do with my time means absolutely nothing to me.

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  3. I can understand why the DE won't print it. This letter has no substance. You did not experience a cut in your pay. You didn't show up to work, so you didn't get paid for the time you weren't working. I don't understand why an explanation is needed. The strikers should be thankful that administration was willing to soften the blow by spreading the loss over a few paychecks. That's more consideration than the FA gave anyone when they decided to walk out.

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  4. One didn't show up in his/her work and someone else covered it. So the Admins had to pay those who picked up your work. It only needs the first grader IQ to see the reason, I am so shamed to have you as a colleague, and Dave's ignorance to post this nonsense letter.

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    1. Anon 3.38:

      Many faculty, including me, are ashamed to have you as a colleague.

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    2. Actually, I think most faculty are probably embarrased by this letter.

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  5. screeds aside (on all sides), I wonder if there's a simpler explanation -- if one goes on a short unpaid leave (for whatever reason), is that typically noted in the pay stub? (Or not?) If the latter, then the fact that reductions from strike absences is not noted would simply be consistent with normal practice for unpaid leave...

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    1. Err... grammar... (my apologies...)

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  6. Hey! all the above reactions to Jyotsna Kapur's letter (except for the second one) are simply unbelievable! YOu people never lose an opportunity to attack someone for being open and honest. Probably, none of you were on strike!

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    1. We like being open but not silly.

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    2. This letter is completely a joke!

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    3. This letter has no any intelligent components at all. It is pity for Jyotsna Kapur to write such a letter. This kind of complaint make her look bad.

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  7. The author should be relieved that the DE didn't print the letter. Hopefully, it won't go any farther than Deo Volente. SIU doesn't need people laughing at their faculty.

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  8. Very well written letter, Jyotsna.

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    1. It is good to see at lease someone is willing to collect the garbage.

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  9. Thanks all for your comments on my letter. I am not surprised at the polarized responses or the condescending remarks. Clearly, some of you do not wish to remember the strike and like to fire shots from behind the curtain of anonymity. But really--is asking your employer for this basic degree of accountability that threatening?! If the furloughs could be noted why not the strike?

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    1. In my paranoia, I'm willing to believe that the university maintains electronic records of our pay stubs and that the administration is following the contract by excluding that information.

      The back to work section of the contract says, "No strike related notice, warning, email communications and any other document or electronic posting regarding events, activities, and work-related matters pertaining to the strike action of November 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9 shall be placed in a Faculty member’s personnel or employee record(s) (paper or electronic) and, if already in such a record, shall be removed and expunged..."

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    2. In other words, Jyotsna Kapur's request doesn't make any sense since the Admins have no record to show.
      Have Jyotsna Kapur studied the contract carefully before she wrote the letter?

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    3. Not quite, Anon. 5:11.
      The administration has to HAVE a record in order to be able to know from whom pay should be deducted. As I know nearly nothing about how the payroll system works, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt by assuming that it would be difficult for them to both put the record into the payroll system and to no longer maintain it after the information is no longer needed.

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    4. What kind of accountant doesn't want to show you the books? Your Chancellor. This is not the first time. Nor is it likely to be the last. Meanwhile, enjoy consultant du jour, awarded non competitive contracts to tell us how to run this company better. Now behave and get back to work. Your professional expertise is only valuable as part of the elevator speech. You've memorized that right? You better. Next month there will be a test...and if you fail it, expect more unexplained deductions from your salary.

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    5. Another boy cried wolf....

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    6. Anon@06:47 : Where/how do you guys come up with this garbage....?

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    7. From people who have no credibility.

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    8. Anon@11:04: quite obviously, we recycle it from the garbage we get from our administration. I take it you've memorized your your elevator speech. Good money went into making that garbage; the least you can do is recycle it. Open wide...

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    9. So you describe yourself as a garbageman? You can have the title, not others.

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  10. This all seems so petty. Forty miles from campus we have a devastated community and the only thing you have to complain about is how something you chose to do is worded on your pay stub. How sad.

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    1. the letter, as dated, was written over 3 weeks ago & posted here the morning before the storm. there is no suggestion of equivalency

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    2. Concern troll, much? By this same logic, I can't believe our administration chose such a sensitive time of tragedy to announce the dismissal of the basketball coach. Do they have no awareness that now is not the time to be worrying about sports. Or maybe we can attend to business and attend to caring about our neighbors at the same time.

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  11. For sure, there are more important things in life than worrying about whether the Admin/Rita respects us or not. For me, I simply don't care what they think/how they act, especially over such a trivial matter.

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  12. I agree with the above, lets fight the Admin/Rita hard, but we don't have to fight them on every little thing. Choose the big battles and go for a big win, as we did in the strike.

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    1. OK...I'm with you. Who's gonna dream up/make up the next issue?

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    2. Obviously, it is ``the boy who cried wolf''.

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    3. Or, anon@8:36, the ostrich with its head buried in the sand? I could give a hoot about respect (I don't much expect it from any quarter on this campus anymore), but accountability is another matter. I don't dispute the deduction, but it should be clearly marked in our record keeping. Attempts here to cast this as a non-issue (or even "made up") show a startling amount of naïveté for a faculty increasingly expected to account and measure its productivity by means of imposed and often arbitrary metrics.

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    4. This is what the FA agrees: The back to work section of the contract says, "No strike related notice, warning, email communications and any other document or electronic posting regarding events, activities, and work-related matters pertaining to the strike action of November 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9 shall be placed in a Faculty member’s personnel or employee record(s) (paper or electronic) and, if already in such a record, shall be removed and expunged..."

      At one point we request the Admins not to keep the record of strikers, at another point we ask for a record for accountability. Either someone is silly or tries to be the boy who cried wolf.

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  13. A problem is that this sure is setting a precedent. If your pay stub shows a pay cut and does not specify the reason for it (as "unpaid leave" or some such), what is to prevent the administration from arbitrarily cutting one's pay whenever they want to? They did so previously in the case of the furloughs, didn't they?

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    1. Why are you so picky? It is sad to see you have a `dead brain'. Please see a psychiatrist.

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  14. I can't believe you people! Your petty, negative, and nasty comments make me embarrassed to be on the same campus. It's amazing that educated people can be so hateful. I guess having advanced degrees does not mean one has been taught any manners.

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    1. Are you talking about those who disrespect the chancellor with their name calling and over-the-top rhetoric or those who are sorta laughing at the letter's author?

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    2. I am talking about our lovely FA members.

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    3. I can't believe you people! Burying your heads in the sand (or some posterior portion of your anatomy) yet leaving enough room to cast aspersions at colleagues requesting appropriate information and administrative accountability. I am talking about our lovely FA critics who "sorta laugh" because that is all they have to offer.

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  15. I hope that our FA critics are laughing at the news of Lowry's buy-out from a university that supposedly has "no money."

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    1. I really hope you won't be holding your breath waiting for the FA critics here to be consistent in their rants.

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  16. I just don't understand why anyone would object to anyone expressing their opinion. Jyotsna Kapur has a right to express her opinion; she has the right to write an open letter to the Chancellor where she expresses her opinion. But from the comments of several people here it looks like they object to her exercising her right to free speech and would like to prevent her from doing so. What have we become? Are we a university of free thinkers or what?

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    1. Everyone has the right to express his/her opinion. Not just Jyotsna Kapur.

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  17. This depends on whether the opinion is intelligent like Dr. Kapur or follows the type of prejudiced rant associated with Gary Metro of THE SOUTHERN.

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    1. So....only those with opinions you agree with have the right to express them? I get it now.

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    2. rather than attacking Jyotsna Kapur for writing the letter that she chose to write and have it posted, and stating how ashamed they are that she did that, a more appropriate approach from detractors of Jyostna Kapur and her letter would be to explain why they think the reason or the label for the deduction in pay need not be reported on one's pay stub.

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  18. This entire thread makes me embarrassed to be associated with SIU...all of it.

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  19. Dear Dave,

    This is why any useful blog must be moderated to some degree. The ad hominem attacks here are just devaluing Deo Volente and everyone associated with it - whether you like it or not. The mere fact of having to hit an extra step that says "This will be posted after review by the moderator" is enough to calm most people down, even if "Anonymous."

    As an aside, I encourage people to post under pseudonyms or even the boring "Anonymous" but it's your site and you have every right to bounce personal attacks.

    This is why the DE's online comments are dead now. Over at Southern Illinoisan, it seems to be a few people who grind out comments ad nauseam (SI has a more draconian policy of requiring you to register which I am NOT suggesting).

    Two cents. If people want to flame me for recommending a light hand of moderating, so be it. But I won't be reading it so save your breath. LOL

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  20. re> This entire thread makes me embarrassed to be associated with SIU...all of it.

    Ditto.

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I will review and post comments as quickly as I can. Comments that are substantive and not vicious will be posted promptly, including critical ones. "Substantive" here means that your comment needs to be more than a simple expression of approval or disapproval. "Vicious" refers to personal attacks, vile rhetoric, and anything else I end up deeming too nasty to post.