NEWS & EVENTS (BenOrtiz.com)

From the Picket Line...

Friends, Colleagues, and Especially Students...

A year ago I was out of work and panhandling for ideas -- tired of downtown office jobs, nihilistic about writing, and just about ready to try anything. Even teaching again, if only to pick up one class and scrape out a living.

I didn't expect much, even when I heard back from Truman College, not until I had my first interview for a full-time teaching job (whaa?). Meeting my future colleagues and walking down the many-tongued hallways felt somehow right, even if I didn't completely believe I could do it. And then my second interview, and the rest like a runaway train.

I still don't believe that I found truly the best job in my life, one I feel good about even when I put every last wit to it and find myself reading overtime or picking through school e-mail at the neighborhood pub. That movie School of Rock was eerily inspirational last winter, my first teaching at Truman. I often felt like a fraud, even if I was working harder than I did even in graduate school.

So a year later, and I'm on strike. ON STRIKE! (Say that to yourself like a sports cheer rolled over in your mind maybe ten times over, and then you might have an idea of what this idea actually sounds like on the picket line.)

Right when we have a student newspaper in the building stages at Truman, during my best semester so far, with all of my classes feeling on track and engaged, at the height of thinking this persona called Professor Ortiz had hit a stride.

Students told me in the past few weeks that Truman has better teachers than Columbia College, better even than my alma mater, Loyola.

Yeah, well, so what? … as my friend Marc Smith would say. So what's a picket line like? It sucks. It’s not fun. I spent the whole day trying to convince students, adjuncts, and others that they didn’t have to attend classes, sometimes with picket chants and often in direct conversation or even confrontation. It started with the sun coming up at 6:30am, and it ended well after sundown, 7pm or so, but my voice was blown out by mid-morn. And I ate nothing but a bit of blueberry muffin all day. Call it a minor hunger strike, or maybe solidarity for Ramadan. But I couldn’t bring myself to eat when my time spent teaching was replaced by this disruption that doesn’t seem to have any end in sight.

Regardless, my fellow teachers were in great spirits, and there were so many wonderful students who came by, marched with us, shouted and shuffled as we tried to keep from cramping up. I know now that I will never be able to pass any picket line without walking a bit, talking to the workers, and knowing full well how tough it is to put your job on the line like that. (Oh yeah, there will be no reprisals from administration, but new non-tenured faculty might want to keep a “low profile”. Too late, that was me on CBS2 live at the crack o’ dawn.)

There was some dirty trickery afoot. Admin sending security guards to intimidate by taking video and photos, maybe out of nostalgia for Chicago’s uniquely hogbutcherish labor history. They also had their hirelings pass out flyers under the ‘el ordering students to go to class, intimidating them and throwing imperious imperatives around like they can teach the classes without us! This is funny in a sick way – Truman has no attendance policy, none at least admin can find, nope, not until the teachers go on strike. And then they called the cops to clear a side entrance, claiming private property. TAKE NOTICE: It takes a strike for Truman to secure its otherwise lax entrances and exits. And then their LED display facing the ‘el tracks, claiming that we’re striking because we don’t want to work as hard as other teachers even though we make an average $80,000/year. (Wow, sign me up for that deal!) My Spanish-speaking friends know this as “mentiras”. My Spanglish-speaking students might call it “bullshiteria” (look it up on my web site).

This is the best job of my life, and I don’t want to strike anymore. But I will, we all will, until there’s a fair resolution. This strike is not frivolous and certainly not fun. Reader, know that we want to get back in the classroom immediately, and you can help by joining us tomorrow on the picket line or writing a letter/e-mail. You can help bring this to a satisfying conclusion that will preserve the integrity of a City Colleges education.

Thank you STUDENTS for not letting administration order you around as if you serve them! Thank you SENIOR FACULTY for building and keeping the Union alive over the years so that we rookies can enjoy what you’ve worked hard to sustain! Thank you ADULT EDUCATORS and ADJUNCTS for joining us on the picket line! And thank you LOCAL 1600 for staying strong to teach me yet another lesson I won’t ever forget at Truman College.