In May 1970 students went on strike on campuses across the country in response to the invasion of Cambodia and the shootings of demonstrators at Jackson State and Kent State. But the strike at the U of Minnesota was unusual in that University employees also went on strike against the war.
At the time, I had obtained a conscientious objector deferment and was employed at a research lab at the U. Feeling an obligation to do something for the soldiers who had been unable to avoid the draft as I had, I determined to work for an end to the war and became active in the local chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
And so in May of 1970 I found myself at a demonstration called by University of Minnesota students to initiate a student strike against the war. I had long believed that the war would only be ended when workers shut down production in opposition to the war, and sensing that this was the time to do something with this belief, I passed a note to the student rally leader, asking him to announce that any campus workers present who wanted to support the strike should meet afterward. I didn’t really expect anything to come of it, just wanted to satisfy myself that at least I had tried to do something. After the rally I went to the designated location, and much to my surprise, a young man joined me, soon followed by others, until there were about 30 of us. We put together a leaflet calling on campus workers to meet that afternoon after work to discuss how to support the strike, and we spent the day passing them out all over campus. When I arrived at the meeting, I was amazed to find about 300 people present. We quickly voted to go on strike. At a meeting the following day, we voted to start a union, which we named the Alliance of University Workers, and elected acting officers (I was elected acting president, probably mostly because I was at the front chairing the meeting and thus looked like a leader). Alliance members determined that this was going to be "a different kind of union", concerned with working conditions, but primarily motivated by opposition to the war. Number one on our list of demands was for an end to the war and to any University involvement with the military. This was fortunate in another way: at that time, strikes by public employees over wages, hours and working conditions were illegal in Minnesota, but the law didn’t say anything about political strikes.
We were an unusual group for a union. About half were part-time student employees, half full-time, mostly young but with a few older workers as well. The largest component was clerical workers. There was also a good number of parking lot attendants, some lab techs like myself, and a variety of other white collar people, along with a small number of blue collar workers, mostly from the University warehouses.
When we began picketing with the students, we and the students learned something new about the power of a worker-student alliance: Teamster truck drivers saw our "University workers on strike" placards and refused to cross the picket lines. So we set up pickets at the warehouses, and most deliveries were not made. The parking lot attendants found a different way to strike. They didn’t picket at all. Instead, they showed up to work wearing red strike armbands and refused to collect parking fees; instead, they carried buckets for contributions to the strike fund. In this manner, we collected thousands of dollars in a few days time. One of the highlights of the strike occurred at a concert of the Minnesota Orchestra, which in those days used an auditorium on campus for their concerts. The driver of the truck carrying the musicians’ instruments drove up to the picket line and refused to cross. Everyone went nuts. Finally an agreement was reached: we allowed the truck to go through, and the musicians (union members themselves) allowed us to have an antiwar speaker at the beginning of the concert and to take up a collection for the strike fund.
We had a considerable advantage during the strike in that the University administration was totally unprepared and had no real idea what they were up against. Thousands of students were on strike and picketing all over campus, and an organization they didn’t know existed was leading an unknown number of workers on strike. A couple of days into the strike, a janitor at the University Hospital was fired for participating in the strike. I brought this up at the next strike rally. Somebody yelled out that we should go to the University President to demand that he be rehired, and next thing I knew around a thousand people, students and workers, were marching across campus to the administration building, where we charged inside, chanting loudly. The administration somehow managed to convince us to leave, and President Moos addressed us outside, promising that no one would be fired. Supporters from a striking faculty group and an organization of striking teaching and research assistants set up a meeting between the new union and administration representatives, at which we were told the janitor must have misunderstood, he had not really been fired. No one believed that for an instant, but we were glad he had his job back, and the union had won its first victory.
At the end of the week, there was a huge march to the state capitol, organized by various antiwar groups. Many of us felt this to be somewhat of a distraction, shifting the struggle away from the campus which we felt we had "liberated". After the march, the momentum of the strike began to ebb. Students began returning to classes. Teamster drivers were told by their union leaders that our picket lines were "unrecognized" and could not be honored; reluctantly, and with apologies, they began resuming deliveries. The administration started pressuring parking lot attendants to collect fees, and one by one the parking lots we had "liberated" were returning to University control. Although student strike activities continued well into the summer, it was clear that our strike was over, and so the Workers’ Alliance voted to declare that our strike would end at the end of its second week; by Wednesday of that week, most of our members were back on the job. But having learned from our experience the benefits of worker solidarity, we continued organizing. We eventually affiliated with AFSCME as Local 1164 but continued our somewhat unorthodox tactics by engaging in sit-ins and sick outs in defense of our members, eventually winning certification of our union as representative of University Hospital workers.
Meanwhile the war in Vietnam continued, but support for the war at home and on the war front was eroding. I believe our actions had an influence on public opinion and played an important role in the eventual withdrawal of troops from Southeast Asia.