On October 14, 2021, the workers at John Deere went on strike. While they had many demands, among them was the demand to halt the introduction of a two-tier pay and benefit system. Under such a system, existing workers would get to keep their existing rates of pay and benefits, but new hires would be brought in under a new tier, in which both their pay and benefits would be lower. On November 17, workers approved a new contract that had eliminated this tiered provision. And on this day, the John Deere workers demonstrated that they knew something that my colleagues in academia do not: a tiered employment system decimates the power of workers.
Read MoreIt’s syllabus time again and this had me thinking about one of the recent initiatives in higher education, OER or Open Educational Resources, which is an initiative to replace expensive textbooks with free alternatives. As with so many such initiatives, they’re cloaked in compassionate rhetoric (OER helps cash-strapped students) but this veneer also hides the underlying dismantling of our universities. It’s an interesting example of how the attacks on our universities (or on other institutions) often appear as their exact opposite; how your enemy approaches in the guise of a friend.
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