Professors Strike. Students Rejoice.

Today my professors are on strike.

Well, to be fair, not all of them are. Two of my four professors decided to participate and not come in for work today. I first heard about it on Monday of this past week when one of my professors made the announcement that he would not be holding the usual lecture on Thursday due to his participation in the Melbourne wide strike by members of the National Tertiary Education Union. Most of the University of Melbourne staff are not coming into work today meaning that a few libraries are closed, most of the different school offices are closed, and lectures were canceled. I've asked some of my professors about the strike, and they've offered different answers for why it's happening. One said that workloads on teachers are becoming unbearable. Another mentioned that faculty budgets are in such deficit that many teachers were let go in past years, and now class sizes are too large, and teachers are having to take on too many classes per semester. The strike is trying to bring the university administration "back to the negotiation table", as one of my professors put it, so that some agreement can be made about working to increase funding by the government and decrease class size and workload.

My first reaction to this whole event was: seriously? The professors are on strike? Wow, I've never thought of that. To me a strike is for factory workers or public transit workers. They strike and production stops or everyone is late for work. The point is made very directly and is easily observed. However, with a professor strike, I'm not so sure the effect is quite the same. Today has seemed like a normal day, just with a few of my lectures canceled, some libraries I never visit being closed, and a few people handing out fliers promoting the strike. I'd say lots of students are glad to not have classes, and will gladly "participate" in the strike by not attending lectures. I guess I just don't quite see how this is effective. Seems to me the only people inconvenienced by this are the professors themselves, who will have to alter their course plans, or possibly a few students who may have to work a bit harder to learn material not covered by the professor that day.

My second reaction to this was: why doesn't this happen in the U.S.? Maybe it does and I just haven't heard about it. The Australians do use their unions more than we do, so maybe this is a product of that union mentality. Although, this doesn't quite compare with some French university staff, who according to one of my professors who didn't go on strike today, once went on strike for three months. That's disruptive and the point would be driven home real quick. I asked this professor, who happens to be American, why this doesn't happen in the U.S. He suggested that maybe conditions at universities are better for the most part. Or is it that Americans just don't go on strike as much and the teachers don't utilize unions? I'm not sure, but this whole event is odd to me, and may point to a few cultural and societal differences between Australia and the U.S.