The end of the semester this year brought on something different than the regular finals. Brandon was involved in the GTF strike. The Graduate Student Fellowship Federation banded together to demand a fair pay raise and paid leave for medical situations (most especially for pregnancy).
Brandon was asked to be a steward for his program and he started out going to the meetings with a conviction that striking was not the right thing to do. But as time passed and the administration refused to bargain and he heard the stories of other students he realized how important it was to stick together show solidarity.
It was the longest strike in Oregon history and they were out there with their picket signs for several rainy days. In the end they were able to work out a compromise that is going to help a lot of families.
Hopefully the movement that they made here at the U of O will lead the way for other universities so that if our little girls decide to go to grad school they won't have to choose between being a student and being a mom.
Nobody was happier that the strike was resolved than Brandon but we were all proud of him for working so hard. It was a unique experience to watch the process happened and it proved to me how important collective bargaining can be.
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