Davante Lewis Thoroughly Misunderstands
Baton Rouge is not a city in Pennsylvania. Temple University is not a school in Louisiana. But that didn’t stop Davante Lewis from expressing his opinion today about a labor strike on Temple’s Philadelphia campus.
Normally, we wouldn’t care much about his views of labor strikes. In fact, we don’t care much about Davante Lewis at all except for the ways he’s a dire and potent threat to Louisiana’s energy production, Louisiana’s economy, and Louisiana’s families.
But this is a weird way to express support for striking graduate students, is it not?
Here’s the scoop:
Temple University graduate assistants, paid about $20,000 per year, are striking for higher salaries, about $32,000, what they deem (of course) a “living wage.” On its surface, $20k isn’t much, true. But compensation doesn’t stop there: graduate assistants have their tuition waived, which is another $20,000 or so, and they receive health care benefits.
The administration likely considers about $45,000/year a square compensation for a person who dedicates 20 hours/wk to teaching, and who will graduate with an advanced degree from a highly-respected institution, likely stepping into a six-figure annual salary upon exit.
And let’s be complete: The benefits of being a graduate assistant are not only monetary, as much derives from the experience itself. Teaching, grading papers, interacting with undergrads as their teachers, interacting with other GA’s with whom you build lifelong bonds, working alongside full professors, deepening one’s knowledge and expertise in one’s field, adding the work experience to one’s resume, a sharpening of one’s organizational and interpersonal skills…. This accumulation of experience, plus $45,000 in cash, waived tuition, and health benefits hardly sounds oppressive.
It should be noted that the striking GA’s are in the minority; most graduate assistants continue to work.
TUGSA - the Temple University Graduate Students Association - is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, whose president is the loathsome Randi Weingarten.
So pardon our mistrust, but it’s with good cause. The AFT hardly aspires to the best outcome for students.
Still, it’s Mr. Lewis’ odd take of Conservatives that we find compelling. Just why did he go that route? How weird.
Yes, we mistrust unions, Davante, especially these public service sort of unions that donate millions to Leftist politicians (of Lewis’ ilk). The AFT is a nasty “Big Donor - Special Interest Group” that people like Mr. Lewis supposedly abhor.
Never forget that unions keep people out of a job as much as, or more than, they keep dues-paying members in a job; by definition, unions exclude workers, though they call it “protection,” which is false.
Davante Lewis, like other Democrats, would never think to doubt the union construct, to his/their shame.
Davante charges us Conservatives as “anti worker.” But what does that even mean? It’s as empty an accusation from Leftists as calling a reasonable human being “racist.”
Conservatives are not “anti worker.” Indeed, we respect workers as individuals with unique needs, wants, aspirations and goals. So much so that we want workers to negotiate with their bosses directly and enter into arrangements that are acceptable to both parties. Neither the government nor a union has standing to interfere in this employer/employee understanding. We Conservatives absolutely support workers! And we do so with respect for people’s integrity and liberty, in a way that Democrats just don’t share.
And “against fair wages”?
Indeed we are not. “Fair” can be tricky to judge from a distance.
How can Mr. Lewis presume to know what is fair for each graduate assistant working at Temple University?
Every person on strike freely applied to Temple University, an institution that compels them to do nothing. They each applied to the GA program, aware of the compensation package. Certainly a great many were thrilled to receive the benefits!
Let’s face it. We all know what’s going here.
Dis-grateful Transgressive Leftists flock together.
The striking students have received public support from Senator Bernie Sanders and Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman.
Mr. Lewis misrepresents and mischaracterizes us. It would be an improper compliment to him to say he “does not understand us.”
He came off today looking only foolish.