Milwaukee, WI – Marquette University staff members and their supporters picketed outside the administration building on January 27 in the biting cold. Marquette University recently announced the firing of nearly 40 longtime staff members, while the university is set to bring in nearly $10 million in federal COVID stimulus money, which was ostensibly passed to help prevent layoffs like this one.

Protest organizers called out the administration, accusing them of lying in order to justify the terminations as COVID-related. Organizers say Marquette administrators have not provided any evidence that job cuts were fiscally necessary, noting that the recently published university budget included a $12 million surplus.

“Hey admin, you are liars!” Marquette staff, students and union supporters chanted outside the University President Michael Lovell's office. One staff member led the crowd with a bullhorn, shouting “Hey Lovell, rich and rude, we don't like your attitude!”

This is not the first time Marquette staff have protested Lovell's pretentious, anti-worker policies. For about two years, graduate students and non-tenure track faculty have been actively organizing a union, staging several pickets and sit-ins in opposition to union-busting tactics by Marquette administration. More information on the union can be found on their Twitter at @MarquetteUnion.

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Milwaukee, WI – For the past several months, non-tenured faculty and graduate students at Marquette University have been organizing to form a union. They held rallies, distributed petitions and returned to administration demanding to be recognized and negotiated with as equals. In response, Marquette's administration has offered empty promises to “follow the law,” and refuses anything further.

On May 15, the union took a step forward, with workers and supporters staging a sit-in for recognition at Zilber hall on Marquette's campus that held on through the night. The administration met with the workers at 3:30 p.m. on May 16 and stated that police had been assembled to force the workers and their supporters into “free speech pens” to stop them from interfering with business.

At that point, the workers marched out in unison, and are vowing to continue the fight in the days and weeks to come.

“The purpose of the sit-in was to get a fair process. Administration has refused to agree to respect the results of a fair and democratic election,” says Tom Hansberger, a lecturer, and union organizer at Marquette.

The effort, if successful, will include large numbers of lecturers at Marquette's campus who, like many workers across the United States, have been largely ignored through the years as profits soar and the cost of living has risen.

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The first panel focused on the Syrian and Central American refugee crisis, discussing how U.S. wars, military occupation, and interventions cause people to flee and look for new lives in other countries. Central Americans fleeing death squads and dictatorships came to the U.S. over the past decades. Today it is hundreds of thousands fleeing U.S. wars, with people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan attempting to find safety in Europe and Turkey.

Rebeca Zellelew, a YES-MU member commented, “Having both my parents flee their native homeland in Ethiopia, one as a refugee and the other through asylum, the critical analysis of the Syrian and Central American Refugee crisis was vital for me to understand, especially in relation to the hushed role the U.S. government plays, and consistently contributes to inhumane atrocities around the world. Panels like this are significant to change our student body.”

The event ended with a solidarity march and candlelight vigil that was a part of the Legalization for All week of action. It was at Joan of Arc Chapel at Marquette University in remembrance of the mothers and children held by the U.S. government at for-profit detention facilities for over a year.

The second event “You May Say I’m a DREAMER”, focused on undocumented youth and their struggles to pursue higher education. The panelists included two Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and another youth and immigrant rights activist.

“We will continue to raise awareness around immigration and issues of social justice at Marquette. The student body is predominantly white and middle to upper class and they do not always get a chance to see varying perspectives and to see the realities of the lives of people of color. That is where we hope we can direct the support from the Marquette community towards initiatives like a scholarship fund for undocumented students,” explained YES-MU President Miguel Sanchez.

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