Why would Cornell University School of Industrial & Labor Relations continue to let a strikebreaker hold a top administrative job? That’s what appears to be happening. As far as I know, as of this morning, Assistant Provost Ron "Strikebreaker" Seeber still has his job. Strikebreaker Seeber, as we discussed the other day, let his quest for fame and cultural relevance overcome any semblance of morality when he crossed the picket line of the Writers Guild of America to appear on the Colbert Show.

   Yesterday, a large number of faculty of the labor school released this statement:

To the Officers and Members of the Writers Guild East and the Writers Guild West,

We want to communicate to you the sincere distress we felt on Monday when a member of our University community, Ron Seeber, chose to appear as a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Members of our Extension labor faculty spent most of Monday in conversations with Professor Seeber urging him not to appear, and fielding calls from our labor clients and partners.  We were also facilitating conversations between Professor Seeber and a number of labor leaders in New York, two of whom, Bruce Raynor (UNITE HERE) and Denis M. Hughes (NYS AFL-CIO), are members of Cornell’s Board of Trustees, and who were also unable to influence his decision.  We value our long standing relationships with the Guilds and with all the members of the labor community.  We clearly understand the negative impact of crossing a picket line and providing content for the show when the withholding of that content is what gives the union its leverage. It was extremely disappointing that we were not able to convince Professor Seeber not to appear.

Cornell is an institution that values academic freedom, and Professor Seeber was exercising his when he chose to appear on The Daily Show.  We are now exercising ours to convey our deep regret that a prominent representative of our institution crossed your picket line, and to dissociate  ourselves from this action.

 

Yours truly and in deepest solidarity,

Members of the Cornell ILR Extension Labor Faculty                                                        

Lee H. Adler

Sally M. Alvarez

Kate Bronfenbrenner, Resident Faculty

Gene Carroll

Maria C. Figueroa

Jeff Grabelsky

Lois S. Gray

Fred Kotler

Jill Kubit

Peter Lazes

Ken Margolies

Francine Moccio

Sean Sweeney

KC Wagner

Art Wheaton

Pam Whitefield

    Okay, so I understand academic freedom. I’m not suggesting he be fired from his job as professor. But, why should he be allowed to keep his administrative job as assistant provost? That is a position that connotes official representation of the policy of the institution. Strikebreaker Seeber has taken sides–he crossed a picket line. What does the Dean of the ILR School, Harry Katz, have to say about this? Does he condone crossing picket lines? Or, at the very least, shouldn’t the school adhere to a neutral policy in the strike–which Strikebreaker Seeber did not do once he crossed the picket line.

    The labor movement needs to demand that Seeber be removed from his position. To stand by and let Seeber continue to serve would be a wrong signal by all the unions that have strongly supported the WGA strike.