Purple Rathburn
I am Purple Rathburn and I am a Labor Studies major and Public History minor going into their second year of graduate school. Being a non-traditional and first-generation student, I find it hard to believe where I ended up as opposed to what my life was like only five years ago. Up until attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst, I lived a very different life, sometimes typical, sometimes more adventurous. For several years I lived in beat up old vehicles and traveled across North America numerous times meeting people from all types of backgrounds. I worked many jobs during that period, including free-lance photography and video as well as such jobs as a field work at farms. Eventually, my father became ill and I returned home to care for him. After his passing, I continued to help my mother with support, finances and eventually with health care when she was diagnosed with cancer. Most of my adult life has been spent working in factory jobs which range from molding in several plastic factories, assembling in a furniture factory, being a bottle capper in a soft drink factory as well and a tofu processor at a food related factory.
Factory work and blue-collar jobs have been the main support and financial backbone of both sides of my family for generations. both my father and grandfather were members of the United Furniture Workers of America (UFWA) which later merged with the IUE to become the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Technical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers. I grew up with much union literature and papers in the tenement apartment I was raised in. In recent years, with unions no longer a part of factory environment, I often recall talking with my co-workers and their worries of wages being stagnant or cut, roll back of benefits or losing the benefits all together. Many also feared the recent trend of not hiring full time workers or laying them off in favor of a rotation of temporary workers from agencies placed into the job and being more affordable as there are no wage increases and the employers do not have to offer them benefits.
I feel that working with the labor movement is my calling and to an extent my duty. After years of taking care of my family and working various jobs, increasingly hired as a temporary employee, I decided to apply to the University of Massachusetts Amherst after seeing a television commercial featuring Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy standing in a field and stating, “education should be for everyone”.
Beyond the challenges associated with my non-traditional background due to social economics and age, despite those challenges I have maintained a high GPA of 3.5 or more and have been accepted as a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. While in college, I have accumulated diverse experiences. While attending Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) I was General Manager of the radio station, coeditor of the school’s newspaper, and elected to the student senate. On the senate, I served on the financial advisory board in charge of allocating funds to the student clubs and organizations on campus. At UMass Amherst, I have assumed leadership roles with the Philosophy and Open Thought Club as President and served as Vice-President of the History Club as well as being a member of Belly Dance. Through my four years at the University I have never had a regular meal plan that would allow me to eat three square meals a day. I made a movie about living at UMass Amherst with no meal plan that has been screened publicly at an art opening and for several events at the university.
As a Labor Studies major in graduate school, From the Spring semester and into the beginning of the Fall semester I served as Caucus Representative for the Labor Studies students letting their views and concerns be known to the Labor Studies Faculty and Board of Directors. In my spare time I volunteer working with adults on the autistic spectrum and with Jacob’s Well helping to feed to underfed in The Valley.
As GEO Co-chair I feel that not only having a union and working class background will help with my day to day understanding of what workers want and listening to their needs, fears and desires, but also that my background which includes serving on committees serving the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and working with those feeding the hungry has given me the ability to work well with others, listen to peoples thoughts and opinions and make those feelings and thoughts known and worked on within the union.
EJ Nielsen
My name is EJ Nielsen. I am entering my fifth year of a Communication PhD at UMass Amherst. I’m asking for a chance to serve our graduate community as GEO co-chair in 2019-2020.
As I watch the ongoing efforts to prevent unions forming at other universities, I recognise how fortunate we are to have such a longstanding and strong union at UMass protecting and supporting us. However, we cannot afford to grow complacent. The current US climate is even more hostile towards unions and even towards the basic human rights of minorities, and as our recent contract bargaining has shown, the university will not pass up an opportunity to reduce our hard-won benefits.
A successful GEO co-chair must be passionate about protecting our rights and dedicated to the work, while also able to manage and stay organised. I previously served as Grad Student rep to the Comm Graduate Studies Committee for two years, doing my best to bring a graduate student perspective to a committee of faculty and to speak truth to power. I have also worked as a journal managing editor, a role which required high organization, time management, and almost infinite emailing.
I plan to work closely with Mary Dickman, currently in their second term as GEO Mobilization Coordinator. Their continuing successes as Coordinator speak for themselves, but GEO could not ask for a more dedicated person in this role.
We all come to UMass from different backgrounds, but we are united in our commitment to our education, our students, our research, and our future.
“We must hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Benjamin Franklin
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” Audre Lorde
With your support, I look forward to serving our graduate community as GEO co-chair.
