This photo of the infamous Rio Hondo faculty one-day strike brought back many memories. I'm in the center of the photo, holding a sign, talking to Bob Beauchemin, a former Senate President. Carolyn Russell (the blond in the center), Gary Bender (from Math; in parka talking to Carolyn), and Lem Williams (from Business; he's the one in the center with a 'fro) are also part of the photo. Several students also joined us on that overcast, chilly day.

I remember we wanted to start the picket line very early so that cars would have to cross the line to get to campus. So, we all arrived very early only to be outsmarted by the anti-strike administrators and the very few faculty who crossed. Many of them had arrived in the dark to avoid confrontation. (We all had a good laugh thinking of the very long day these administrators were going to have since they had to attend the special Board Meeting that evening, which was going to be held in the Wray Theatre due to the size of the audience.)

 But many of the administrators such as George Juric, my Dean (or Department Chairman as they was called then), were from a blue-collar background and arrived during normal hours and honked in support as he entered the campus. Of course, the classified were overwhelming supportive. Their encouragement only made us stronger.

The issue was "merit-pay," an attempt by the Board and the college president to have faculty paid according to their "merit." The concept was that better teachers should be paid more than those who just go through the motions. But the flaw of that seemingly reasonable proposal was the inability to clearly define how superior teachers would be identified. The over-riding fear was that administrators would play favorites and give positive reviews to those who were obsequious while rating as inferior those who were assertive and called for such radical measures such as union rights or shared governance.

The Board finally caved in that evening after a series of articulate, impassioned statements from faculty speakers. One of the best was from Lorin Warner, an English instructor who was a former Senate President and who had just completed his law degree. Lorin noted that Rio had a "great thing going", and that merit pay would only threaten to end collegiality, stifle academic freedom, and lessen the learning experience for students.

It's surprising to reflect that this incident happened at a time of  morale on campus was far better than that of the current Rio Hondo. The idea of merit pay would probably seems very reasonable to our current CEO. But I would bet my mortgage on the kind of reviews the three outstanding teachers, accused of discrimination by him, would have received.