Facing the current severe and complex pandemic situation, as a member of an art university, what should we do and how should we do? In this special period, we will truly record every bit of the actions taken by the teachers, students and staff of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Art is a kind of warmth, art is also a kind of power, art can bring strength to others, and art can also inspire ourselves. Art moves forward! The pandemic is temporary, and but will last forever.
On the evening of 11 April, the trade union of Shanghai Theatre Academy urgently called an online meeting of all chair persons of the college and departmental trade unions at 9 pm. The meeting that night went straight to the theme, i.e. thoroughly find out the living conditions of the teachers and staff of the each and every college, department and office during the pandemic as soon as possible, especially the situation of teachers and staff who were particularly in need.
After the pandemic broke out, some teachers and staff encountered rather significant difficulties in living. For example, the compound where they live had no access to group purchase due to some special reasons, or the supplies allocated by the government were not yet in place for the time being. As the result, some teachers had almost no source of food supplies at all. Under the leadership of the university's party committee, the trade union of Shanghai Theatre Academy took the pandemic as the order and the assurance of teachers and staff's living as the responsibility, and immediately coordinated the financial and personnel resources to quickly help resolve the urgent needs of teachers and staff. The chair persons of all office, college and departmental trade unions acted quickly upon the instruction, and collected all the information of teachers and staff with special difficulties within the next day. The situations of other teachers and staff were found out clearly. On the third day, the trade union of the university launched the emergency delivery action to send the supplies to the teachers and staff concerned in a timely fashion.
After the delivery of emergency supplies for the teachers and staff with particular difficulties was completed, the trade union also formulated a set of care and concern plans covering all teachers and staff. The trade union contacted a number of suppliers urgently and worked hard to secure the transportation capacity to transport supplies for living to more than 700 teachers and staff of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, despite the difficulties in transporting all kinds of materials and supplies in Shanghai.
In this care and concern action, the trade union did not distinguish between permanent and non-permanent staff, and included retired teachers and staff and those on retirement but re-employed, and paid special attention to non-permanent staff on the jobs of logistics and security, property service and so on. In the course of fighting the pandemic, the non-permanent staff on property service, canteen and security jobs have been playing an important role in ensuring the smooth operation of the four campuses under the special circumstances. They are the most hardworking and unknown people. In this action, the trade union paid special attention to this group and sends the caring love of the Shanghai Theatre Academy to the hands of every one of them.
Such a process of purchasing and delivering supplies for living was a race against time. The teachers of the trade union sent the loving care to teachers and students living across Shanghai, taking the risk of being infected by the virus.
This was not the first action taken by the university’s union during the pandemic. In early March, at the beginning of the outbreak of the pandemic, the trade union considered that the teachers and staff might encounter the situation of campus lockdown, so it contacted the suppliers at the first time to buy sleeping bags and toiletry bags to prepare for the possible situation in advance. Very soon, 780 sleeping bags arrived at the university, giving everyone more peace of mind. The supplier of the sleeping bags saw the care the university’s trade union had for the teachers and staff and offered to donate another 50 sleeping bags. Due to the rapid development of the pandemic, the toiletry bags that have been ordered cannot be transported for the time being, but the sleeping bags that arrived earlier have brought great convenience to the teachers and staff who remain in the university during the pandemic.
It is often said that trade union is the parental home for teachers and staff. Since it is the parental home, its loving care does not depend on time and place. The more difficult it is, the more it will do to face up. Such a love caring is precious.
The pandemic has not been gone yet. The loving care of the university’s trade union will continue. The pandemic will eventually be gone. All members of the Shanghai Theatre Academy will overcome the difficulties together.
