The Sixth Annual National Student Labor Week of Action was a huge success! In the tradition of Cesar Chavez and Dr. Martin Luther King, students and workers stood as one in the fight for economic justice and workers’ rights on campuses and in communities nationwide. This year thousands of students participated in over 250 actions and events. Students demanded that their universities pay workers fair and livable wages, provide adequate medical benefits, respect workers’ rights to organize and bargain and more. Their voices were heard. The National Student Labor Week of Action received significant media coverage from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, NPR, and Pacifica Radio, among others.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE NATIONAL STUDENT LABOR WEEK OF ACTION ‘05
Actions and events during the 2005 National Student Labor Week of Action demonstrated the wide range of campaigns that students are running on their campuses to address workers’ rights and economic justice issues.
SLACTIVISTS AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SIT-IN FOR FAIR WAGES
Washington University- St. Louis, MO
Inspired by the victory at Georgetown University, on April 4th Washington University students began the second-longest sit-in in the recent history of the student movement in support of a living wage for workers on their campus.
The campus struggle for a living wage began in the fall of 2003, when a group of three dozen Nicaraguan lawn care workers on seasonal visas were asked to sign away their contractual rights and leave the country in two days. A group of five students worked to bring the workers back if possible, and find out if mistreatment by subcontractors and the administration was characteristic of employer-employee relationships on campus. In November 2003, students formed the Student Worker Alliance (SWA). They launched a living wage campaign shortly thereafter when they discovered that working conditions for most campus workers included unbearable poverty wages, with few benefits if any, and threats and pressure from management.
On April 22, 2005 a groundbreaking agreement was finalized after an 18-day sit-in.
The agreement includes:
• Commitment of at least $1 million in the next two years towards salary and benefits for lower-paid contract employees.
• Membership for the university in the Workers Rights Consortium, which ensures that factories producing clothing and other goods bearing college and university names respect the basic rights of workers.
• The formation of a joint committee comprised of students, faculty and administrators with SWA representation to improve University policies so they "better meet the needs of lower-paid service workers" which includes protecting freedom of association and working towards living wages and benefits for all workers who are directly and indirectly employed by the university.
"I'm so thrilled with what these students have won!" said janitor Crystal Wells, employed by Aramark. "I've never worked at a place where the people I perform services for take up for you like this."
The agreement also includes amnesty for those students and faculty that participated in the sit-in. Several student leaders were threatened with judicial sanction in the course of the campaign, and nearly 200 faculty members signed an ad supporting living wage and the freedom to form unions, which was published in the campus newspaper.
Students and campus workers were buoyed by growing community support throughout the hunger strike and sit in. SWA is a member of St. Louis Jobs with Justice (JwJ), a coalition of labor unions, community groups, religious leaders, and students which fight for workers’ rights, access to healthcare, immigrants’ rights, and global justice. JwJ played a strategic role in building community support for SWA and the campus workers.
Several national figures also offered support including actor Danny Glover, vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. US Congressmen Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan delivered refreshments to students during the hunger strike. Congregations throughout St. Louis kept a 24-hour vigil in the final days of the sit-in.
For the students at Wash U, this is only the beginning. Along with St. Louis JwJ, students plan to continue to support worker’s rights and stand in solidarity with unions and community groups in the fight for economic justice.
STUDENTS AT UNC-CHAPEL HILL ARE FIGHTING ARAMARK’S
UNION-BUSTING EFFORTS
University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill-
Chapel Hill, NC
On April 4th, students held a rally to condemn anti-union tactics and the March 31st firing of long-time employee Vel Dowdy for union organizing perpetrated by Aramark dining services, the company which provides the university’s cafeteria services.
Workers at UNC-Chapel Hill are attempting to form a union as part of the Service Worker Solidarity Campaign which involves a coalition of labor unions and student groups, including Service Workers United, or SWU, an affiliate of the unions SEIU and UNITE HERE, the Student Labor Action Project and United Students Against Sweatshops. The campaign seeks to engage students in this organizing fight.
According to the university, Ms. Dowdy, a dining hall employee and a vocal supporter of labor union rights for Aramark employees, was suspended for "felony embezzlement of food.� Students from UNC Student Action with Workers/Students against Sweatshops saw the suspension and arrest of Ms. Dowdy as being closely related to her union activity.
Students plan to continue working with local unions and community groups to support Dowdy. During the summer they will also be working with SWU in their efforts to sign workers up for the union.
GRAD STUDENT EMPLOYEES FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS
The University of Massachusetts- Amherst- Amherst, MA
For over a year, graduate teaching assistants (TAs), members of the Graduate Employee Organization, UAW 2322, had been attempting to negotiate a fair contract at UMass. The university proposed cuts in health care, substandard wage increases, and the elimination of same-sex domestic partner benefits. On April 1st, 600 TAs and supporters blocked traffic and stormed the university chancellor’s office as part of a mass rally and demonstration. Stay tuned for updates as bargaining continues.
Learn more about the National Student Labor Week of Action at www.studentlabor.org. Carl Lipscombe is the national coordinator of the Student Labor Action Project.
|
Top level
Dynamic Magazine
