[4] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
LIVING WAGE SIT-IN AT HARVARD (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Thu Apr 19 11:22:58 2001
Message-Id: <200104181913.PAA09882@mint-square.mit.edu>
To: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
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Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 15:13:56 -0400
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
Resent-From: jhawk@MIT.EDU
Resent-To: mit-talk-mtg@charon.MIT.EDU
I recv'd this from a few lists, so I apologize for redundancy...
This for all of you who would have liked to go up to Quebec this
weekend to protest the FTAA, but couldn't get away... act locally!
Please fwd!!
------- Forwarded Message
From: "harvard living wage campaign" <harvard_livingwagecampaign@hotmail.com>
Subject: LIVING WAGE SIT-IN AT HARVARD
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 17:45:41 -0000
4/18/01
40 members of the Harvard Living Wage Campaign have just entered an
administrative building to demand a living wage of at least $10.25/hr plus
benefits for all Harvard employees. After more than two years of the
Harvard administration ignoring or inadequately addressing our very simple
request, the Living Wage Campaign has been forced to escalate pressure on
the University with a peaceful sit-in.
NOW: All the maintenance unions are turning out workers right now. Please
join us IMMEDIATELY in Harvard Yard to support the necessary actions of the
protesters and join them in demanding a living wage. If you live outside of
the area (or when you get back from the rally), please take a moment to call
and e-mail the following administrators:
Neil Rudenstine, President (617) 495-1502, beverly_sullivan@harvard.edu
Harvey Fineberg, Provost, (617) 496-5100, harvey_fineberg@harvard.edu
Sally Zeckhauser, VP for Administration, sally_zeckhauser@harvard.edu
Harry Lewis, Dean of Harvard College, lewis@harvard.edu
Polly Price, Associate VP for Human Resources, polly_price@harvard.edu
Contact them to demand that the University pay all Harvard workers a living
wage, and insist that the administration negotiate with the students sitting
in. The safety of the students inside and the struggle for a living wage
rely on your support. Please forward this message widely.
7 PM: Living Wage Panel, Emerson Hall 105. Hear author of Living Wage Prof.
Robert Polin, civil rights leader Rev. James Lawson, Cambridge City Council
members, and a Harvard custodian speak about the importance of immediately
implementing a living wage.
******************************************************************************
In 1998, the Cambridge City Council began working toward a living wage
ordinance for all city employees. At the same time, Harvard students,
faculty members, and workers joined together to demand that Harvard
University, the largest employer in Cambridge, live up to these standards.
Today, over 1,000 Harvard workers are paid wages as low as $6.50 per hour
without benefits. This is a wage that puts a parent with one child well
below the federal poverty line, forcing many to work at least 90 hour weeks
in order to support themselves. We insist that all direct and outsourced
Harvard employees be paid a wage of at least $10.25/hr -- the same living
wage paid by the City of Cambridge.
We are sitting in because we have exhausted every avenue of dialogue with
the administration that could lead to a living wage. Since March 1999, we
have met repeatedly with administrators. We have asked to meet with the
Harvard Corporation, the University's governing body, and have been refused.
The meetings we did have uniformly consisted of administrative refusals to
adopt or even consider a living wage policy. Since the Ad Hoc Committee on
Employment Policies released its recommendations in May 2000-rejecting the
implementation of any wage standard whatsoever for Harvard
workers-administrators have told us that the issue is closed: they will
consider no further changes, or even investigations into possible changes.
We are sitting in because we have exhausted every other strategy when
dialogue with the administration has failed. We have written op-eds,
sponsored teach-ins, collected student, faculty and parent petitions, and
organized alumni/ae to refuse to donate money to Harvard. We have spoken on
both local and national television and radio and at conferences on labor and
economic affairs. We have sponsored dozens of public demonstrations, and we
have tried less imposing forms of direct action: in April 2000, we occupied
Harvard's admissions office for one day during Pre-Frosh Weekend,
distributing literature and holding teach-ins.
We are sitting in because administrators have not only failed to improve
wages and benefits, but have aggressively worked to slash them as support
for a living wage policy has grown. In the face of opposition from unions,
workers, faculty, and students, the university has outsourced hundreds of
jobs to firms which pay poverty-level wages and benefits. The university
claims that it has in fact worked to extend benefit packages to more workers
through the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies; but in
fact, only 19 workers have received benefits through this report, because
Harvard offered the packages for exorbitant monthly fees-as much as $100 to
$200 per month. Many workers say that they were never even notified of
their new access to benefits.
We are sitting in because Harvard's wage and benefit policies threaten the
economic survival and violate the dignity of university workers, and our
community overwhelmingly recognizes this fact. Every campus union, 30
students groups, all 8 Harvard unions, over 150 Harvard faculty members,
over 2000 students, and over 100 alumni/ae have endorsed the campaign.
Support for a living wage at Harvard extends far beyond the university's
gates: dozens of community, religious, and labor organizations have endorsed
the Campaign or taken part in demonstrations. The Cambridge City Council
has twice passed resolutions or orders calling on Harvard to implement a
living wage policy. Finally, a wide array of intellectuals, journalists,
labor and civil rights leaders, activists, and celebrities have endorsed our
campaign and spoken for it, including actor Matt Damon, NAACP Chairman
Julian Bond, linguist Noam Chomsky, writer Barbara Ehrenreich, Rev. Jesse
Jackson, and historian Howard Zinn.
For these reasons, we are sitting in to demand that all Harvard workers,
whether directly employed or hired through outside firms, must be paid a
living wage of at least $10.25 per hour, adjusted annually to inflation, and
with basic health benefits.
Thank you for your support,
The Harvard Living Wage Campaign
www.hcs.harvard.edu/~pslm/livingwage
www.livingwagenow.com
Many recipients of this message will be receiving daily updates on this
action, but you have not been put on a permanent listserve. We apologize
for any duplicate messages.
------- End of Forwarded Message
