[2321] in peace2
Support Striking Yale Workers!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (stephanie wei Wang)
Thu Mar 6 11:01:19 2003
Message-Id: <200303061557.KAA15748@department-of-alchemy.mit.edu>
To: labor-announce@mit.edu, utr-announce@mit.edu, peace-announce@mit.edu,
greens-announce@mit.edu
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 10:57:16 -0500
From: stephanie wei Wang <sweiwang@MIT.EDU>
[U N I T E D S T U D E N T S A G A I N S T S W E A T S H O P S]
Thousands of Yale workers are currently STRIKING for fair pay and
better working conditions! Join United Students Against Sweatshops as
we...
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| s u p p o r t s t r i k i n g y a l e w o r k e r s |
***
in this email...
I. what you can do: sample talking points and email to call/write
Yale President Levin
II. background on the Yale strike
III. what's at stake: the living wage movement on campuses
******************* W H A T Y O U C A N D O *******************
Join United Students Against Sweatshops as we
CALL, E-MAIL, and WRITE Yale President Richard Levin:
richard.levin@yale.edu
203.432.2550
Richard Levin
President
Yale University
PO Box 208229
New Haven, CT 06520-8229
Ask other students at your school to do the same!
*
when you call, let him know:
- who you are and that you and all your friends in United Students
Against Sweatshops and elsewhere are watching him
- that Yale's treatment of workers is despicable and its refusal to
genuinely bargain is outrageous
- to give Yale workers what they need and are demanding: fair wages,
pensions, job security, the right to organize, and training and
advancement opportunities
Also, if conditions are better at your school, let him know, and
remind him that Yale's wages and benefits are behind those at your
school and other peer institutions.
*
when you email,
- write him a note of your own or using the talking points above
or
- send this sample email (adapt as you please):
Dear President Levin,
I'm a student at [ name of your school ] and a member of United
Students Against Sweatshops. I've been following the labor dispute
and strike at Yale, and I am outraged. How can Yale, such a widely
respected and wealthy university, force members of its own community
to live in poverty?
The people who work at Yale should be paid enough to support
themselves. They should have pension plans that actually let them
retire, be able to unionize and have their union recognized, have job
security, and have easy access to training and advancement
opportunities.
I urge you and Yale to meet the unions' demands. I stand alongside
the thousands of other students around the country in United Students
Against Sweatshops in supporting the workers who are on strike.
Thank You,
[ name ]
[ school and/or organization ]
United Students Against Sweatshops
*
when you write to him,
- write your own letter
- send a letter on behalf of your organization or student group
- print out the sample email and sign it; make copies and ask your
friends to sign, too
***** B A C K G R O U N D O N T H E Y A L E S T R I K E *****
On March 1, thousands of workers at Yale University went on strike,
the eighth strike at the university in the past 35 years. Four
campus unions struck together -- the first time grad student
employees (in the not-yet-recognized GESO) have come together with
janitorial, dining service, and maintenance employees (HERE Local
35), clerical and technical workers (HERE Local 34), and hospital
employees (1199/SEIU).
Workers have been in negotiations for over a year, and the university
hasn't changed its offer since last June. Even when the unions asked
Yale to enter binding arbitration, Yale refused.
Workers are striking for:
* FAIR WAGES that would allow employees to support themselves without
having to work multiple jobs. Yale's wages are currently far behind
wages at peer institutions
* PENSIONS that would actually let workers retire
* BEST PRACTICES to improve working conditions and labor relations
* TRAINING AND ADVANCEMENT, which a Yale Vice President calls "money
down the drain"
* JOB SECURITY against the continued threat of outsourcing
* UNION RECOGNITION for graduate employees
* a NEW CONTRACT for hospital dietary workers
-For more information, see www.yaleunions.org
****************** W H A T ' S A T S T A K E ******************
The strike at Yale includes workers from a wide range of jobs within
the university, setting an incredible precedent for worker
solidarity. Graduate students' struggle for union recognition is,
with the strike, linked to Yale janitors' struggle for wages on which
workers can raise a family. Up against a university run as a
corporation that outsources, blocks unions from organizing, and
forces its workers to live in poverty, Yale employees are coming
together to demand dignity and respect.
In the past several years, workers and students have won living wage
victories at several schools, including Harvard, University of
Virginia, University of Connecticut, Wesleyan, University of
California San Diego, and Johns Hopkins University. There are at
least 50 other ongoing campaigns around the country.
Graduate students have been fighting to form a union at Yale for over
a decade; Yale has consistently refused to recongnize them. Union
representation is a basic right, yet still unacknowledged by Yale.
*********************************************************************
[U N I T E D S T U D E N T S A G A I N S T S W E A T S H O P S]
