[666] in peace2
Fwd: LIVING WAGE SIT-IN AT HARVARD
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Marc Rios)
Wed Apr 18 14:43:09 2001
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Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 14:40:36 -0400
To: peace-list@mit.edu
From: Marc Rios <mrios@MIT.EDU>
>X-Originating-IP: [140.247.131.95]
>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
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>
>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.
>
>
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