[730] in peace2
4/30 HARVARD SIT IN UPDATE
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (harvard living wage campaign)
Mon Apr 30 08:16:36 2001
From: "harvard living wage campaign" <harvard_livingwagecampaign@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 12:15:04 -0000
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Message-ID: <F11puOXdiKsbksiiMOb0000ff00@hotmail.com>
4/30 HARVARD LIVING WAGE SIT-IN UPDATE
DAY 13
www.livingwagenow.com
Students are STILL sitting in for a living wage of $10.25/hr plus benefits
for all Harvard workers. Stop by Mass Hall, contact the administration,
and wear a button to show support. Other ways to help follow - updated
every day! -- and are essential to the success of this action.
* UNPRECEDENTED: The National Executive Board of the AFL-CIO, including John
Sweeney, will speak at noon today at Mass Hall! Please come out for this
historic event!
* An extremely positive column by Bob Herbert was printed in today's New
York Times. He ends with the words: "Advantage, Students."
* Our support has reached Great Britain with endorsements from British
student groups and a vote today by the British Union of Students to
potentially endorse the Harvard living wage.
* Yesterday, dozens joined religious groups for services in front of Mass
Hall to continue to support the sit in and the living wage.
**CONTACT**
The following administrators should be urged to negotiate with the
protesters and to grant a living wage. More information follows the events
for today.
Jeremy Knowles, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences; phone: 617-495-1566;
fax: 617-495-8208; email: jeremy_knowles@harvard.edu
Neil Rudenstine, President; phone: (617) 495-1502; fax:(617) 495-1502;
email: beverly_sullivan@harvard.edu
Harvey Fineberg, Provost; phone:(617) 496-5100; fax: (617) 496-4630; email:
harvey_fineberg@harvard.edu
Sally Zeckhauser, VP for Administration; phone: (617) 495-1512; fax: (617)
496-6109; email: sally_zeckhauser@harvard.edu
Harry Lewis, Dean of Harvard College, phone: 617-495-1555; fax:
617-496-8268; email: lewis@harvard.edu
Polly Price, Associate VP for Human Resources; phone: (617) 496-3930; fax:
(617) 495-8937; email: polly_price@harvard.edu
**TODAY'S EVENTS**
All events take place in front of Mass Hall.
ONGOING: Supporters continue to keep vigilance outside of Mass Hall to
prevent the removal of protestors and demand negotiations. Stop by for as
long as you can and picket or make banners and signs. The living wage sit-in
documentary will be shown when there are no other activities.
NOON: AFL-CIO Rally!
The AFL-CIO executive board comes to Harvard to demand a living wage. John
Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO - the nation's voice on labor - will
speak. He will be joined by the Vice President and Secretary Treasurer of
the AFL-CIO, Linda Chavez-Thompson and Richard Trumka. If you have time to
come to one event ever, make it this one.
2PM: Prof. Alan Callahan, Lecture on Liberation
5PM: Prof. Cory Dolgon, Lecture on Folk Songs and Protest
7PM: Teach-In for Organizers and Others.
Come learn the answers to difficult questions so you can be more effective
in organizing for a living wage, or just talking to your friends about the
issue.
8:00 Vigil, with John Ross, Poet
ALL NIGHT: Tent City. Come and sleep out with us! Bring a tent if you can,
or just use one of ours.
**ADMINISTRATION RESPONSE** The administration continues to refuse to
negotiate. However, we have made important progress. They have stated that
the living wage is no longer a closed issue. They ask, however, that we
vacate the building in order to discuss the matter. Based on recent
encounters with the administration, such as Rundenstine scheduling 2
meetings with the protesters over the last week and subsequently missing
them, we feel justified in our lack of trust in the administration's offers
for further dialogue. On Friday, Dean Knowles of the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences called an emergency meeting of the faculty, and was unable to have
his agenda discussed because of the faculty's overwhelming support of a
living wage. Additionally HERE workers at the business school have
successfully resisted reclassification that would have put them below a
living wage.
Because of these instances of progress, we must increasingly apply pressure
to the administration to discuss the issue of a living wage in good faith.
We insist that the administrators grant the demands of their students,
faculty, alumni, and staff - the people who make up this University. Please
continue to contact them (information above) and demand that they negotiate
with the protestors. See www.livingwagenow.com and go to "e-mails" for
examples of letters that supporters have sent. Our demands follow.
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear ,
I am writing to demand that Harvard grant a living wage. I urge you to pay
all of your employees - both direct and subcontracted -- a living wage of
$10.25/hr plus benefits. Harvard University would not be able to operate
without its workers. Currently, many of these workers live below the
poverty line, and must work outrageous hours in order to make ends meet.
This is blatantly unjust.
You must also honor the protesters' additional demands for fair working
condition both at home and abroad, and join the Workers' Rights Consortium.
Only by doing so will the University truly uphold the Code of Conduct that
it has already passed.
I ask that you negotiate with students who are currently taking action on
this issue. They are, in fact, pursuing what I can only assume are values
cherished by Harvard. They are thinking critically about issues of pressing
social concern and taking action on their principles.
Sincerely,
**YOU CAN HELP**
If you would like to perform or speak at an event, please contact
617-290-5802 or 617-645-0767.
IF YOU HAVE
2 MINUTES:
* Contact administrators and insist that they negotiate with the protestors.
Contact info below.
* Ask your professors to hold class in front of Mass Hall.
* Go to thecrimson.com and support the living wage in the poll to the right
of the screen.
10 MINUTES:
* Join us in front of Mass Hall during the day or late at night. Write
Rudenstine a postcard on an index card and drop it off at Mass Hall.
* Deliver food (esp. vegetarian or vegan) to protesters inside Mass Hall at
meal times. Contact: 617-645-0767, rray@fas
* Tell your friends, TFs, professors, parents, students, and alumni. Go to
office hours and make phone calls.
* Get support signs or BANNERS at the information table in front of Mass
Hall and hang them in your dorm windows.
30 MINUTES:
* Pick up leaflets and posters in front of Mass Hall. Poster the yard and
your houses. Leaflet your classes or in the Yard.
* Stop by the info table and become an outreach contact.
* Submit a letter to the editor that calls on Harvard to pay a living wage
and/or negotiate with the protesters. Find a story online or on one of the
tables at Mass Hall and write a very brief response to the outlet that
printed it. Letters should ideally be less than 150 words. Be sure to
include your name, address, and daytime and evening phone numbers so the
paper can confirm your authorship. You can submit by e-mail to either
letter@globe.com or letters@nytimes.com.
A NIGHT:
* Join the tent city in front of Mass Hall. Sleep outside to show support.
STUDENTS:
* Make a banner and hang it from your window. Supplies in front of Mass
Hall.
* Contact any student group you belong to and ask the it to endorse the
campaign. Ask the members to come out to Mass. Hall to support the movement.
Have each member contact the administration.
NON-HARVARD STUDENTS:
Contact Iris: ihalpe01@tufts.edu
* Organize a solidarity action. Stand outside with a cell phone in front of
your student center and have people call the Harvard administration and
demand negotiations and a living wage (info above).
* Send a delegation to Harvard to sleep out and participate in our events.
Bring tents if you can, and get in touch with Iris for directions and more
info.
ALUMNI, PARENTS, AND DONORS:
Contact: Dania Palanker (palanke@ksg.harvard.edu) to be put in the
(anti)donor data-base.
* Contact the administration and tell them that you will not donate any
money until they negotiate with protesters or grant a living wage.
Alternatively, pledge to donate a certain amount of money once Harvard
grants a living wage.
* Sign up for your class listserve and send out a message asking classmates
to write the administration saying they won't donate until a living wage is
granted. Contact Dania so we know your class has been contacted.
How to do this: Send an e-mail to listproc@camail1.harvard.edu requesting
membership to your class list. On your e-mail, leave the subject category
blank and include a one line message saying: "subscribe HAA-HR19xx your
name" filling in xx and your name accordingly. For example: HAA-HR1997 Jane
Harvard.
PROFESSORS AND OTHER COMMUNITY MEMBERS:
Contact: tmccarth@fas.harvard.edu
* Write an op-ed. Contact: 617-596-8146, 617-256-5779 or stop by Mass Hall.
* Speak at a rally. Contact: 617-290-5802 or 617-645-0767 or stop by Mass
Hall.
* Teach a seminar inside Mass Hall. Express concern that students are
missing classes and enter Mass Hall to teach a seminar about your field,
especially as it relates to economic justice. Same contacts as for
speaking.
* Hold your regular classes outside of Mass Hall in support.
* Contact other professors and ask them to contact the administration and
participate in the other helpful activities above.
CONTACTS:
Media: Paul: 617-256-5779, paullekas@yahoo.com
Matthew: 867-3028 (beeper), mafeigin@hotmail.com
Emilou: 596-8146, maclean@fas.harvard.edu
Binh: adjemia@ksg.harvard.edu
Graduate School Organizing: Ricken: patelri@ksg.harvard.edu
Law School Organizing: Michelle: myau@law.harvard.edu
How else to help: Ben: stoll@fas.harvard.edu; 617-834-5824
E-MAIL: If you or someone you know are not receiving and would like to be,
contact jwagner@fas.harvard.edu or pslm@hcs.harvard.edu
**DEMANDS**
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. Complete
implementation of such a living wage policy requires three other simple
steps:
* To ensure that the university does not use subcontracting and
reclassification to cut wages and benefits-as the Harvard Corporation has
agreed it should not-Harvard must adopt a policy of maintaining wage and
benefit levels when jobs are outsourced or reclassified. Our Implementation
Report contains methods for assuring this which should be adopted.
* A board must be created, not appointed by the administration, to oversee
implementation of the living wage policy. The board should have binding
policy-making power to enforce the policy, and should consist of workers,
union representatives, faculty, members of PSLM, and an administrator.
* Harvard relies on the labor of workers both on campus and off, and both
must be covered by the university's living wage policy. Workers in
factories that produce Harvard goods must therefore be assured a living wage
for their community; indeed, Harvard has already agreed to a Code of Conduct
which contains a commitment to this very idea. In order to determine
whether factories are complying with Harvard's Code, however, the university
must join the Worker Rights Consortium, the only independent
factory monitoring group which satisfies the Code's guidelines.
**RESPONSE TO HARVARD'S STATEMENT**
1. Harvard says: "A very small fraction of Harvard employees (about 400
...) were paid less than $10 per hour."
The truth is: The University's own figures reveal at least 1000 - perhaps
2000 - workers at Harvard getting less than a living wage. Harvard obscures
the truth by talking about "Harvard employees" and ignoring the many people
who work at Harvard for Harvard through a contracting firm. These people do
the same work, be it maintenance, cafeteria or security guard, as employees
on the Harvard payroll. In many cases, subcontract employees have simply
replaced direct employees, or Harvard has converted direct employees to
subcontracted ones, slashing their wages and benefits in the process.
Furthermore, Harvard leaves out of many calculations "casual" employees -
non-unionized employees who are supposed to work only a limited number of
hours for Harvard, but often work more than Harvard's rules allow. They too
do the same jobs as "regular" Harvard workers.
In fact, we believe that significantly more than 500 subcontracted workers
get less than a living wage, which would make the total closer to 2000.
Harvard manipulates the definition of "Harvard employee" to deny many of the
people who make Harvard work.
2. Harvard says: "There have been a number of occasions for the [the
Living Wage Campaign] to present their views ... to members of the
University administration."
The truth is: Harvard has repeatedly denied the Living Wage Campaign any
opportunity to speak to the body that makes the ultimate decision about
whether workers at Harvard get a living wage. That body is the Harvard
Corporation, which has ultimate authority over the running of the university
under Harvard's bylaws. We have repeatedly petitioned for a meeting with
the Corporation, and Harvard has repeatedly refused.
3. Harvard says: "The 1999-2000 review ... recommended innovative programs
to enhance the status and opportunities of service employees. These
recommendations [] have been adopted by the University."
The truth is: By its own admission, Harvard is not close to implementing
the recommendations that it said last May it was adopting. Associate Vice
President for Human Resources Polly Price told us that she would speak with
subcontractors about the recommendations in January 2001. In March 2001,
she told us that she would do so this summer. In the meantime, Harvard has
not even written the "code of conduct" that it promised to impose on
subcontracting firms.
In the six months after Harvard approved the recommendations, the Living
Wage Campaign spoke to workers from all areas of the university. We did not
find a single worker who had heard of the increased access to benefits that
the report promises. Workers who were eligible for benefits were still not
receiving them, and didn't even know that they should be receiving them.
President Rudenstine told us that if workers didn't know that they were
entitled to benefits, it was their unions' fault for not passing the news
along. But, as noted above, the truth is that many subcontracted and casual
workers are not unionized, so if they are unaware of the benefits Harvard
promised the fault can rest only with Harvard.
Harvard speaks with particular pride of the Bridge Program, which teaches
English to workers at Harvard. But workers have told the Living Wage
Campaign that they signed up for the program months ago and never heard back
from management. The truth is that during the fall 2000 semester, the
Bridge Program served only 143 workers-hundreds fewer than anticipated.
And Vice President Price told us that Harvard expects the program not to
expand in the spring semester.
4. Harvard says: "[T]here have been a number of occasions for the students
to present their views directly to the committee [Ad Hoc Committee on
Employment Practices]."
The truth is: Although the committee did meet with students, in its
seventeen meetings it only found time to meet with one worker. That worker
was brought to the committee by the Living Wage Campaign.
5. Harvard says: "The 1999-2000 review [was] conducted by a faculty
committee."
The truth is: The committee's own report lists its composition as six
professors and two administrators. Another four administrators served as
staff to the committee(including Polly Price, discussed above). The
committee included no students and - oddly, given its mandate to study
Harvard's employment policies - no Harvard workers. All its members were
handpicked by President Rudenstine. An administration-faculty committee
selected by the administration cannot represent the faculty, much less the
University.
6. Harvard says: "These recommendations [from the Ad Hoc Committee] ...
include expanded availability of health benefits for part-time workers."
The truth is: If it is ever implemented, the Committee's proposal may well
reduce health care for Harvard workers. Currently part-time employees on
the Harvard payroll are offered health insurance if they work over twenty
hours a week. The committee recommended lowering that to sixteen hours.
The risk is obvious: Harvard and its subcontractors will simply cut
part-time workers down to 15 hours per week. When Harvard promised health
insurance to part-timers working 20 hours per week, a lot of them were
suddenly cut back to 19 hours. We suggested independent monitoring to
protect workers against such cutbacks; Harvard refused.
7. Harvard says: "[T]he University meets and exceeds its stated goal of
providing fair ... compensation and benefits packages for its employees."
The truth is: We agree that Harvard has stated this goal; the problem is
that Harvard is not living up to it. The National Low-Income Housing
Commission estimates that a wage of over $15 per hour is necessary to afford
a two-bedroom apartment in the Boston area. Another study, published by
Wider Opportunities for Women, found that in a family with two working
adults and one child, each adult needed to earn $11.41 per hour to live in
the Cambridge area in 1997. A single parent with one child needed to earn
$17.47. In Boston, the corresponding figures were $10.08 and $15.28. These
figures do not include extravagant living. They do not even include the
rise in the cost of living over the last three years.
Those minimal wages are why workers at Harvard are taking second and even
third jobs elsewhere, working 70 and 80 hours per week. Those minimal wages
are why some Harvard custodians regularly eat in soup kitchens.
In fiscal year 1999, Harvard paid $10 million to one fund manager - about as
much as it would have cost to give a living wage to 2000 other employees.
Does Harvard think that that is fair?
Thanks for your support!
The Harvard Living Wage Campaign
www.livingwagenow.com
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