[731] in peace2
RESPONSE TO HARVARD PRESIDENT RUDENSTINE
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (harvard living wage campaign)
Mon Apr 30 08:21:40 2001
From: "harvard living wage campaign" <harvard_livingwagecampaign@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 12:17:23 -0000
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A Response To President Rudenstine
April 28, 2001
During the past eleven days, we in the Living Wage Campaign have been
inspired by the outpouring of support for a living wage, and for our sit-in,
from all parts of our community. Workers from janitors to secretaries to
dining hall workers have assembled solidarity rallies and given speeches
outside Mass Hall; hundreds of students have taken part in panels, rallies,
and vigils; three hundred faculty members have organized the Faculty
Committee for a Living Wage; alumni/ae and parents have traveled to
Cambridge to visit students sitting in; organizations from PBHA to the
Harvard Anthropology Department have endorsed the sit-in; and unions and
community groups have provided supplies from food to tents to funding. The
support of our community has been inspiring and overwhelming.
Since the sit-in began last Wednesday, we have encountered very little
public opposition; and significantly, when we have spoken with
counter-protesters, many have come to agree with us that a living wage is
necessary, and that a sit-in is a fair action at this point in the
Campaign's history. The one consistent source of opposition to our sit-in
has been the Harvard administration. This week, President Rudenstine
released two statements about the sit-in. We would like to respond to those
statements.
In his first statement, President Rudenstine pointed to the report of the
Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies as having been a fair solution to
the problem of poverty in our community. In fact, the Committee's report
has resulted in only 19 Harvard workers receiving health benefits, and the
extension of ESL classes to a few hundred workers. Even if report
implementation were improved, it would not be enough: benefits and education
are important, but cannot substitute for fair wages. Harvard workers cannot
pay their rent on $6.50 per hour, regardless of the number of dental
appointments and literacy courses Harvard allows them. The simple proof of
this fact is seen in the experiences of the hundreds of workers at Harvard
who work two and three jobs-as many as 90 hours per week-because Harvard's
low wages do not cover their daily needs. The inadequacy of this report is
not surprising, as the committee which produced it was hand-picked by the
administration. It included only administrators and faculty chosen by
President Rudenstine, it did not meet with a single union representative,
and the only worker with whom it met was brought by the Living Wage Campaign
to do so. Its deliberations were seriously impaired by a fundamental
divorce from the workers and larger community that lie at the center of this
discussion.
In President Rudenstine's second statement, he agreed for the first time
that the Ad Hoc Committee's report might not be Harvard's only solution to
the problems of low-wage workers, and we are glad that he has shown some
willingness to look into further policy changes. However, he has shown no
willingness to seriously negotiate those policy changes. He has instead
sent representatives to tell us that he will begin discussions once we leave
the building. He has not specified any timeline for those discussions, nor
has he said whom they would include, nor has he made any assurance that the
discussions will be anything more than discussions. It seems all too likely
that discussions, if designed by the administration, would resemble the
fruitless, unrepresentative ones that we have witnessed for the past three
years-the failed discussions which have created the need for this sit-in.
The first type of discussion that we have seen is that in which students,
workers, unions, faculty, and alumni/ae present concerns to the
administration, and administrators reject them. The second type of
discussion has been the administrative appointment of a private committee
which included no students, workers, union representatives, or elected
faculty members. Such exchanges can hardly be called free or honest
dialogue, and yet they encompass the range of the administration's proposals
for dialogue over the last three years. We have no reason to believe that
administrators will now propose anything more meaningful, free, or honest.
We have proposed what we believe to be a real dialogue: we have proposed
that the administration negotiate with us now. We are prepared to conduct
negotiations in good faith, and if administrators will agree, we are
prepared to include workers, faculty, and union representatives, as well as
ourselves, as each of these constituencies is an integral part of the Living
Wage Campaign, and each has an important stake in our university's labor
policies. We are prepared to work together for a solution that will improve
the lives of Harvard workers, and improve Harvard as an institution.
President Rudenstine has rejected our proposal by arguing that our action is
coercive and "inconsistent with the fundamental principles of a university."
We would like to respond briefly to these claims. First, it is not
coercive for our community to stand together as it has, both inside and
outside Massachusetts Hall-students, unions, workers, faculty, alumni/ae,
parents, and community members-and to say that we all think that workers
here deserve a living wage. It is not coercive to say that we will use
civil disobedience when all other modes of discussion and action are met
with firm administrative refusals. What is coercive is the decision of a
handful of administrators to deny the consensus of our community, and to
deny a living wage to more than 1,000 people.
Rather than coerce the administration, the sit-in is bringing the voices of
our community into a fairer, more equal balance. For the past three years,
the basic imbalance of power within the university has permitted
administrators to unilaterally reject the calls for a living wage, even as
they have streamed in from thousands of members of our community. The
sit-in has given our community's many voices greater standing, allowing
students, workers, unions, and faculty to speak with the authority and power
often denied them. Re-balancing the power relations in this way is not
coercive, nor is it disruptive to the community: it is in fact fair, and it
is respectful of the community.
We further deny that a sit-in is "inconsistent with the fundamental
principles of a university." Peaceful acts of civil disobedience for
broadly-accepted goals are part of a proud tradition at this university, in
this country, and throughout the world. We think that it is the
university's three-year refusal to conduct productive dialogue, its ongoing
denial of fair wages, and its current refusal to negotiate, that are
inconsistent with the fundamental principles of a university.
Finally, we find Rudenstine's statements deeply disappointing in their
refusal to discuss the issues at hand: fair wages and benefits. These are
the issues for which we are sitting in, they are the issues that thousands
of members of our community have come out to support, and they are the
issues that we look forward to negotiating with the administration. No one
should live in poverty, and especially not anyone who works for an
institution as wealthy as Harvard. No one should face medical emergencies
without health coverage. No one should have to work 80 hours per week
simply to pay rent and buy groceries. And no one should return home after
working two jobs only to have to eat dinner in a soup kitchen or spend the
night at a homeless shelter. These are simple ideas. They are ideas that
our community overwhelmingly supports. It is time for President Rudenstine
to join the rest of our community in affirming these ideas by working with
us to implement a living wage policy.
For more information, visit our website: http://www.livingwagenow.com
To show your support, come to Monday's noon rally with AFL-CIO President
John Sweeney!
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