[750] in peace2
MIT victory & 5/3 HARVARD SIT IN UPDATE
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Thu May 3 22:32:59 2001
Message-Id: <200105040230.WAA23836@gold.mit.edu>
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU, greens-announce@MIT.EDU
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Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 22:30:38 -0400
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
Last night was VIBRANT!!!
------- Forwarded Message
From: "harvard living wage campaign" <harvard_livingwagecampaign@hotmail.com>
Subject: 5/3 HARVARD SIT IN UPDATE
Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 12:51:17 -0000
5/3 HARVARD LIVING WAGE SIT-IN UPDATE
DAY 16
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.
**UPDATE**
* At 5:30 dozens of New York alumni will rally for a living wage at the
Harvard Club of New York. If you're in New York, drop by!
* Yesterday, hundreds of HERE dining hall employees unanimously voted to
authorize a strike, and marched on Harvard Yard demanding a living wage for
all Harvard employees.
* Over 200 community members and Harvard affiliates marched from Cambridge
City Hall to Mass Hall, led by members of the Cambridge City Council. Their
chanting could be heard from blocks away.
* Bob Herbert has written another wonderful op-ed in the New York Times,
entitled "Harvard's Heroes."
**TABLE OF CONTENTS**
1. Contact Information for Administrators
2. Today's Events
3. Administration Response and Sample Letter
4. Ways to Help
5. Demands
6. Response to Harvard Gazette Article
**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.
9:00 AM: SEIU Local 254 Janitors march on the Medical School Quad for a
living wage and an end to outsourcing at the Med School.
Longwood/Medical T stop, E line green
NOON: Rally
Speakers include Professor Giron-Negron
8PM: Vigil
Featuring Misop Bayuh, guitar/vocals
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. Contrary to the reports of the Crimson, no formalized committee
nor committee membership has been offered to the students staging a sit in.
We would appreciate any move by the administration in such a direction.
Some progress: Faculty support continues to grow and has been expressed to
the administration as well as printed in a full page ad in the Boston Globe.
Additionally HERE workers at the business school have successfully
resisted reclassification that would have put them below a living wage.
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: beach@fas.harvard.edu, or call 617-816-8394.
* 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.
1-2 HOURS:
* Sign up for a night shift at the table to ensure the safety of the people
in tent city and the protesters in Mass Hall
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.
* Use the Living Wage Logo (found on the website: www.livingwagenow.com) as
your computer wallpaper.
WORKERS AND STAFF
* Use the Living Wage Logo (found on the website: www.livingwagenow.com) as
your wallpaper for your computer.
* Speak at a rally. Contact Amy: 617-290-5802.
* Wear a button while you are at Harvard. Pick one up at the information
table in front of Mass Hall
CONTACTS:
Endorsements: pslm@hcs.harvard.edu
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 a daily update 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 GAZETTE**
April 30, 2001
The Real Facts, Fallacies and Distortions about Employment and Living Wages
at Harvard
Harvard University's background paper, "Facts and fallacies about employment
at Harvard" (which the university reprinted in its own Gazette) repeats many
of the same misrepresentations the administration has been making since
before the peaceful sit-in by students and community supporters began on
April 18. Here are a few, based on the university's own reports and on
conversations with workers at Harvard:
The administration's statements that only about 400 regular Harvard
employees get less than a living wage are carefully phrased to exclude
casual workers and people who work at Harvard on Harvard subcontracts. If
you add up the numbers for these groups in the administration's own
background paper, you will find more than the 1000-worker figure the Living
Wage Campaign has used. Contract employees do the same work as regular
Harvard employees: guarding buildings, cleaning toilets, and serving food.
Indeed, for the past two years the university has simply replaced unionized
guards who make a living wage with non-unionized, subcontracted guards who
do not. Likewise, casual employees often do the same work as regular
employees. In fact, the university admitted in 1999 that it had worked some
casuals 40 hours a week in violation of its own rules. If people "do not
rely on their casual employment for their livelihood," it may be because
they, like other workers at Harvard, have to take second or third jobs to
make ends meet.
A $19 billion university can afford to pay $10.25 an hour plus benefits,
whether to a "regular" worker, a casual worker, or a subcontracted worker.
Paying any of these workers less not only mistreats them, but also gives the
university an incentive to continue replacing regular workers with underpaid
casual and subcontract workers.
The Bridge Program is a good program, but it does not solve the problem of
poverty at Harvard. We speak to workers who must work seventy or more hours
per week, at Harvard jobs and other jobs, to survive. Even with paid
release time, that is not a good situation for learning. Furthermore, many
of the workers we have talked to this year - after Harvard claimed it was
implementing the committee recommendations - were not aware of the Bridge
program. Others said that management had not responded to their
applications to it.
The call for living wages comes from far more than a "small group of
students," as the university says. All the unions representing workers at
Harvard have endorsed a living wage. So have over 250 Harvard faculty. The
Living Wage campaign includes workers, faculty, and alumni as well as
students.
Harvard's extension of health benefits may hurt workers as much as it helps.
The administration has promised subsidized health insurance to people who
work at Harvard over sixteen hours a week. 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. The
Living Wage Campaign suggested independent monitoring to protect workers
against such cutbacks; Harvard refused. In any case, only 19 workers have
actually gotten coverage as a result of the changes, because Harvard charges
so much for health insurance and pays so little.
Harvard is not one of the "leading employers in the region." Neighboring
universities MIT, BU, and Northeastern pay all custodians at least $14 per
hour. Harvard, by its own admission, starts custodians at $9.65. Workers
at Harvard tell us that they eat in soup kitchens; local homeless shelters
tell us that they serve Harvard workers.
Harvard has been slow at best in implementing the reforms it promised. Six
months after the Harvard Corporation said that it would adopt the
recommended changes, the Living Wage Campaign had spoken with workers from
all areas of the university, and had yet to find a single worker who had
heard of the increased access to benefits which the report promised. Workers
who were eligible for benefits were still not receiving them, and didn't
even know that they should be receiving them. In fact, the Campaign spoke
with workers who had been eligible for benefits before the implementation of
the report, who didn't receive them, and who didn't know that they should.
Harvard has indeed "failed to listen" to arguments for a living wage. What
the administration calls a "faculty committee" on employment practices was
in fact a mix of administrators and faculty handpicked by the
administration. During its thirteen-month study the committee met with only
one worker - and that was a worker the Living Wage Campaign brought to one
of their meetings. After that committee's report was released, President
Rudenstine said that he would not reopen the issue.
Harvard's subcontracting policies do lower wages and destroy unions. Since
1999 the university has bought out its unionized guards, who make a living
wage, and replaced them with non-unionized guards from a subcontracting
firm, who get less than a living wage. This policy has cut the guards'
union from over 180 workers to under 20 in that time. Earlier this year,
the university attempted to change the way subcontracted dining hall work at
Harvard Business School would be classified. Those changes would have moved
people from above the living wage to below it, while keeping their work
constant. Their union (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 26)
resisted, but the university and its contractor, Sodexho Marriott, insisted
on cutting wages. Only after the Living Wage Campaign began its peaceful
sit-in did the university concede this point in negotiations with the union.
Local President Janice Loux attributed this victory for workers at Harvard
to the Living Wage Campaign. (Other subcontracted dining hall operations,
including Harvard Law School, are not unionized and pay even less.)
Further information is available at www.livingwagenow.com. See especially
the Living Wage Campaign's responses to the administration committee's
report and to subsequent administration statements.
Thanks for your support!
The Harvard Living Wage Campaign
www.livingwagenow.com
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