Students Nationwide Unite to Support Campus Workers
Feature Story by Carl Lipscombe, National Coordinator, Student Labor Action Project - 4/13/2005
For 26 students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. the taste of pizza was 10 times more delicious on March 24, 2005. On that day, members of the Georgetown Living Wage Coalition ended an eight-day hunger strike in support of paying a living wage to all university workers.Also on March 24, the university adopted an employment policy that guarantees $13 per hour for all workers who start this year and $14 per hour, considered a living wage for D.C. residents, beginning in 2007. The protestors ended their hunger strike triumphantly.
The coalition's victory at Georgetown served as an inspiring kick-off to the National Student Labor Week of Action, held annually from March 31, Cesar Chavez Day, to April 4, the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, Tenn. During the week, student groups nationwide are encouraged to plan events in support of workers' rights to living wages, health care and other benefits, and the right to organize.
This year marked the sixth week of action, organized by the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), a project of Jobs with Justice and the United States Student Association.
At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, more than 600 graduate teaching assistants and advocates marched in support of fair wages for graduate employees. In Philadelphia and D.C., students rallied and spoke out against social security privatization as part of the AFL-CIO's day of action against Charles Schwab. And since April 4, students at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. have been staging a sit-in at the university's admissions office in support of a living wage for workers on their campus.
"Service workers at Washington University have been the victims of anti-unionization campaigns, outsourcing, illegitimate wages, and unfair working conditions," said Danielle Christmas of the Student Worker Alliance (SWA). "For a university that prides itself on the strength of its community, this is unacceptable."
Students have said they will sit-in until Chancellor Mark Wrighton agrees to SWA's proposed Code of Conduct, which includes a living wage for all campus employees, the right to organize, and membership in the Workers' Rights Consortium.
Threats to fair labor standards have surfaced nationally also. The Bush administration has proposed budget cuts with serious implications for students and workers, by slashing funding for Medicaid and other programs and eliminating programs such as Upward Bound, Perkins Loans, and the Office of Disability Employment Policy.
Students involved in the National Student Labor Week of Action say they aim to better connect their issues with those of workers, and they hope the events help workers win concrete victories this year. The important week, they say, epitomizes a national trend in student-worker solidarity.
"Students can often persuade campus officials in ways that workers may not be able to," said Lara Granich of Jobs with Justice in St. Louis. "Their involvement can make or break a campaign."
