Workers Seek Living Wage

Janitors, dining hall workers, and security guards came together yesterday to demand better labor policies in an event organized by the Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM), the newest activism organization on campus.

SLAM evolved from the now-defunct Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), an activist organization that staged a three week sit-in of Mass. Hall in 2002 and demanded wage increases and benefits for the University’s service employees. The event drew national headlines and prompted the University to review its labor policies.

Last night’s event in Harvard Hall, which was attended by about 40 people, brought attention to the financial troubles and working conditions of the University’s lowest paid workers.

Currently, Harvard janitors make $12.85 an hour for their first three years, according to a SLAM pamphlet, and only 49 percent of janitors work full-time. At Boston University, the pamphlet said, janitors make $17.23 an hour.

Last night, SLAM called on Harvard to give its janitors $20 per hour with benefits, an amount that amounts, SLAM pamphlets say, to a living wage in the Boston area. It also urged the University to increase the opportunities for full-time work, to honor the workers’ right to unionize, and to cease outsourcing service work immediately.

During the meeting, several of the University’s workers shared personal experiences about the difficulty of making ends meet on a Harvard salary.

Marta Miranda, who works as a housekeeper at Harvard Business School, discussed her frustration at not being allowed to work full-time.

“We want a better life for ourselves and our families,” Miranda said. “These part-time jobs don’t allows us to provide for our families. It is necessary to work two jobs to support our families and to send our children to school.”

She added, “It is ironic that Harvard, such a democratic and well-known university, would treat its workers so poorly”.

Edward Childs, a dining hall worker whose contract expires in June of 2006, criticized a policy that allows Harvard to lay off dining hall workers during the summer and prevents them from receiving unemployment benefits.

“We have workers that are facing tough times,” he said. “We have a couple of workers who became homeless, and this is a situation created by Harvard.”

In an interview yesterday, Harvard’s Director of Labor and Employee Relations, William J. Murphy, affirmed the University’s commitment to its workers.

“We are already exceeding the living wage ordinances for both Boston and Cambridge,” Murphy said.

But Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky ’07, said he disagreed that Harvard is doing all it can for its workers.

“The fact is that workers are being squeezed and if workers are saying that they are need of help, Harvard has an obligation to help them,” said Gould-Wartofsky, who is also a Crimson editor.

Gould-Wartofsky, who organized the event along with Alyssa M. Aguilera ’08, said SLAM’s work is particularly relevant this year as both dining hall workers and janitors are engaging in contract negotiations.

Throughout the event, workers reiterated the need for student support. They said they believed the University would not meet their demands without student recognition.

“Our workers are often invisible to the students they serve, to the students whose lives they make possible. We needed a force to stand behind workers this year,” Gould-Wartofsky said.