Young but Resolute
College students fight to promote workers' issues.
By Jimmie Turner
On college campuses across America, AFSCME members have gained a valuable ally in their struggle against workplace injustice.
Since 2001, students in California, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio and other places have marched and demonstrated — and rallied on picket lines — alongside public employees who work at those institutions. The causes: fair wages and benefits, collective bargaining rights, and respect and dignity on the job.
Their combined efforts have caught the attention of the community and the media, which has helped move school administrators to respond to workers' demands. In the meantime, some of those same state universities have been jacking up tuition (see related story). And workers have reciprocated by supporting students in their push to keep costs down.
NO 'SWEAT.' The United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and the Student Labor Action Project have been the launching pad for soaring student activism. Both were founded in the late 1990s to fight deplorable working conditions and pitiful pay.
At colleges across the United States, student activists have also pressured administrators to end their exploitation of workers elsewhere. For example, students have organized to force colleges to stop using logo insignia manufactured by sweatshop labor. In addition, the demonstrators strongly object to university contracts with such abusive companies as Cintas, a large supplier of uniforms for campus employees.
USAS has affiliations with nearly 150 American and Canadian colleges — a number that draws comparisons to the student movement of the 1960s, when militants demanded civil rights, free speech and an end to the Vietnam War.
"I think there is a very similar passion, but it's more mature today," notes Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University's Director of Labor Education Research. "I think that these students don't see themselves as ‘saving' the labor movement," but they do want to support it. "For those of us coming of age in the 1960s, we really did think that we were going to change the world."
That, she feels, is great: "We need the energy of youth."
Setareh Ghandehari, a junior at the University of Maryland/College Park, believes that activists became complacent after the constructive public policy changes in the 1960s. "Everyone said, 'We won, and I guess that's it: There's no more racism; there's no more [social] class issues,'" she says. "We realize that those things we won were great, but they're not enough. More needs to be done."
MIAMI HAS A VICE. In Oxford, Ohio, less than five miles from the Indiana border, sits prestigious Miami University. Nicolle Schaeffer, a 2003 graduate, describes a scene where many students can be seen cruising around campus in high-priced urban SUVs and foreign sports cars. "Even though it is a public school, the students who go there tend to come from wealthier backgrounds than most college students," she explains. "The people who work and live in the town all year around tend to come from lower economic classes.
"Those kinds of class antagonisms are lived out every day at Miami. It's so apparent to me, but it was startling how easy it was for the workers to become invisible to these students."
In addition, administrators from the university have a bad habit: They don't pay workers wages commensurate with its image. Employees there — including professors — are paid less than their colleagues at other Ohio institutions. Says Randy Marcum, president of Local 209 (Council 8) and a plumber at the school: "Miami is an equal opportunity employer. It underpays everybody."
One example of management's disrespect toward some of its most diligent workers: In 2002, Marcum says the dining hall's food-service unit was rated No. 1 among U.S. colleges. "And how has Miami rewarded its people?" he asks. "By paying them such a substandard wage that they can't even make a living."
Last October, more than 400 disgruntled food-service workers, grounds crews and maintenance employees represented by Local 209 decided to fight back: They went on strike for the first time.
A CALL FOR FAIRNESS. For Marcum, who has been the local president for just over a year, the strike had to produce two essential elements: a major offensive — with the workers heavily involved — to get the administrators' attention; and substantial student involvement.
So in November 2002, Marcum sat down with a handful of students, including Schaeffer and fellow activist, Nick Robinson. Together they established the Fair Labor Coalition, which took the workers' message to the media and the Oxford community.
Like Schaeffer, Robinson could have left the area after graduating last May. But the two activists were determined to push their labor campaign to a successful conclusion. Says Robinson: "The idea that Miami has the highest tuition in Ohio and pays one of the lowest wages is just ridiculous. You have to do something."
Their involvement had a profound effect at the school. "Miami is a very conservative campus," Robinson notes, with no tradition of protest. "It's almost easier because there's no shadow of past protests weighing over you," Robinson explains. "You could see that what we were doing was resonating in the campus newspaper and in student discussions."
During the two-week strike, workers and students pitched tents in front of the main administration building and demonstrated around the clock. Students blocked trucks attempting to deliver supplies to the kitchen. Robinson and Schaeffer were part of a small crowd arrested for challenging the lax food-safety practices of "scabs" replacing striking employees in the dining hall.
The workers won a three-year contract that includes: a 4.25-percent pay increase in the first year and a 3 percent increase in each of the final two years; a cap on health insurance premiums; an increase in entry-level wages by at least 5 percent; and management's promise not to retaliate against workers who walked out.
UNITED FRONT. Last fall, dozens of students from the University of Maryland/College Park spent much of the semester supporting workers as they battled tight-fisted administrators.
Members of Students and Workers Unite! attended rallies with campus employees trying to negotiate a first contract nearly two years after winning collective bargaining rights. Setareh Ghandehari says students formed the coalition to help the workers achieve respect.
Administrators were stalling on negotiations while trying to balance the budget through layoffs and tuition hikes. Meanwhile, the school had a bloated management system with overlapping functions and high salaries. Students put pressure on Pres. Dan Mote, even holding a rally on the front yard of his stately, university-paid home.
"Mote makes over $300,000 a year; it's totally ridiculous," says Dan Levitan, a student-coalition member. Referring to the disparity of incomes at College Park, he adds, "Mote doesn't work 24 times as hard as the janitors do."
In March, the workers prevailed when they agreed to a first contract, a three-year deal that includes a 4.1 percent pay increase in July and wage re-openers for the remaining two years. In addition, the agreement locks in tuition benefits for staff, maintains the current health and pension plans, and expands leave allowances.
'STRIKE'-OUT PITCH. Last October in Minneapolis, some 2,000 clericals rejected the University of Minnesota's contract proposal and went on strike for the first time. Joining the workers — members of Local 3800 (Council 6) — were students, faculty, community activists and colleagues from a sister unit (Local 3801) at the University of Minnesota/Duluth.
For two weeks, strikers and their supporters endured freezing temperatures as they rallied at the school's homecoming parade, a football tailgate party and the administration building. Some student protesters even took over the university president's office lobby, banging pots and pans to emphasize their displeasure. Others supplied the striking workers with food and coffee on the picket line.
Union members were grateful for the student support. The budding activists' exuberance uplifted workers' spirits, motivating them to turn out every day until the strike was settled. In addition, the after-effects of the movement solidified the bond among the clericals.
Union Scholars Program
AFSCME has an innovative program to involve students in the labor movement. The AFSCME/United Negro College Fund Union Scholars Program gives students of color an opportunity to gain movement experience, while earning money for college. For more information, visit the UNCF Web site.
