GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
ORGANIZE ACROSS THE NATION The third annual Student
Labor Action Project (SLAP), organized by the national Jobs
with Justice, will be held April 4th. The organizers are
getting closer to their goal of 100 actions and events as each
day students, trade unionists, community oranizers and faith-based
organizers report their willingness and preparation to participate.
To read details about the various campaigns and actions on campuses go to SLAP April 4th Reports: Student and youth activists joined with union members to loudly denounce the Seattle School Board's decision to contract with anti-worker school bus corporations. Washington State Jobs with Justice helped mobilize a broad coalition of over 500 students & youth, parents, faith leaders, and union members to rally in front of the School Administration Building and then converge on the April 3rd Board meeting. As the rally approached the entrance, the Administration quickly had the building doors locked and tied up with extension cords and plastic handcuffs. A sign stating "Fire Code Capacity Is Met and No More Let In" was posted on the locked glass doors to the public meeting as demonstrators chanted, "Let Us In" and "Who's Schools? Our Schools!" Many police units were called as administrators seemed to fear facing the public. High school students, University students from many Seattle schools, Youth Undoing Institutional Racism, Students for Fair Trade, Seattle Young People's Project, the graduate student worker union GSEAC-UAW, and members from Teamsters 763 and Machinists 289 expressed support for bus drivers' rights to liveable wages and a voice on the job. Just as important and related to workers' rights, was protesting the Board's direction to undermine affirmative action contracting and student safety. As high school student Bernard Lorenzo conveyed to the crowd, "I have been riding union school buses for 8 years, and I had never once had an accident. To cut down on workers, would increase accidents. Isn't the Seattle Public Schools Adminstration responsible for safety? I want to thank the bus drivers for putting students first." The Board's decision threatens to end the careers of a diverse group of union drivers and mechanics with an average of 13 years experience of safe and caring transport of school children. The non-union contractor guarantees that half its drivers will have six months' experience or more. On bus mechanics, the industry standard is one per 20 buses. The current unionized company employs one Machinist union mechanic per 17 buses. The non-union contractor proposes one mechanic for every 42 buses. By this decision, the District stands to save only a very small percentage of its budget directly from the paychecks of low-wage union workers, safety of students, and affirmative action opportunities of our community. Next steps to address this injustice are currently developing. Miami, FL In Miami, students and labor joined together for a spirited action in support of workers at Mt. Sinai/St. Francis Nursing Home, where workers have been fighting to join SEIU 1199. Students from the Youth Labor Movement, the University of Miami, and the Youth Labor Activists High School Students and members from the NAACP, Haitian Women of Miami, TWU Local 291, LIUNA, APWU, UFCW, AFSCME, Railroad Workers, OPEIU, FLOC, SEIU 1199, Haitian American Christian Council, CBTU, South Florida AFL-CIO, the Carpenters, the Bruce Jay Interfaith Committee, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and many others turned out for great speakers and music. Residents of the Nursing Home and even two police officers assigned to the action couldn't resist the energy of the crowd, and joined in with chanting and singing. Tony Hill pulled the crowd together when he said "Workers of Mt. Sinai, the Family is here! You all voted for a union - we are going to keep fighting until you get one!". DJ Jean Claude followed up by blasting the song "We are Family". Even though Management tried to 'dampen' the protestors spirits by letting the sprinklers come on twice during the action, JwJ just turned the music up and rocked some more. Employers have outrageously accused SEIU 1199 of using Voodoo to scare the mostly Haitian workers into joining the union. In the words of Sister Edeline Clermont, "Was it Voodoo that made the workers vote for the union, or was it the Power of the People? It was the power of the people working together and supporting these workers!" Workers at the Nursing Home who came out for the action must be especially saluted for coming out and standing up for themselves and their co-workers knowing that they will probably be terminated for joining the action. |
Indianapolis, IN On April 4, No Sweat! Indiana U. and the Earlham College Progressive Student Union rallied with Brylane Distribution workers in Indianapolis at the facility's gates. Workers at Brylane are ogranizing with UNITE! and are asking for a card check, though management has responded with an agressive racist and anti-union campaign. More than half of Brylane's workers are people of color and women. Workers are organizing with UNITE! because of low wages, high injury rates, no pensions, high insurance, and harassment. Many Latino workers who are immigrants without papers have been singled out by management in one on one and captive audience meetings. April 4th is the student-labor day of action and historically in the state of Indiana has been a day that Hoosier university and college anti-sweatshop groups converge with Hoosier workers who are organizing. Two years ago students from Indiana, Earlham, Purdue, and Ball State converged in Richmond, IN to support organizing city santitation workers, who recently bargained their first contract. Highland Heights, KY In Highland Heights, KY, students from the Northern Kentucky University Student Labor Action Program (NKU SLAP) signed up 258 students onto "NKU Authorization Cards for Card Check/Neutrality" as they leafleted in front of the cafeteria before lunch and dinner in support of the organizing efforts of the Sodexho food service workers. The authorization cards imitated union cards and called on NKU President James Votruba to allow Sodexho to sign a card check/neutrality agreement with the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, Local 12. Standing next to the NKU SLAP organizers were cardboard caricatures representing the President, a food service worker, a NKU student, and a NKU community member. In response to President Votruba's recent statement that he would not become involved in Sodexho's internal business practices unless they violated fundamental institutional values, NKU SLAP created their own core values, which stated, "NKU fundamental institutional value # 1: Worker's will have the right to organize a union without fear of losing their job. # 2: Free speech for everyone on campus. All workers will be protected. #3: We have no objections to card check/neutrality agreements with HERE Local 12." The values were prominently displayed on their cardboard cutouts. In a sign of 'across-the-Ohio River' student solidarity, a student activist from Xavier University in Cincinnati assisted NKU SLAP in signing students up on cards. The campaign at Xavier has gone on for over 18 months and has also called on the Xavier administration to require card check/neutrality during the organizing drive of the Sodexho food service workers. Baltimore, MD Over 100 Johns Hopkins U. students, workers, and community organization supporters rallied in front of the Hopkins Administration building (Garland Hall) for an Indexed Living Wage for all Hopkins employees and subcontracted workers. The rally, although it was cold and raining, had a large turnout and including a Guerilla Theater performance about Hopkins taking money and resources from the City of Baltimore, as well as speeches by students, faculty, and community activists. At the end of the rally, the group charged the front of the administration building to create a security distrubance but did not go in the building. Kalmazoo, MI Western Michigan University's SAS held a Sweatshops Fashion Show to call attention to unfair labor practices committed by big-name companies such as Gap, Wal-Mart, Disney and others. Participants displayed mock or real clothing made by some popular name companies while a speaker with a microphone would describe some of the conditions workers are reportedly subjected to in order to produce clothing. Organizers told tales of overseas workers being paid "starvation wages" and being forced to work 14-hour shifts, six days a week, with little break time. Villanova, PA At Villanova University on April 5th, USAS/DSA put on a "sweatshop fashion show" to raise awareness about labor abuses and to pressure the administration to join the WRC. According to organizer Teresa Mambu, the administration, which had been totally unresponsive to previous pressure, is "likely" to sign up for the WRC soon. The event drew 75-100 people, as passers-by (including campus tours) stopped to watch the event. Later that night, USAS, DSA, Amnesty International, the Feminist Coalition, and Bread for the World held a concert. In between sets, the groups got on stage to raise awareness about their various campaigns. More than 400 people attended the concert, which was from 10 PM until 2 AM!! Providence, RI Over 75 student, union, community, and Jobs with Justice activists rallied on April 4th at Providence College (P.C.) in support of the janitors and cleaners who have been working without a contract since January. The administration prevented activists from even entering college grounds, so the rally took place outside the university entrance. Students from Brown U., Rhode Island College, U. Rhode Island, and local high schools joined P.C. activists and RI JwJ to demand justice for the janitors at P.C., who earn $3/hour less than janitors at other universities in the area. SEIU local 134, which represents the 41 janitors at P.C., has been fighting for a fair contract since January 1, 2002, when their contract with UNICCO, a subcontractor of P.C., expired. |