George Washington University
Students arrested supporting workers' rights
By Steven Ceci
Washington, D.C.
Eleven student activists were arrested on
March 28 at George Washington University here in a solidarity
action supporting workers' rights at the wealthy school,
located just blocks from the White House.
Nine of those arrested were GW students; the two others were
from Georgetown University.
The students had set up a tent city at the Marvin Center,
the main student center on campus, to demand that GW affiliate
with the Workers Rights Consortium. To affiliate, the
university would have to verify that apparel bearing its logo
was not made by sweatshop labor. It would also have to
institute a labor code of conduct that guarantees a livable
wage, affordable health care and the right to organize to
university employees.
Senior Allie Robbins, who cheered "No justice, no peace!"
while being put in handcuffs, said she was wrongfully detained
and that she was participating in a peaceful protest. "It's
obviously scary knowing that we were doing the right thing ...
but the fact that 10 other students were with me was absolutely
empowering," she said. Alex Freedman, another student who
participated in the tent city, said the arrest of the 11 would
not deter activists from demonstrating for greater worker
rights.
The tent city encampment followed a spirited rally of close
to 200 students and workers outside GW's Rice Hall and the
office of university president Joel Trachtenberg. It was
organized by a coalition of student groups and unions
representing many of the workers at GW--from housekeepers and
food service workers to adjunct faculty. The action was part of
the Student and Labor Action Project (SLAP), a nationally
coordinated week of activities at universities and colleges to
bring attention to workers' rights. The week includes March 31,
the birthday of farmworkers' organizer Caesar Chavez, and April
4, the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
GW is the largest private employer in the District of
Columbia and second only to the federal government as an
employer in the District. The university is a wealthy
institution and a large property owner in the District. At the
end of 2002 it had assets of $1.7 billion and liabilities of
$826 million. It also has endowments of $635 million.
GW is notorious in the D.C. area for failing to respect
workers' rights or provide a livable wage. The university is
trying to cut health insurance benefits to its janitors,
housekeepers and maintenance staff, represented by SEIU local
82. It gets university apparel from sweatshop companies. And it
is trying to keep part-time faculty from organizing their own
union with SEIU Local 500 by hiring one of the most notorious
union-busting law firms in the country, Krupin O'Brien.
In yet another labor struggle at GW, parking lot and garage
workers are trying to organize with HERE Local 27. The
university contracted out its parking garages to Colonial
Parking, which has refused to recognize the workers' right to
form a union. Using this tactic, George Washington University
claims its hands are clean while it refuses to put leverage on
Colonial Parking to respect the workers' right to unionize.
With all these attacks and abuses, student groups and the
AFL-CIO Metro Labor Council are planning to broaden the
struggle and make George Washington University's labor record a
citywide issue.
Reprinted from the April 15, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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