On the picket line
By
Sue Davis
Published Mar 30, 2005 10:51 AM
Living wage victory at Georgetown
It took students at Georgetown
University three years of campaigning, nine days of hunger striking and 270
pounds lost to get the administration to agree to pay a living wage to 450
campus employees—both those directly hired and those outsourced.
On
March 23 the university agreed to pay the mostly custodial, food service and
security workers a minimum wage of $13 an hour, up from $11.35, starting July 1
and $14 an hour by July 2007. Yearly raises thereafter will be based on the
Consumer Price Index. The university also affirmed that the workers have the
right to freely associate and organize and to vote for union representation
without intimidation.
The agreement came just hours before a midnight
deadline set by Metro Council President Josh Williams, who vowed to lead labor,
religious and community activists in a series of 24-hour solidarity hunger
strikes starting at noon on March 24. (“Union News,” Metro
Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Liam Stack, a senior, said the 26
strikers’ “main demand is that Georgetown commit to paying its
workers a wage that allows them to support their families with one full-time
job.” (Washington Post, March 21) Students at Swarthmore, Cornell,
University of Wisconsin at Madison and American University, as well as other
Georgetown students and alumni overseas, held “solidarity fasts” to
support the effort.
Westchester bus strike
The 568
bus drivers and maintenance workers at the Bee-Line, the bus company serving New
York state’s Westchester County, went on strike for better pensions on
March 3. Members
of Local 100 of the Transport Workers want to retire at 57
with full benefits after 20 years. The strike means big hardships for the
low-paid workers and public school students. But Liberty Bus Lines, which owns
Bee-Line, could care less. It’s refusing to negotiate with the
drivers.
Yonkers teachers demand contract
Teachers in
Yonkers, the biggest city in Westchester County, who have been without a
contract for nearly two years, picketed outside several schools from March 21 to
23 to publicize their grievances. At the top of the list are layoffs of 450
teachers, program cuts and mismanagement by the district. It seems School
Superintendent Angelo Petrone received a large salary increase in 2004 right
before the district began layoffs and spending cuts.
The Yonkers
Federation of Teachers is taking its grievances to a mediator on April 5. Steve
Frey, president of the federation, told the March 23 New York Times that if
mediation did not produce results, the teachers would strike.
D.C.
workers picket Schwarzenegger
Chanting “They say privatize, we
say organize,” more than 150 workers, community activists and union
members in D.C. braved sleet and snow outside a fancy fundraiser for Arnold
Schwar zen egger on March 8 at the St. Regis Wash ington. The activists were
protesting his plan to privatize pensions in California, converting a stable
insurance policy into a risky 401(k) plan. They also demanded protection for all
benefits and a secure retirement. (“Union News,” Metro Washington
Council, AFL-CIO)
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