Cav Daily column on Living Wage Campaign

[Susan Banks <sbanks@law1.law.virginia.edu>]

Reply-To: "Jody Calemine" <gjc2g@hobbes.itc.virginia.edu>
From: "Jody Calemine" <gjc2g@hobbes.itc.virginia.edu>
To: <vella-members@virginia.edu>
Subject: Cav Daily column on Living Wage Campaign (fwd)
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 16:13:40 -0400
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And one final note...

Below, I have forwarded a copy of a column written by UVA history
professor Nelson Lichtenstein, who is involved in the Living Wage
Campaign.  It provides a good overview of the issues from the
living-wage
advocates' perspective.

Originally appearing in the Cavalier Daily, this column was posted to
the
Labor Action Group's mailing list. I am posting it to the VELLA list for
educational purposes.  VELLA does not endorse the views of the author.

Feel free to discuss/debate the issues on the list, however.

Thanks.
Jody

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 11:31:44 -0500 ()
From: "Nelson N. Lichtenstein" <nnl3w@server1.mail.virginia.edu>
To: labor@virginia.edu
Subject: Cav Daily column on Living Wage Campaign

To: Friends of the Living Wage Campaign
	In case you did not see it, this column appeared in the Cavalier Daily
on September 15.

"Workers Denied Living Wage in Jefferson's Backyard"

  by Nelson Lichtenstein

     We're all proud of the fact that the University of Virginia is
rated
as one of the best institutions of higher learning in the nation. On the
scales that measure teaching, research, selectivity, and student
accomplishment we now compare ourselves to Harvard, Columbia,
Northwestern,
North Carolina, Duke, and to the University of California at
Berkeley.

     But if the University of Virginia still discriminated against
African-Americans and white women, or if some of its leading spokesmen
defended such inequalities, then you might think twice about those
rankings.
If some longtime members of the University community lived in poverty,
and
if others were afraid to exercise the rights guaranteed them under the
U.S.
constitution, then one might think that the University had a serious
problem, that its high academic rankings were somehow tarnished.

     Unfortunately, that's all true. At this internationally
respected university, founded by one of the chief proponents of American
liberty, the starting wage for its housekeeping staff is $12,756 - far
below the poverty line for a family of four ($16,450). According to
Uva's
own investigation and its subsequent "Muddy Floor Report," more than
half
of the housekeepers are African-American.

     University of Virginia secretaries and clerical workers, who get
paid
slightly more, start at a meager $15,588. Ask any professor, and they'll
tell you how indispensable these women are to the academic work of our
schools and departments. Yet after ten or twenty years of service, many
still earn $24,000 or less. That will buy groceries, but not much of a
future. Indeed, real wages for the staff have lagged behind inflation
over the last couple of decades. In the early 1970s starting wages at
Uva
were actually higher for housekeepers, grounds personnel, and
secretaries
than they are today, which is why many are eligible for food stamps.

     This University is not some fast food joint on Route 29 North. Last
year the Board of Visitors raised the capital campaign goal to a billion
dollars, up a cool $250 million. The University employs more than ten
thousand
people and sets the wage standard for a good slice of central Virginia.
Of
late the Board of Visitors has found the money to help expand Scott
Stadium,
bail out the floundering Qualchoice health plan, and open an office park
near
the airport. Faculty salaries are moving up too, thank you very much.

	But the whole University community must rise together. To help this
along, a group of faculty, staff, and students have launched a "Living
Wage"
campaign designed to make sure that the minimum starting wage for every
person
who works on grounds is at least $8 an hour. This is just about $16,640
a year
for those who work 40 hours a week, nothing to write home about. Uva
officials
know it would take only $3 million to $5 million in reallocated funds,
barely
the cream off its milk and honey, to make $8 an hour a reality for
hundreds and
hundreds of underpaid workers. And others on staff would soon get raises
too,
as the entire pay structure moved upward.

     Students have two compelling reasons to support this "Living Wage"
campaign. First, it represents simple justice. Otherwise, your
education,
tuition, and room charges are being subsidized by the working poor. This
is
not a pretty sight. Indeed, it should make some of us rather
uncomfortable, just as segregation and other discriminations dimmed the
luster
of this institution. Some administrators excuse such policies by
claiming that
they just set staff wages in accord with "the local labor market." But
if this
institution judged the value of its professors, students, or
administrators
simply by their worth in the market - no matter how expansive - it would
subvert its quest for excellence. The values and practices of the
University
should be held to a higher standard.

     Second, and equally important, our campaign for a "Living Wage" is
part
of a larger effort to give all members of the University community a
voice in
how their problems are resolved and their lives are governed. The
faculty has
its senate, the administration meets continually, the fraternities and
sororities have their own councils, and the student government is not
just a
sand box.

     But the classified staff has no organization and it has no voice.
They want more money, sure, but there are also scores of other issues
upon
which their voice is mute. Two years ago the University got into hot
water
with the legislature when administrators decided to switch the pay
schedule
around and told staff that to make the change it had to withhold or
"lag" two
weeks's pay - until the employee retired, when the money would finally
come
through. And more recently, University officials have been monkeying
around
with staff sick leave and pay raise policies, again with no input from
an
independent organization representing those who will be most affected.

     These are not technical issues, but stand at the heart of what we
think of as freedom and democracy. The U.S. Constitution's First
Amendment
guarantees American citizens the right to free speech, to peaceably
assemble,
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This law
covers
chaired professors as well as Cabell Hall janitors, doctors and food
service
workers, both on the job and off.

     To make sure these rights are respected and exercised at Mr.
Jefferson's University, we invite you to join our Living Wage campaign.
Stop by the table on the lawn crosswalk, e-mail us at
labor@virginia.edu, or
call 977-1497.


Nelson Lichtenstein is a professor of history at UVa and a member of the
Labor
Action Group.









Susan Banks
Faculty Technical Support
University of Virginia - School of Law
580 Massie Rd., Charlottesville, VA  22903