Stanford Students Fasting To Demand Living Wage Policy On Campus

StanfordLaborAction [at] gmail.com

You may have heard by now that five students have begun an indefinite
fast to call attention to the need for a real living wage policy on
campus, with more (workers and students) prepared to join the fast
tomorrow if necessary. We have prepared the following statement to
help clarify the rationale and goals of this action. If you feel this
is an important event for the community to be aware of, as we do,
please pass this information on to your colleagues -- including
students, staff, parents and alumni.
If you would like to express your support for the fasters or for a real
living wage policy, or would like to receive further updates, please
email StanfordLaborAction [at] gmail.com -- your support will be crucial in
helping us achieve genuine dialogue with the University so that this
can be a short fast. Please visit http://www.stanford.edu/group/slac, for
further information.

Thanks,
Stanford Labor Action Coalition

Website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/slac,
Video: http://www.youtube.com/stanfordlivingwage
Petition of Support: http://www.stanford.edu/group/slac/Petition.html
Email: StanfordLaborAction [at] gmail.com

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Why are students fasting?

You may be wondering: why are students taking such a drastic action,
putting their lives on the line?

Our Vision for Stanford

As an academic institution, Stanford is an undisputed leader. But
Stanford's role in the community goes much further ˆ Stanford is the
largest employer in Santa Clara County, and the decisions it makes
affect our local communities. We're challenging the University to
become the model employer it claims to be. Stanford can and must
become an ethical leader, setting a positive example even as it effects
vital, immediate change in its sphere of local influence.

To that end, we're putting forward a series of proposals -- for the
most part, asking the University to live up to the commitments it's
already made. The living wage, the principle of wage parity,
guarantees to protect workers' right to organize, and educational
opportunities for workers have all been endorsed and implemented at
Stanford. But their implementation has been incomplete, heavily
qualified, and subject to frequent exception and violation ˆ and this
leaves large groups of workers underpaid, under-protected and on
unequal terms with their peers. For Stanford to demonstrate and live
up to its ideals, we want them to make real, unequivocal guarantees for
labor justice on campus: a living wage, educational opportunities and
wage parity guarantees that apply to all workers, regardless of
worksite and of subcontracted, temporary or casual status; protections
for the right to organize and for frequently-abused temporary workers;
and transparent, democratic, and accountable mechanisms for
implementing and reporting on labor policy.

What brought us to this point?

This hunger strike comes as the culmination of a long series of
requests, protests, actions and escalations on the part of the students
-- and, on the part of the university, unfulfilled commitments followed
by several refusals to negotiate. It has been half a decade since SLAC
first asked the university to show respect for its workers by creating
a real living wage policy. In 2003, it took a seven-day hunger strike
before President Hennessey agreed to negotiate with SLAC about removing
the disabling restrictions on the current policy. We agreed to end the
2003 hunger strike because Hennessy agreed to take steps toward a
living wage policy: he agreed to convene a committee on labor issues to
review the current living wage policy and make recommendations. The
committee reported that they could not find a single worker that the
living wage policy protected, and recommended that restrictions be
removed. Yet the university refused to take action: this past December,
four years after the initial protests, the university finally reported
that they do not intend to change anything about the living wage
policy, and they refused to meet for further negotiations. Due to the
university's repeated refusal not only to amend the policy but also to
meet to discuss the situation, it has come time for an action the
university cannot ignore. Since the recommendations of the PAC and the
charge of the ASSU have proven insufficient, we are adding our voices
and our bodies themselves to the call.


Top 5 things to know about the living wage policy:
1. Hennessy implemented the policy in 2003, but the policy itself
contains a list of 7 restrictions on its applicability. The result? It
applies to almost none of the workers it is designed to protect!
2. After a 7-day hunger strike by students, Hennessy agreed to convene
a Presidential Advisory Committee on Workplace Policies to investigate
the living wage policy (among other issues). In their final report, the
PAC reprimanded Hennessy for the restrictions on the policy, saying:
„If Stanford University operates a Œliving wage‚ policy, it should not
attach so many conditions to its applicability that it has the effect
of excusing many Contracted workers from that policy. A Œliving wage‚
policy that appends a string of conditions creates inequities among
similar workers and risks giving the unfortunate impression that
Stanford‚s employment policies do not really mean what they are
proclaimed to be."
3. The ASSU unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the removal of
all restrictions on the living wage policy. A similar bill is under
consideration by the Graduate Student Senate.
4. Despite all this, President Hennessy currently refuses to act. He
has not responded to our ongoing requests for meetings. Because of this
we have begun a series of escalating, creative direct actions to raise
awareness.
5. With your help, we will win soon a REAL living wage policy that
applies to all campus workers, covers the cost of living, and can be
maintained in a democratic and transparent atmosphere!