Stanford Students Arrested Trying to Meet with Hospital VP Saksen

While over one hundred students representing all segments of the Stanford community assembled in front of Memorial Auditorium in protest of the hospital's plan to subcontract workers to save costs. A smaller delegation of students tried to meet with Stanford Hospital VP Lou Saksen. Earlier in the week,
Sasken tried to use nationalist 9/11 rhetoric to justify the exploitation of workers. He stated that due to 9/11, the hospital has additional financial pressures, and that the housekeeping staff (largely ompromised of immigrant workers) will have to sacrifice hemselves for the good of the hospital.

Additionally he said:

that 99% of the housekeeping staff is composed of people of color. (The administration is conversely disproportionally white.)

Most subcontracting will help reduce 1% of the hospital's debt. (Thousands don't mean muchto the institution, but they do mean a lot to individual workers).

Subcontracted workers earn $3-4 less per hour than do directly hired employees, but he believes that $8/hr (~ $1200/mo before taxes) is a living wage. (The students know the high costs of living in this area ... the rent for a single bdrm apartment is approx. $1000/mo.)

After speeches and a short rally, the larger group chanted and sang, as they marched to the hospital carrying banners and signs. Encouraged by hospital employees and passerbys the crowd chanted and performed theatrical pieces just outside the hospital to show support for the delegation inside.

In solidarity with the 1/3 Asian American, 1/3 Chicano/Latino, and 1/3 African American hospital housekeeping workers, SEIU Local 715 union, and 8 Stanford students confronted Sakson in his office. "

"After trying to give us the runaround, Sakson and hospital security resorted to physical assault when we tried to stop him from shutting his door on us.

" Student Labor Action Committee Co-Coordinator, Monica Henestroza, who put her arm in the
door to stop it from being closed, was personally assaulted by Sakson, who continued pushing against her caught arm even as she screamed in pain.

Mecha co-Chair Leti was also abused by hospital security, who attempted to violently pull her away from the door entrance by grabbing her aggressively and pulling. Other students were also abused.

"This may be hard to believe but it is all on videotape. From the first delegation team, five of the eight students were arrested by Police, while one delegate videotaped the entire scene and the two other delegates of the second team reported back to the more than 100 students who had assembled outside.

"Arrested students include our AASA chair, MEChA co-chair, a Stanford Community for Peace and Justice Officer, and SLAC officers." reported Julia Glick

Subsequently, the larger group quietly went through the hospital to see the arrested students driven off in police cars. "Let them go!" they chanted before the main entrance to the hospital. They then proceeded to President Hennessy's to demand justice for the students and the workers.

Hennessy, according to the students, has been negligent in taking responsibility for the subcontracting issue and answering student, worker, faculty, staff, and general community member
demands that this unjust process be stopped and reviewed.