Cambridge, MA - Protesters circled an impromptu stage equipped with a single microphone and an overwhelming number of leaflets chanting, "Harvard, Harvard, shame on you! Eight bucks an hour just won't do!" Behind them, inside the Ivy League University's administrative building, 47 students continued their now two-day old sit-in to obtain living wages for all non-administrative employees of Harvard.
Even before the scheduled noon rally organized by the Harvard Living Wage Campaign, students, faculty, and a handful of University workers lifted placards and signs high over their heads and marched in front of Massachusetts Hall, the president's office, to voice their opposition to the University's wage rates. Sometimes earning as little as $6.50 per hour, Harvard employees are paid at a level that leaves them below the federal poverty line.
The Campaign, which was formed in the fall of 1998, was designed by Harvard's Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), and culminated Wednesday with a peaceful sit-in during which students took over Massachusetts Hall's reception area, conference room, hallway, bathroom, and one office.
Negotiations have been unsuccessful until this point. Administrators insist that this is the first time living wage issues have been raised as an item on the Campaign's agenda, and said that the PSLM has had ample time to discuss its concerns during administrators' office hours.
"People are very scared of being fired," said Rigoberto Regalado, who has worked at Harvard for the past four years and has never received a raise. Regalado supervises a part of the cleaning staff, and said that, although he is not representing anyone specific at the rally, he supports his co-workers.
"Even though there is worker union, I don't know a single one of the members," he said. "I've never seen one in the four years I've worked here, and the other day I tried to contact the representative of the union and was told that he wasn't at the office." There are only a few Harvard workers in the union and they are mostly American, Regalado said. "The union never asks how we are doing," he said, comparing it to his previous job with UNICO, where he said the union at least bothered to check up on its employees.
Refusing to bargain with the protesters for an increase in employee wages, Harvard Provost Harvey Fineberg issued a statement yesterday saying, "Harvard meets and exceeds goals with packages to employees." But after the statement was read to a suddenly silent crowd, Amy Offren, one of the rally organizers, refuted Fineberg's claim. Although some Harvard workers obtain benefits, she said, over 1,100 of the University employees are either casual or subcontracted employees and are paid less than $10 per hour. These employees, who work in custodial, dining, parking, and security jobs, typically receive no benefits and are ineligible for union membership.
"The administration is being dishonest and refuses to negotiate," Offren said. Fineberg and Harvard President Neil Rudenstine formed an ad hoc committee on employment policies in March 1999, but it failed to include workers, union representatives, and students. According to Offren, the committee facilitated ESL classes for employees but not increases in salaries or improved benefits. Health coverage is so low, that "workers [would] rather stay on Medicaid."
Protestors sitting inside Massachusetts Hall communicated with rally organizers in Harvard Yard via cell phone. "When the provost came into the building, we asked that he look at our demands and chat with us," one protestor said to the crowd via his cellular phone.
The Campaign is fighting to get Harvard to pay employees at least $10.25 per hour. Combined with labor benefits, this salary would conform to the living wage standards, which account for the area-specific cost of living and covers basic expenses involved in supporting a family. Yet even this increase would fall short of what the National Low Income Housing Commission estimates is needed for a two-bedroom apartment in the Boston area: $15 per hour.
Between repeated choruses of "Hey hey, ho ho, we're sitting in and we won't go, 'cause poverty wages have got to go," various speakers, including city councilors, Harvard faculty members, students, alumni, and Cambridge city workers, showed their support for the Living Wage Campaign.
Citing what they called poor decisions by the Harvard administration - including the secret purchase of secretly buying 40 acres of land in Boston over the last two years, building two museums in a neighborhood without the residents' permission, and once refusing to establish an African-American studies department - Cambridge City Councilor Ken Reeves said that "Harvard does make mistakes, big mistakes."
Reeves pressed for the "revolution" to continue, adding, "It is my responsibility and your responsibility to help them correct these mistakes."
The PSLM plans to organize a rally every day at noon with speakers and musicians, a panel at 7 p.m. in which workers will give testimonies, and a candlelight vigil at 9 p.m.
Although the protesters outside the building maintained a serious atmosphere, contention, inside the air seemed a bit lighter.
"We have lots of food, lots of people, and lots of spirit," said Harvard student Ben McKean, poking his head through a window from inside Massachusetts Hall.
While there have not been any similar protests at Tufts in recent years, some University workers have expressed dissatisfaction. OnceSource employee Elida Hamor, who earns $10.50 per hour, complained about the low number of workers that are assigned to buildings across campus to clean the bathrooms and all the common areas. Hamor used to work for UNICO, the company Tufts previously contracted, and earned $12.50 per hour. When Tufts switched to OneSource, employee wages were lowered.
"Many workers decided to go work in Harvard," said Hamor, who is still in touch with former co-workers. Although she decided not to work at Harvard because she did not want to commute to Cambridge, Hamor said she is unhappy at Tufts and plans to leave at the end of the year.
"The workers at Harvard are looking for more benefits, longer leaves of absences during sickness, and higher wages," said Hamor. "They are demanding their rights."
