by Rosa Ines Rivera*Cambridge, Mass. — I’ve been at Harvard University for 17 years, but I’ve never been in a classroom here. I’m a cook in the dining halls. I work in the cafeteria at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where every day I serve amazing students studying medicine, nutrition and child welfare, as well as the doctors and researchers who train them.While I’ve earned no college credits here, I’ve had a lesson in hypocrisy.On my way to work each morning, I pass a building with the inscription: “The highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being.” If Harvard believes this, why is the administration asking dining hall workers to pay even more for our health care even though some of us pay as much as $4,000 a year in premiums alone?I serve the people who created Obamacare, people who treat epidemics and devise ways to make the world healthier and more humane. But I can’t afford the health care plan Harvard wants us to accept.That’s why I have been on strike with 750 co-workers for more than two weeks. That’s why the other day, co-workers and I were arrested after we sat down in Harvard Square, blocking traffic, in an act of civil disobedience. And that’s why the medical school students, in their white coats, have been walking the picket line with us in solidarity.The co-pays alone can be a problem. When a doctor told me my daughter had failed a hearing test and might need surgery, I thought about what care I could do without. I recently skipped an appointment to have a spot on my lung checked for cancer to save on the co-pays.Medical students analyzed Harvard’s proposal and found that the cost of premiums alone could eat up almost 10 percent of my income. And Harvard wants to increase our co-pays for every single doctor visit to $25, from $15, for primary care and to $100, from zero, for outpatient hospital care and some tests. Some costs would be reimbursed for lower-income workers, but out-of-pocket expenses would still be hard to meet.The students say that Harvard’s proposal is unaffordable for nearly all of us according to state government guidelines. If it goes through, I will keep avoiding the doctor to save that money for my kids’ co-pays. Any increase puts me at the breaking point.Harvard is the richest university in the nation, with a $35 billion endowment. But I can’t live on what Harvard pays me. I take home between $430 and $480 a week, and this August, I fell behind on my $1,150 rent and lost my apartment. Now my two kids and I are staying with my mother in public housing, with all four of us sharing a single bedroom. I grew up in the projects and on welfare. I want my 8-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son to climb out of the cycle of poverty. But for most of my time at Harvard it’s been hard.The average dining hall worker makes $31,193 a year, higher than other cafeterias in the area, but it still doesn’t go far around Boston. That’s why we’re asking for an annual salary of $35,000 for some financial stability, particularly since most dining halls are open only during the school year. Right now I’m lucky to work in one of the few cafeterias that’s open all year.I know that health care costs are going up everywhere, and I don’t have all the answers. But there must be some way not to shift costs onto Harvard’s poorest workers.If good health is truly “one of the fundamental rights of every human being,” then shouldn’t that also apply to the human beings working in Harvard’s cafeterias?*Rosa Ines Rivera, a member of Unite Here Local 26, is a dining hall worker at Harvard University. Article via The New York Times.
Harvard Crimson Letter to the Editor by Don Siegel, NE JLC Co-Chair
Image credit: UNITE HERE Local 26, which represents the Harvard University Dining Services workers
By Don Siegel, Co-Chair of the New England Jewish Labor Committee
Originally published in the Harvard Crimson. Read the original here.
To the Editor:
It is always sad when a great university misses a significant teaching moment. The prolonged strike of food service workers at Harvard is an example of just such a missed opportunity.
Press reports indicate that negotiators are bogged down over two issues: a guaranteed annual income for full-time staffers and health insurance. The first derives from the seasonal nature of the academic year and the inability of many Harvard food service workers to collect unemployment benefits during seasonal layoffs. The second is a universal problem that has an outsized impact on low wage workers like the strikers.
When I studied at Harvard, labor relations greats were on the faculty. I studied with Derek Bok and Archibald Cox and Business School Professors James Healy and Thomas Kennedy. Over the decades since then Harvard has led the way in establishing reasonable-and in some cases generous-labor standards for its employees and its contractors.
Approximately 25 years ago, Harvard set an area wide precedent in the construction industry by entering into a wide ranging project labor agreement for university capital improvements. Brokered by the late John Dunlop, it set meaningful minimum area standards guarantees in exchange for a no-strike commitment on covered jobs. Billions of dollars of construction work has been completed under that agreement and its successors.
More recently Harvard extended its creative problem solving to service employees and service contractors. In an effort to avert a protracted custodians strike the University adopted a "parity policy" extending many of its own meaningful employment standards to its service providers. Not only did that step resolve a labor management dispute, it improved the wages and working conditions of hundreds of area workers and their families.
That creativity and ingenuity have yet to show their face in the negotiations to end this dispute. The University seems dug in and the workers feel disrespected. Local 26, on behalf of hundreds of longtime, loyal employees has brought legitimate issues to the employer's attention. The response has been disappointing and demoralizing.
As income inequality continues to grow surely the world's wealthiest university can take the steps necessary to address the legitimate needs of some of its lowest paid workers. Harvard has proven that it has the capability to creatively respond to the needs of its workers. It is time to prove that it still has the will to do so.
Donald J. Siegel, a 1971 Harvard Law School graduate, is an attorney in Boston at Segal Roitman, LLP.
We encourage you to support the strike by attending the rally this Saturday at 3PM at the Cambridge Common park and by donating to the strike assistance fund, which provides striking dining workers with material assistance.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers Come to Boston!
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-led human rights organization internationally recognized for its achievements in the fields of social responsibility, human trafficking, and gender-based violence at work. The CIW's membership is comprised primarily of farmworkers who labor in the tomato fields in Immokalee, Florida.
The CIW has called a boycott against Wendy's for their continued disregard of farmworkers' human rights. Unlike all the other major fast food companies, Wendy's refuses to join the CIW's Fair Food Program, which increases farmworkers' wages and improves workplace safety.
We are excited to invite you to learn from and take action with CIW members!
On Saturday, October 22, CIW members will be speaking at two Boston synagogues:
- 12 noon at Temple Hillel B'nai Torah, 120 Corey St, West Roxbury
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4-5:30 PM at Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue, 43 Lochstead Ave, Jamaica Plain
On Sunday, October 23, join CIW members and their supporters for a Boycott Wendy's rally:
- 2-3:30PM at the Downtown Crossing Wendy's, (71 Summer St, Boston)
Read more about the CIW and its boycott of Wendy's here:
Showing Up for Harvard Workers
On October 5, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 26, went on strike over stalled contract negotiations. They have two major demands: a guaranteed annual salary of $35,000 and affordable healthcare. Many HUDS workers don't get any hours during the summer when students leave and dining halls reduce service. Yet they are unable to collect unemployment. This leaves families struggling from May to September just to make ends meet. This is the first strike at Harvard in 33 years--it's critical that we show up and remain united during this historic moment. There are many ways we can support striking Harvard workers:
- Donate to the strike assistance fund to help provide material assistance to striking workers, who continue to need to buy food, make mortgage payments and rent, etc: bit.ly/harvardstrikefund
- Sign onto the Jewish community statement of support: tinyurl.com/Jewish-community-HUDS-support
- Show up on Saturday at 3PM for a major rally and march!
- Join our email list and like our Facebook page for updates and ways to stay involved.
- Post to Facebook and tweet using the hashtag #SupportTheStrike.
Read more about the strike:https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/16/harvard-university-strike-dining-hall-workers-protesthttp://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/10/18/huds-supporters-walk-out/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/10/15/huds-strike-traffic-streets/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/10/13/huds-strike-scrutiny/http://www.wsj.com/articles/dining-hall-workers-strike-at-harvard-1475681707
Harvard Dining Workers: Out on Strike!
On Wednesday, October 5 at 6AM, 750 Harvard University Dining Services workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 26, began an indefinite strike for a sustainable annual income of at least $35,000 and affordable healthcare. Harvard is the wealthiest university in the world, yet they refuse to adequately compensate the workers who feed and take care of students every day. This is the first strike Harvard has seen since 1983. We joined 600 people at the rally, including students, faculty, and other Harvard workers. Enough is enough!
How can you support striking HUDS workers?
* If you are Jewish, sign onto the Jewish Community Statement of Support for HUDS workers: tinyurl.com/jewish-community-HUDS-support
* Join the JLC mailing list to stay up-to-date on actions.
* Stay connected on social media by liking the NE JLC, UNITE HERE 26, and theHarvard Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) on Facebook and following @NEJewishLabor and @UNITEHERE26 on Twitter.
* Share this Facebook post and tweet @Harvard using #SupportTheStrike
Victory for 13,000 Janitors!
On Friday, September 30, 13,000 janitors represented by SEIU 32BJ, reached a tentative agreement on their 4-year master contract! These janitors maintain buildings across Massachusetts and Rhode Island, includingJohn Hancock, Prudential Tower, Vertex and Biogen, State Street. The new contract provides a 12% increase in wages over the life of the contract, expands employer-paid healthcare to family members of full-time employees, and creates more opportunities for full-time work.
The JLC is proud to have participated in many ways in this campaign, from marching janitors to calling for a fair contract as part of the larger faith community. Sixteen rabbis signed the faith statement as they prepared for Rosh Hashanah. Thank you to everyone who supported the fight over the past year.
32BJ janitors continue to negotiate their contracts at Tufts University and Harvard University.