What does it take to live a comfortable and healthy life in the United States? Certainly more than the federal minimum wage can provide, as is evidenced by our country’s absurdly high rate of childhood poverty, the highest of all wealthy nations. In fact, about 12 percent of the U.S. population lives below the federal poverty line, and that was before the economy was sabotaged by Wall Street two years ago.
With the national minimum wage set at $7.50 an hour, only a married couple without children could transcend the federal poverty line and simply be extremely poor. Clearly, employment numbers alone are a poor indication of the degree of hardship the country currently faces.
Thankfully, there are solutions to these pernicious problems, chief among them living wage policies that would guarantee a humane salary for the roughly 10 million workers affected by minimum wage policy. Madison has frequently been at the forefront of living wage efforts.
The lives of workers across the isthmus might never have been lifted by these just wage reforms had it not been for an activist community which over the years has made Madison a much better place to live. In these dire economic times, the solidarity of Madisonians with workers has never been more important — that many recognize this can be seen in the substantial up-tick in student labor activism over the past year.
As clients of the university, students are in a unique position to advocate for workers’ rights in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Those tens of thousands of tuition dollars are buying more than just a good education; each semester they purchase a stake in every decision the university system makes, every investment and every contract. As a result, students are charged with a substantial responsibility to ensure they are not financing injustice.
The national success last year of the campaign against Russell Athletic for illegal anti-union activity was an exemplary case of the sort of progress students can make advocating for workers, even those living 2,000 miles away. The combined effect of several dozen universities cutting their contracts with Russell resulted in a dramatic response by the company which now refrains from interfering with union formation and activities at all of its factories.
Over this past weekend at the United Students Against Sweatshops National Conference, Honduran workers from a re-opened factory presented a red, union-made Wisconsin hoodie to the Madison delegation in commemoration of the campaign’s Wisconsin roots.
Indeed, UW has a long history of producing ambitious activists who have provided the impetus for campaigns, both local and national, that have demonstrably improved the lives of working people.
When Nike subcontractors closed two recently unionized factories in Honduras and illegally denied several thousand workers over a year’s salary in severance pay, UW students were quick to respond, demanding the university cut its contract with Nike unless it fulfilled its contractual obligations. Those efforts are continuing, and despite Nike President Phil Knight’s savage arrogance, pressure on the company to play by the rules escalates weekly.
It is frustrating to see Chancellor Martin and her administration attempt to play ball with Nike despite the predictable failings of negotiation and the sheer ease with which a multi-billion dollar company could rectify their criminality with a $2.1 million check.
Nike has clearly expressed its disinterest in doing business with UW in accordance with the Labor Code of Conduct, and the committee charged with looking into the violations, the Labor Licensing Practice Committee, has already suggested the contract be rescinded. Consequently, Nike’s contract should be cut immediately to avoid sending the message that this university supports union-busting and the exploitation of workers.
Similarly, UW students have an obligation to make sure this happens, lest we wish to tacitly acknowledge our role in oppressing workers and their families in the third world. Washing with ignorance just won’t keep one’s hands clean.
Now, some credit should be paid to Chancellor Martin, a progressive scholar with an activist past who has earned her adoration from the student body. Her genuine receptivity to student concerns is certainly welcomed after the Wiley years. Still, it’s not always clear that her advisers share her principles.
Following a grievance filed by AFSCME Local 171, consisting of Memorial Union workers among others, Martin’s Human Resources advisers have apparently insisted a 30-year-old policy dramatically altered in the grievance’s response had always been that way. The policy in question is a contractual stipulation that allows 171 members to get off work for union activities. For years the university has allowed workers time preceding and following these activities for necessary travel and rest time. Following last year’s grievance, the new interpretation effectively prohibits second shift workers from heading to union events, usually outside of Madison, until hours before they begin.
It is highly unlikely the chancellor is covering for HR staff attempting to change a long-standing policy, and far more likely her staff is “re-interpreting” the contract via mendacious assurances that night shift workers weren’t really able to make union functions in the first place.
While it would be fantastic to see Martin take more proactive steps toward protecting workers affected by university policy, there is little doubt students will fill the advocacy gap, mobilizing in solidarity with workers from the terrace to Tegucigalpa.
Sam Stevenson ([email protected]) is a graduate student in public health.
