The Student Labor Action Coalition delivered a letter to University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank Wednesday marking the beginning of our campaign to fight for campus workers.
UW has refused to implement a legitimate living wage for all of its employees. Currently, students are excluded from this living wage policy and carry a huge burden for this institution. Furthermore, UW claims we have a “primarily academic, not employment, relationship with the university.”
How can students focus solely on academics with such a heavy financial burden? In-state undergraduates must pay more than $10,000 a year in tuition and rack up an average of $28,768 in student loan debt by graduation. The university also wants to raise out-of-state and international students’ tuition by $10,000 within the next four years. Compare this with the 10,000 student hourlies who fall below the $12.62 campus minimum wage, and across campus earn a median wage of about $8.50 an hour — calculated based on raw wage data from UW. Money is clearly a barrier to academic success for students.
A study at Brigham Young University concluded working more than 15 to 20 hours a week directly correlated with a negative impact on academic performance. Paying tuition alone — not including Madison’s skyrocketing rent, overpriced groceries or unaffordable textbooks — would require at least $22 an hour for working 15 hours a week for the entire school year.
On top of crippling working hours, many students have reported workplace sexual harassment and discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation and mental health. Though policy varies, most employers mandate a 15-minute, unpaid break for every 4 to 8 hours of work. Despite this, students are told to work through their break or sometimes outright denied a break.
They don’t even have a way to safely file a grievance, with anecdotal reports of Human Services notifying the problematic manager which employee “ratted” them out. Student workers should not suffer abuse in a university workplace that doesn’t even pay them a living wage.
In order to address these injustices, we are in solidarity with current and former student workers, and demand that UW reforms its workplace policies. We deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, which means we deserve a living wage. We also need a consistent, written and student worker-approved policy regarding breaks and sick leave. Such policies must respect all aspects of health for students, including “invisible” health issues, such as mental health issues and chronic pain. Students should not have to show up to work to “prove” they are sick.
Students’ voices need to be taken more seriously. Management should have to adhere to a worker-controlled grievance process. There should be a student worker-run organization (for the worker, of the worker, by the worker) with real power to determine workplace policy. We, the students, fund this university and therefore, we have a stake in how it is run. Our voices must be heard.
Finally, raise student wages to $15 an hour. This demand is not even enough to pay for tuition and rent if students work a reasonable number of hours a week. We recognize that non-student, full-time employees, such as classified and other university staff, need even more than $15 an hour to survive.
The Student Labor Action Coalition fully supports these workers in their rights to a legitimate living wage. We demand all wages be raised for all campus workers at the university. Wage increases are not the end, but the start to a greater struggle for university workers’ rights.
Sam Park ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in neurobiology and sociology and Lauren Gonitzke ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in English.
