[98] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
HARVARD SIT-IN UPDATE 4/20 (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Fri Apr 20 11:42:33 2001
Message-Id: <200104201541.LAA05499@gold.mit.edu>
To: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
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Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 11:41:19 -0400
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
For those interested in keeping up on the Harvard sit-in...
(If not, hit delete *NOW* !!!)
------- Forwarded Message
From: "harvard living wage campaign" <harvard_livingwagecampaign@hotmail.com>
Subject: HARVARD SIT-IN UPDATE 4/20
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 13:00:01 -0000
4/20 UPDATE ON HARVARD LIVING WAGE SIT-IN
**CURRENTLY** As always, your visible support is needed to ensure the safety
and effectiveness of the protesters inside Mass Hall. PLEASE SPEND AS MUCH
TIME OUTSIDE MASS HALL AS POSSIBLE. Today's events and updated ways to help
follow.
**ADMINISTRATION RESPONSE** The administration continues to refuse to
negotiate with the protesters. Yesterday morning the vacated their offices
rather than discuss a living wage with peaceful demonstrators. They have
sent out an extremely misleading letter to media and those who write support
e-mails. See http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~pslm/livingwage/contents.html for
responses to the Harvard committee report. Drop by Mass Hall to pick up a
response to the administration's letter.
We insist that the administrators take the demands of their students,
faculty, alumni, and staff - the people who make up this University -
seriously. YOU MUST URGE THEM TO DO SO. Please continue to contact them
and demand that they negotiate with the protestors. See
www.livingwagenow.com and go to "e-mails" for examples of letters that
supporters have sent.
Neil Rudenstine, President (617) 495-1502, beverly_sullivan@harvard.edu
Harvey Fineberg, Provost, (617) 496-5100, harvey_fineberg@harvard.edu
Sally Zeckhauser, VP for Administration, sally_zeckhauser@harvard.edu
Harry Lewis, Dean of Harvard College, lewis@harvard.edu
Polly Price, Associate VP for Human Resources, polly_price@harvard.edu
**EVENTS**
All events take place in front of Mass Hall.
ONGOING: Supporters continue to keep vigilance outside of Mass Hall to
prevent the removal of protestors and demand negotiations. Stop by for as
long as you can and picket or make banners and signs. THIS IS CRUCIAL.
BETWEEN 8 AND 9AM: Representative Jarred Barrios will speak.
11AM: Calling administrators from phones outside of Mass Hall. Stop by to
make a call. Regardless, continue to contact them from home as well.
NOON: Solidarity Rally with professors, graduate students, and YOU! The
administration uses this to gauge our support. Come out and show them that
there's more than they even imagined.
Speakers include labor activist Susan Moir and faculty members Brian Palmer,
Tim McCarthy, and Richard Parker.
3PM: Teach-In. Come with any questions you have about the Living Wage
Campaign or the sit-in. Cambridge City Council member Marjorie Decker will
join us.
5PM: Custodial Staff, SEIU Local 254, holding meeting outside Mass Hall.
8PM: Vigil
SATURDAY, 1PM: Boston-wide Living Wage/Anti-FTAA Rally. Harvard Yard.
**YOU CAN HELP**
TODAY ONLY:
* Talk to custodial staff in your House about upcoming meeting at 5 PM (see
above). Sign up and pick up leaflets in front of Mass Hall; get more
information at 1pm in front of Mass Hall.
IF YOU HAVE
2 MINUTES:
* Contact administrators and insist that they negotiate with the protestors.
Contact info above.
10 MINUTES:
* Join us in front of Mass Hall during the day or late at night. Write
Rudenstine a postcard on an index card and drop it off at Mass Hall.
* Deliver food to protesters inside Mass Hall at meal times. Contact:
617-645-0767, rray@fas
* Tell your friends, TFs, professors, students, and alumni. Go to office
hours and make phone calls.
* Get support signs at the information table in front of Mass Hall and hang
them in your dorm windows.
30 MINUTES:
* Pick up leaflets and posters in front of Mass Hall. Poster the yard and
your houses. Leaflet your classes or in the Yard.
FIRST YEARS (AND OTHERS):
* Bring your pre-frosh to living wage events or to join the picket line.
* Make a banner and hang it from your window. Supplies in front of Mass
Hall.
ALUMNI AND DONORS:
* Contact the administration and tell them that you will not donate any
money until they negotiate with protesters or grant a living wage.
PROFESSORS AND OTHER COMMUNITY MEMBERS:
* Write an op-ed. Contact: 617-596-8146, 617-256-5779 or stop by Mass Hall.
* Speak at a rally. Contact: 617-290-5802 or 617-645-0767 or stop by Mass
Hall.
* Teach a seminar inside Mass Hall. Express concern that students are
missing classes and enter Mass Hall to teach a seminar about your field,
especially as it relates to economic justice. Same contacts as for
speaking.
CONTACT: To find out how else you can help, talk to Ben Stoll.
stoll@fas.harvard.edu; 493-3662; 834-5824
E-MAIL: If you or someone you know hasn't been receiving e-mail updates and
wants to, please contact jwagner@fas.harvard.edu or pslm@hcs.harvard.edu.
**FROM THE INSIDE**
Morale is high among those sitting-in, especially because of the support of
people outside the building. They have been communicating regularly with
supporters through the windows of Mass Hall and have been receiving numerous
donations of food from friends and area businesses. They are on good terms
with the police inside the building.
The protesters approach everyone who enters the building and attempt to
speak firmly and respectfully about the demands. Yesterday they spoke with
Provost Fineberg when he entered the Mass Hall. He responded that they
should have gone to his twice monthly office hours. Protesters informed him
that they had been doing so regularly for years, as well as visiting
President Rudenstine's office hours, and Provost Fineberg immediately left
the building.
**OUR DEMANDS**
All Harvard workers, whether directly employed or hired through outside
firms, must be paid a living wage of at least $10.25 per hour, adjusted
annually to inflation, and with basic health benefits. Complete
implementation of such a living wage policy requires three other simple
steps:
* To ensure that the university does not use subcontracting and
reclassification to cut wages and benefits-as the Harvard Corporation has
agreed it should not-Harvard must adopt a policy of maintaining wage and
benefit levels when jobs are outsourced or reclassified. Our Implementation
Report contains methods for assuring this which should be adopted.
* A board must be created, not appointed by the administration, to oversee
implementation of the living wage policy. The board should have binding
policy-making power to enforce the policy, and should consist of workers,
union representatives, faculty, members of PSLM, and an administrator.
* Harvard relies on the labor of workers both on campus and off, and both
must be covered by the university's living wage policy. Workers in
factories that produce Harvard goods must therefore be assured a living wage
for their community; indeed, Harvard has already agreed to a Code of Conduct
which contains a commitment to this very idea. In order to determine
whether factories are complying with Harvard's Code, however, the university
must join the Worker Rights Consortium, the only independent factory
monitoring group which satisfies the Code's guidelines.
Thanks for your support!
Harvard Living Wage Campaign
www.harvardlivingwage.com
------- End of Forwarded Message
