Student activism is alive and well in St Louis

[ikojo]

Students at Washington Univ in St Louis have been staging a sit in for over a week. They are calling for a living wage of at least $10 per hour for Wash U's workers.

Here is a story from Wash U's student paper:

http://www.studlife.com/news/2005/04/11/News/Breaking.News.Swa.Ordered.To.Vacate.South.Brookings.Quad-920876.shtml

Info about the sit in

http://www.stl-jwj.org/news_items/20050325_SWALivingWage.htm

Twenty Wash U Students Begin Sit In for Living Wage
Updated 4/4/2005

On Monday, April 4, 20 students began a sit-in at Washington University. 

Send an email to Chancellor Mark Wrigton supporting the Sit In

After a year and a half of forums, discussions, rallies and the disregarded recommendations of an official "Living Wage Task Force" - the Student Worker Alliance is committed to staying in Brookings Hall until Chancellor Mark Wrighton understands the need for a Code of Conduct that includes Living Wages.

Washington University is St. Louis' 9th largest employer - so all of St. Louis wins when Wash U understands that all workers deserve a Living Wage.

Living Wages create a strong campus community.  Workers that can support their families stick around, provide better services, and become a more integral part of the campus community.  Tell Chancellor Mark Wrighton that Washington University deserves no less!

$2,400,000
The maximum cost of a living wage for one year for all campus workers

$18,000,000
Amount of money raised by Washington University in April 2004 alone, enough to fund a living wage for workers for the rest of the decade

0.18%
The cost of a living wage would be when taken as a percentage of the University's operating budget.

Background: Washington University Living Wage Campaign ....
The struggle for a Living Wage at Washington University began quite uniquely in the fall of 2003, when a group of three dozen Nicaraguan lawn care workers here on seasonal H2B visas were asked to sign away their contractual rights and leave the country in two days.  A group of five students who maintained close friendships with these workers committed to investigating this situation, working to bring their friends back from Nicaragua if possible, and find out if mistreatment by subcontractors and the administration was characteristic of employer-employee relationships on campus. 

In this way the Student Worker Alliance was formed in November of 2003.  The decision to launch a Living Wage campaign followed shortly thereafter when students discovered the working conditions for most campus workers suffered—unbearable poverty wages, with few benefits if any, feeling threatened and pressured by upper management.  

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