Living Wage Campaign at U-Va

Friday I’m working my down an ever-expanding to-do list when I get a call from Joe Szakos, director of the Virginia Organizing Project, with the news that 17 students are sitting in at a University of Virginia administrative building, demanding a living wage for all U-Va employees. The fight over wages at U-Va has been going on for about 15 years, but no one expected something like this on the staid campus whose founder is still referred as “Mr. Jefferson,” as if he might come ambling around the lawn at any moment. My assignment from Joe – to call one of the sitters-in and express my support – moves right to the top of the to-do list.

Lauren, the woman whose cell phone I’m assigned to call, sounds a little breathless and distracted. Or maybe she’s just light-headed from hunger, because, as she explains, the university administration has spitefully blocked food deliveries to the protestors. I tell her I live in the community and I’m thrilled with what she’s doing.

Charlottesville doesn’t look like a town where 25 percent of the residents live in poverty, but that’s only because the poor people’s housing is cunningly hidden off the main roads, so the U-Va alumni who pour in every fall for Cavalier games don’t have to see it. If you shop at the upscale Barracks Road Mall instead of Sam’s Club, if you drive instead of taking the buses, you could live here indefinitely thinking everything is just fine, thank you, ma’am-- unaware of the desperation going on within a two-mile radius.

But I know the true state of things in this lovely Blue Ridge mountain town, because I’ve been hanging out with the Virginia Organizing Project folks ever since I moved here in 2001 – agitating for a living wage in the local hotels as well as the university, which is the largest local employer. Another one of my informants is a lady who works behind the deli counter at Whole Foods, and the fact that she does so tells you a lot about wages at U-Va: She has another full-time job there as a housekeeper.

Saturday I get a call from Victoria Young, a student member of the Living Wage Campaign at U-Va: Can I speak at a rally Monday? Sure, and I point out that this is Dogwood Festival day in Charlottesville. I’m going to the festival with my family and will pass out flyers if they have any. We talk a long time – about momentum, morale, and the arrogance of the administration, which found $2 million to upgrade the football stadium this year but can’t manage to pay its workers decently. Victoria tells me that she’s learned more in the last week than she has in her three years at U-Va, and I wonder if the university understands what it’s teaching her.

The Dogwood Festival turns out to be a pretty funky affair – a few kiddy rides and booths selling toxic treats like funnel cakes. It’s beastly hot – 88 degrees – even with the sugary shaved ice my granddaughter is eating dripping on my legs. After 20 minutes of mounting stickiness my cell rings and I make my connection with Jessie, another U-VA student, at the green dragon ride. They’re not exactly flyers that she hands me, more like pamphlets of stapled, photocopied pages. Whatever. It’s time to peel off from the family and wade into the crowd.

“Hi, do you know that students are sitting in at U-Va for a living wage for campus workers?” Amazingly, most people do; they’ve seen the local TV coverage. And almost everyone is supportive, even eager to listen. I talk to a Hispanic woman who translates everything I say to her husband. He listens carefully then grins and shakes my hand like I’m welcoming him to America. An African-American woman wants to know if this is for a living wage for everyone, because she wants one too. My only rejection is from a yuppie white guy who tells me he’s here to enjoy the festival, “not for politics.” I can think of a lot of responses involving the concepts of neighborliness and community but they all seem to contain the word “dickhead,” which is not how we talk here in the south.

Sunday morning I sign on at AOL and find, displayed as a “top story” that the 17 student protestors were arrested last night. How could the administration be so bone-headed? U-VA’s president could have defused the protest with time-honored delaying tactics, like promising to form a committee. Or he could have done the honorable thing and agreed to go with the students to the state legislature to demand more funds for wages. But no, he had to go and make national news by treating his most idealistic, morally responsible, students like common criminals. I talk to Victoria about the need to pack the court room on Monday.

It’s a rainy Monday and, yes, the court-room is packed, in fact, standing room only. There are maybe 60 students, a pretty straight-looking bunch by my ancient sixties’ standards, plus some faculty, campus workers, and local activists like Joe. I’m here in a sort of in loco parentis capacity because I want the judge to see that there are grown-ups who care and because the protestors have begun, in some mystical way, to seem like my very own children. Good news, or at least not bad news: The 17 students are to be released from jail, where they’ve been for two nights, on $500 bonds.

We spill out onto the sidewalk for the hugging and hand-shaking phase. For the first time, Charlottesville feels like home. I see a true community in formation, a place where students think about the person who cleans their classrooms at night and wonder how she feeds her children, where poverty isn’t hidden any more, but is out on the table as problem we’ve all got to solve. I meet Victoria face to face and remind her to give me a statement I can read to the students at Washington and Lee, where I’ll be speaking tomorrow, because this is a national movement – from Georgetown to Stanford – and I want to spread the word.

Now I’m off the rally.

Comments

[U.Va. student]

Barbara, thank you so much for speaking here today. Your books have inspired me and many of my friends at U.Va. and your support means a lot to us. We have been called naive, told that we don't understand economics, accused of "just wanting attention." The opposition has been very patronizing toward our cause, and it's great to have the support of an author who knows so much about this issue.

[Wylie A. Schaffer]

My husband and I have been studying Change that was brought about by Nonviolence in the 20th century. One of the things that was done during the effort to integrate the lunch rooms in Nashville was to refuse to pay bail since they hadn't done anything wrong. Packing the jails was part of the strategy.
I was sorry to read that the UV students paid the bail.

[agenteprovocatrice]

How many workers receive minimum wage at UVA? Here's why I'm asking - from the standpoint of cost benefit analysis, the distribution of 2 million$ amongst the number of minimum wage workers might not have necessarily been in the community's best interest, as suggested, especially the blue-collar workers.

Consider the massive amount of labor hours that may be required to make the football stadium's improvements. Moreover, refined stadium amentities may create a viable football tourism industry, or increase the amount of people buying UVA gear, who knows.

Also, you failed to point out the exact source of the funds - where did the 2M come from? If it was an endowment of some sort, there might have been a condition according to which the money had to be spent. It might have been surplus from the students activities and service fees, etc. Please clarify.

Also,the notion of the university president's going to the state legislature to ask for more funds is a little problematic. In my cursory understanding, the money for a state university has to come from some other source if tuition doesn't cover the cost of the institution's operation. State money, as well as federal money, is garnered via taxation. Hence, an increase in wages would allot more budgetary money to wages. This sounds glib, but what happens when the money is needed in another area of the budget. Is the solution - "tax people more?", because it doesn't seem sensible to require tax payers to fund the wages for a service for which they may or may not receive benefit from.

[George Bush]

"U-VA’s president could have defused the protest with time-honored delaying tactics, like promising to form a committee. Or he could have done the honorable thing and agreed to go with the students to the state legislature to demand more funds for wages."

He kind of did. See the last paragraph:

http://www.virginia.edu/president/spch/06/compensation.html

[agenteprovocatrice]

What's the cost of living, there? 9.31 an hour seems like alot of money, at least to me...then again, I don't take four days off of school and work to stage a sit in.

Do the student protesters have any idea what requiring university vendors to pay a 10 something an hour wage would do to the prices of many items on campus/operation costs. That gnarly little thing called economics suggests the prices would increase... What would this do to poor college students, or are they not factored into this plan?

[Heather M]

Having lived in Charlottesville for close to five years, I can say with authority that $9.31 is not a livable wage. Double that and you might be close to semi-decent housing somewhere off the far edges of the city and the occasional trip to the wine and cheese department at Whole Foods. Quadruple that and you can buy a small house 20+ miles from town and hang on to it by your fingernails – but you have to give up the trips to Whole Foods. It’s just an expensive place to live, and that’s that.

I’ve lived in college towns most of my life, and I think college presidents and boards are often consumed by the desire to make their mark on a campus as a way to prove they were there. And nothing says “I was here” like spending $150 million renovating the Lawn, or $2 million on the stadium, or $35 million for that behemoth new basketball arena. Every other aspect of running the place is open for cost-cutting or price-hiking.

Maybe they’re just paying homage to “Mr. Jefferson.” Jefferson would mark down, in painstaking detail, every penny he spent, every day of his life. But he had no concept of the bigger financial picture, and no desire to curb his often profligate spending. He died over $100,000 in debt, and it took his heirs a generation to pay it all off.

[nolapoet]

Certainly, the well-heeled students and ADMINISTRATORS at UVa can afford to absorb the minimal cost of requiring contractors to provide a living wage to those who clean up after them. They tip their bartenders and caddies, do they not? Kudos to the honorable students who see this latter-day sharecropping for what it is--a dead end. May many more students wake up to the fact that their morning Starbucks on the way to class represents what most people in this country make in one hour.

[npb]

great to see active students at UVa, but unfortunately this action is ridiculous and deceptive. first, the students wage number is based on fiction and distortions. the students, for example, do not care about health insurance (which UVa workers receive), claim that a family of four needs $800/mo for rent, even though this exceeds the median rental price in C'ville, and claim a households NEEDS $400/mo for health care and nearly $1000 for daycare. what? moreover, the students were making progress without such extremes -- wages have risen substantially over the past year, and Casteen had promised to work towards an even higher figure. despite Barbara’s assertion, Casteen did offer to study the living wage and help lobby in Richmond. finally, the students seem unwilling to even entertain the idea that this type of reform might actually hurt the very people they intend to help (e.g., the Hispanic man at the Dogwood festival). there is ample evidence to support this concern. all of this suggests that the students (and Barbara) are not truly interested in a serious dialogue on these issues.

[bleh]

I'm not trying to sound mean, but alot of concerns about poverty and living wages deal with a stereotypical "family of four". My question - if one works a low-wage job, why would one choose to have children if choosing to have children perpetuates destitution. Why not wait a few more years until one has enough skills to apply for a better paying job BEFORE starting a family? I'm not saying that life as a minimum wage worker is easy, but I don't understand why anyone would further burden themself by choosing to start a family before being able to support it.

Of course there are exceptions to the family of four qualification, such as two working adults supporting two retired parents, and people who've lost higher paying jobs in the past, but I don't undertstand why one wouldn't just plan, or think, mabye, before having children...why not consider the financial implications and requirements...

I mean...kids don't just pop up.

I know that I'm going to be lambasted for this stance, but I can easily make this argument about myself - like many young adults, I don't make alot of money. It doesn't matter what socioeconomic realm from which I come, nor does it matter my religious persuasion, but I just know that it would be impossible for me to have kids right now, so I'm not going to. Simply, it would be a destructive decision. Consider this: if I did choose to have children, knowing my financial situation, would it make much sense to complain?

[nolapoet]

Bleh, you assume that the UVa support staff are breeding like rabbits. Have you got information on how many children each of these employees has? Moreover, are you in favor of Chinese-style family planning?...

[bleh]

I wasn't talking about the UVA workers, I was just asking about the family of four qualification in general.

And I dont think that mention of individual responsibility suggests that I favor Chinese family planning - I do not care about people's reproductive behavior. People can have as many kids as they want, as long as I don't have to support them with the taxes sifted from my meager income. It really is not my business. Clearly, though, an individual or a couple shouldn't cite inequality or injustice if they choose to have more children then their income level can support. That's all I was
suggesting.

Again, this stance may sound harsh, but I'll go ahead and use myself as an example. I don't have money, so I'm not going to have a child, regardless of my marital and or relationship.

[bleh]

*marital status

[Barbara E]

To bleh: A living wage can be calculated for a family of any size, or even just one person. There is no assumption that everyone has two children.

As for your disapproval of poor people with children: Leaving aside the larger issue of whether the poor are entitled to reproduce, did it ever occur to you that some people become poor AFTER having children?

[janinsanfran]

From the responses, here and from the President, sounds like the students are making progress. "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." Frederick Douglas

And just when you think they'll never give in, they cave. Enjoy.

[bleh]

No, I did not neglect people who became poor after having children. If you read my response I noted "Of course there are exceptions to the family of four qualification, such as two working adults supporting two retired parents, and people who've lost higher paying jobs in the past"

And I wasn't saying the poor weren't entitled to reproduce, in fact, I support reproductive freedom in its fullest capacity - have, or don't have, as many kids as you'd like. Children, though, are an economic burden to anyone who decides to have them, poor, middle-class and rich alike, and if one chooses to have children, one must consider the consequences.

[tucson anthro]

more power to the uva livingwage campaign. at least one u of arizona student hears your plea! continue the struggle!

[Lily H.]

Bleh - human nature is a curious thing. If I'd followed your view, I would probably NOT have had children, either, but I took a large leap of faith and did; costing myself and jeopardizing my future in an already shaky ecomomy (1980). Should I have "waited" until I and my then-husband were "ready" to have children? Maybe, but I kept thinking that I could well put off having a family until I was too old, or just threw in the towel and figured I'd just wind up childless. Somehow that fate seemed too final and cast a cloud over what should be a rite of passage, NOT a qualifier for belonging to what we like to consider "the human family". I did take a big chance, that is, didn't wait until my then-husband graduated with his business degree, to which he never was able to secure a well-paying position then or thereafter (we divorced a decade and one more child later). I don't want to live in a world where young people are so paralyzed by fear that they "can't afford" to have children and expect others to follow suit. Even though I wound up in poverty because of my "choice", I have worked tirelessly to educate and advocate that NO family should have to strip themselves of the most basic element of humanity, continuing what our genes and, to some, our Creator, has compelled us to do. I am NOT a flaming Christian, but a liberal/radical who has the wisdom of a half-century on this planet and wish there was a better world for our next generations.

[Jacqueline]

Too often single poor adults with NO children are overlooked. Let's not get stuck on stupid here. What the big picture really is about is that poverty is unacceptable - for families and individuals. Maybe NOT having kids ( I am 40 and never had any because of economic insecurity)might actually drive the point home when corporate America realizes that there is a shortage of workers to pay for the social security benefits of senior citizens and then all the middle-aged jobless workers who have been shoved out of their jobs and denied opportunity due to age discrimination will be in the cat-bird seat to call the shots - for a fairer economy for ALL. That is, however, quite drastic. I prefer to work towards change before things reach critical mass. Just a thought.

[Jacqueline]

Too often single poor adults with NO children are overlooked. Let's not get stuck on stupid here. What the big picture really is about is that poverty is unacceptable - for families and individuals. Maybe NOT having kids ( I am 40 and never had any because of economic insecurity)might actually drive the point home when corporate America realizes that there is a shortage of workers to pay for the social security benefits of senior citizens and then all the middle-aged jobless workers who have been shoved out of their jobs and denied opportunity due to age discrimination will be in the cat-bird seat to call the shots - for a fairer economy for ALL. That is, however, quite drastic. I prefer to work towards change before things reach critical mass. Just a thought.

[Dejah]

Note to bleh:

75% of pregnancies are unplanned. Apparently, it's not just poor people who can't keep from breeding.

[MissAnneThrope]

Jacqueline darling....your compassion overwhelms me...right up there with Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake" or maybe more on par with Swift's Modest Proposal, although he wasn't actually serious when he suggested that the Irish eat their unwanted babies...you on the other hand, appear to be serious. Ok, so let me give you a serious response...the social security dilemna you refer to could be resolved in one fell swoop if we simply took all of our bloated politicians off of their pensions and put them on social security....just another thought

[MissAnneThrope]

and another thing...here at Virginia Tech, the housekeeping workers are state employees, at least for now...the new chartered university initiative is working fast and furiously to change that, but under this state employee status, our underpaid and overworked housekeeping staff are required to clean the bathrooms and shared living quarters of the fraternity and sorority houses that are on campus...imagine that if you can... your Virginia state taxes go to pay the less than living wages of those who clean up after the privileged and elite....don't believe it....come take a look. The poorest of the poor are paid by the state to clean up after the ....well, what shall we call them...certainly not poor college students.

[BBarth]

As a Canadian, I know all about the USA's outsourcing.
Our Manager said it was due to cheaper labour, and real estate costs here. I've worked for two different USA multinationals in my time, and I would rather work at a Mom and Pop operations. It would be better if they stayed home.

[Harold Kuester]

REMEDY: D.E.T.O.X.X. AMERICA
Harold H. Kuester
Horrified at what I believe to be unwholesome economic and political trends in our country, I wrote my novel, REMEDY: D.E.T.O.X.X. AMERICA, because I realized that novels have a far wider audience than scholarly journals or the college classrooms where I spent my professional career teaching philosophy. The novel is a vehicle for consideration of contemporary United States economics and politics, using the culture of an alien planet to highlight what seem to me to be unwholesome conditions in the United States, such as the present economic crises which are causing so much suffering.
The five action-packed days of the book center on the Living Wage Movement and our country‘s growing income disparities. The Movement has organized a bus caravan from Iowa to a huge Labor Day rally in Washington, D.C. The rally’s organizers plan to demonstrate support for raising the national minimum wage to a living wage and for detoxifying our economy and corporate power structures. Through ballot initiatives and legislative action, the LWM has already succeeded in raising the minimum wage in its Iowa hometown and in neighboring towns and states. In doing so, it has had to contend with opposition from corporate power structures, most notably that of Megamart, the country’s retail superpower. Factor in a sabotaged space station, the cutthroat clash of media empires, collapse of our country’s financial institutions, and intrusion of humanoid aliens from the planet Pisces II. Result: the didactic thrust of REMEDY: D.E.T.O.X.X. AMERICA is subordinate to a fast-paced, complex plot which tests the insight and capabilities of all its characters to save Washington and our country.
My passion and hope is that the variety of voices addressing these issues and proposing alternatives might have a significant impact on the future direction of our country. I would like my novel to be one of those voices.
The novel is available online. The publisher is PublishAmerica.