Miami Janitors’ Holy War

Late Sunday morning we land in Miami and rush immediately to a Pollo Tropico to chow down before arriving at “Freedom City,” the encampment of striking janitors just across from the University of Miami. The strikers have been fasting, first collectively and now serially, to dramatize their demand for union recognition. I don’t know what Miss Manners has to say on the subject, but it didn’t seem right to show up at a hunger strike bearing Styrofoam plates of steaming, fast-food chicken and yellow rice.

Freedom City looks more like a hamlet when we get there – three large tents, one filled with cots for the campers, a few pup tents erected by student supporters, and about a dozen strikers sitting in a circle of folding chairs and talking in Spanish. It’s an odd patch of real estate, this thin strip of dust and grass under the elevated metro track, where trains rushing overhead periodically cancel all conversation. A warm wind is agitating the tents, the “Honk for Justice” banner, and three large crosses made of brooms – the broom being the ancient and traditional janitorial tool. Otherwise things are pretty quiet, since most of the strikers are at church, so we go off to visit one of the strike leaders in her home in Liberty City (that’s its real name), Miami’s poorest neighborhood.

On the way, a union staff person briefs us. The university president, Donna Shalala, who headed up the Health and Human Services Administration under Clinton, has already made one concession to the strikers – intervening with UNICCO, the contractor that provides cleaning and maintenance services to the university, to get the janitors’ pay raised from $6 and change an hour to $8.65 an hour, plus health insurance. As for union recognition, she says that’s between UNICCO and the union in question, a local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU.) For some students and community supporters of the strikers, that’s it: Case closed. Haven’t the workers been given enough?

Well no. For one thing, the new $8.65 an hour wage still falls miserably short of a living wage for pricey Miami. Then there’s the awkward fact that the new health insurance will cost each worker about $500 a month, more than canceling the wage hike. Plus how is the union supposed to work things out peaceably with UNICCO, which has already been using strong-arm tactics – threats and intimidation – to try to break the strike? And despite its claims of neutrality, the university administration has gotten an injunction to keep the union and its “agents” off the campus. Such illustrious strike supporters as former senator John Edwards, a recent visitor to Freedom City, would count as nefarious union “agents.” As I suppose, would I.

But the big sticking point is that the workers don’t want to be “given” anything. They want a union contract. All day, the word “dignity” keeps popping up in one language or another.

I’m trying to absorb all the complexities when we pull up at Maria Leonor Ramirez’s tiny house. Her husband shows us into the living room and chairs are rearranged in a rough triangle. I can’t help noticing that the floor is missing several boards, leaving foot-long two-inch-deep canyons to trip the unwary, and that the armchair I’m offered is battered beyond the help of duct tape. There is no TV or any other electronic device in sight, and only a family photo and a couple of public school diplomas on the wall, but the place is spotlessly clean. Obviously the work of a professional.

While Leonor offers everyone juice, my mind drifts to an account of Donna Shalala’s digs in a recent New York Times profile – the Persian rugs, the antiques from around the world, the dock and 29 foot motor boat. The most winceable thing in that profile, though, was Shalala’s admission that she doesn’t usually bother making her bed: “Fortunately someone comes around and makes it for me.” Someone, Donna? If nothing else, it occurs to me, this strike may help give the invisible “someones” of the world a name and a face.

Leonor, a Nicaraguan-American of about 40, tells us she is still recovering from her 17-day fast. She can’t handle solid food yet and gets “a lot of headaches,” but her round soft face is calm and welcoming. Before the recent pay raise, she had been making $6.75 an hour for cleaning classrooms. How do you manage on that kind of pay? Well, if a child gets sick – Leonor has two – you may not be able to see a doctor until the next paycheck comes. You decide what bills to pay, knowing that the ones you skip are going to mean a finance charge or some other penalty next month.

Why did she decide to join the strike? “Because we wanted to be recognized as people, not animals, and that’s how we were treated there, as animals.” UNICCO offered no sick days, for example, and a friend was fired for missing three days while she was ill. “If the union doesn’t get in, I’m not going back,” she says, “I’m a fighter.” Her 20-year old daughter, who is sitting on the arm of Leonor’s chair, beams and pats her proudly.

Back at Freedom City, more strikers have gathered for a strategy meeting, which we mutely observe from the sidelines. I can only make out occasional words like manana and justicia, but the way people leap to their feet to make their points, lined brown faces shining with conviction, it looks like democracy in action. Overhead hangs a banner carrying a statement beginning, “We are real human beings who have suffered at the hands of UNICCO for 14 years...”

Wandering away from the meeting, we get the discouraging news that Eliseo Medina, a nation-wide leader of the SEIU, has been rushed to the hospital. Ten days of fasting have messed up his blood chemistry. This is my problem with hunger strikes: Why make yourself weak when you need to be strong? But Eliseo is back within the hour, smiling, chugging Pedialyte, and giving off this unworldly, beatific, vibe.

A little after five, everyone convenes for the daily ceremony in which people coming off their fasts are welcomed back to the physical world and new fasters are, in a sense, ordained. Frank Courbishley, an Episcopal priest and U.M. chaplain, presides, alternating between English and Spanish. After a sweet little sermon including the Biblical line “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness?” he introduces a thin young African American man, local living wage activist Rondy Johnson, who surrenders the home-made cross he’s been wearing to show he’s fasting and announces cheerily, “I could use a cheeseburger right now.” On a nice ecumenical note, the man who is about to begin fasting gets to wear a little broom around his neck instead of a cross, on account of his being Jewish.

I’m to speak at seven, and to fill in the time, I talk through an interpreter to another striker, Pablo Rodriguez, a four-year veteran of UNICCO. He tells me he’s never had health insurance. “I was counting on my youth,” he says with a laugh. He’s already put in 14 days fasting, with one trip to the hospital for hypothermia when the weather was cooler, and, like Leonor, says he will not go back to work without a union. Oddly, he’s not the least bitter, even expressing gratitude to UNICCO and UM for “helping make us better people.” For him, this has been “a very good process. I learned to see things in a different way. I feel liberated, and this is for the rest of my life.”

So what can I say to these people – me with my Pollo Tropico lunch, three back-up protein bars in my purse, and the possibility of an upgrade on the flight home tomorrow? I give the strikers greetings from the students I know at the University of Virginia, who’ve been rallying and sitting-in for a living wage for UVa workers. I tell them that struggles like theirs have been going on all over the nation – at Georgetown, for example, and Villanova. I tell them that college-educated workers, who face dwindling benefits and relentless lay-offs, could learn a lot from them – the janitors – about standing up for their rights.

And I say something about erstwhile liberal Donna Shalala. How she has all this stuff – the mansion, the boat, the artwork (did I mention the four doggie beds for one dog?) --but still she’s kind of pitiable, because she doesn’t have and probably can’t even imagine what they have, which is solidarity, which is a kind of love.

Flying home, I worry that Freedom City will dwindle when summer comes, the students go away, and the heat and mosquitoes take over. But whether they win union recognition or not, it seems to me that the University of Miami janitors have already achieved a sudden spiritual upward mobility, amounting almost to a transmigration of souls, with the hunger strikes, which I at first found so baffling, serving as a rite of initiation into the company of the saints. It’s Monday, May 1, and with hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers in the streets again, I see their numbers growing.

Comments

[Patrick Walsh]

I'd like to thank Ms. Ehrenreich for her moving words here in Miami. She brought the message to the workers and supporters that they were not alone. I have an update on the campaign that will please her and her audience throughout cyberspace. This letter was distributed today, May 2nd by the student support group, Students Toward A New Democracy:

Yesterday was a proud day for all of us. In cities all over North
America, people demonstrated for the rights of 'illegal' immigrants.
According to USA Today, "Police estimated that more than 600,000
marched in Los Angeles and 400,000 in Chicago. Supporters in New York
City formed human chains on sidewalks to protest a bill passed by the
House of Representatives that would make illegal immigration a felony.
Thousands more filled Manhattan's Union Square."

Meanwhile, here at the University of Miami, UNICCO and the SEIU
"reached an agreement regarding the process whereby UNICCO employees
will decide the question of union representation," according to
yesterday's University Communication. The New York Times reports,
"Under the agreement, the contractor, Unicco Service Company, would
allow workers to sign cards indicating their desire to join the union
rather than insist on the more traditional process of a formal
election. The union agreed that to gain recognition, 60 percent of
the university's 425 janitors — rather than a traditional simple
majority — would have to sign cards saying they wanted to form a
union." (Article can be found at
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/us/02labor.html)

What remains is for the cards to be collected, checked by the American
Arbitration Association, the union to be decided for or against, and,
in the former case, a contract to be negotiated. (For more complete
details about the agreement, see picketline.blogspot.com)

For those that remain unclear, this means basically one thing: we have
won. We fought for the workers' right to make their own decision in a
reasonably fair and democratic context; we fought against UNICCO's and
the University's insistence that only an NLRB secret ballot election
was acceptable. We fought for the workers' rights to organize in a
safe environment and to choose their own , and despite vicious,
almost-unrelenting, well-funded and well-publicized opposition, we
won. We won, we won, we won. Or, more appropriately, the workers
won, and we share their victory.

So, this is a time to celebrate several things: the victory of our
UNICCO workers, those that want the union and those that don't,
because they have won a process that requires the participation of
every one of them.

We can celebrate the tide of support for immigrants in this country,
for the thousands of peaceful demonstrations around the nation, and
the millions of participants. We can celebrate the fact – proven
yesterday – that people can make their lives better if they work
together and never, never give up.

This is about unity – and this is about democracy. Today is a day to
celebrate both.

In peace, gratitude, and total happiness,

STAND

[Tina]

Hi. Thanks so much for posting this story-- which seems about to have a happy ending!

I particularly like the spiritual angle, because even if the story doesn't end as we hope it will, I think it's important to reap and proclaim the spiritual benefits of this sort of political movement.

This is personal for me, because much as of my own participation in social action (in behalf of myself and/or others)has not always succeed in the "real world" as we commonly know it. In order to maintain a passionate heart still able to engage in compassionate action, I think the spiritual dimension needs to be recognized and appreciated.

I met Barbara Ehrenreich years ago shortly before an important "battle," and so I do speak from experience. I am so greatful that she is still part of these important movements, still informing and inspiring me, so thank you.

[Barbara E]

Thank you, Patrick, for reporting the good news before I could. I learned of the workers' victory shortly after posting this blog, and the news made my day, if not week. Thanks also, Patrick, to you and the other students whose support meant so much to the striking janitors!

[Hattie]

This is wonderful news. Congratulations.

[Matthew]

I'm confused. Surley they have the right to join a union anyway why do they need to demand this? If there union is not paying attention to there plight then it is terrible but they could form another union whouldn't this be easier.

[giovanna]

thank you, barbara, for coming to miami! those of us who heard you talk at freedom village were incredibly moved by your forthrightness and generosity, and your presence turned out to be, in hindsight, the perfect "appetizer" for the sweet victory the janitors obtained on may 1st!

thanks also to patrick for the beautifully worded update.

i would like to tell barbara (who certainly knows) and her readers that the STAND students who were most instrumental in the janitors' victory and absolutely steadfast in their commitment to justice are now being investigated by the university and face major disciplinary action (with the threat of suspension and even expulsion). what presumably is causing such investigation (charges have not been filed) are their peaceful protests against the university for its refusal to comply with the janitors' desire to unionize through the (perfectly legal) card check process. these (approximately) twenty young men and women are among the best our university has produced. they have taught all of us -- faculty, staff, and contract workers at the university of miami -- the value of selfless, collective political action on behalf of the powerless and invisible. the days when they peacefully and respectfully occupied the administration building, and then set up tents in front of it, are shining days in my personal academic history and, i'm sure, in the academic history of many of my colleagues. please follow the blog picketline (www.picketline.blogspot.com) for developments on the students' investigation.

thank you.

[Simon Evnine]

Matthew,

There are (basically) two ways in which workers can form a union. One is through an election run by the Federal NLRB. Research has shown that this leaves workers open to a lot of intimidation and generally favors employers (who don't want their workers to unionize). The other method is when a sufficient number of workers sign pledge cards saying they want a union. This only works if the employer agrees to the method. The janitors at UM were asking UNICCO - their employer - to accept a card check process. That finally happened on May 1st.

[Matthew]

Why does it need an employers permission in how to set up an union? Why aren't workers able to easily set up a union?

[Simon Evnine]

It's not a matter of getting the employer's permission. The question is, under what conditions must or will the employer recognize and negotiate with the union. Currently the law is that must recognize a union formed by an NLRB-election. It may (if it agrees) but need not recognize one formed by a card check process. There is currently legislation pending in congress that would oblige employers to recognize unions formed by a card check process.

[Eduardo Marcelo Cocca]

AMOS JUAN COMENIUS
PAULO FREIRE
PROFESOR EDUARDO MARCELO COCCA jpg

Titulo
El Profesor Universitario en Argentina
Autor
Eduardo Marcelo Cocca
Resumen
Debemos tener en claro, si queremos una educación universitaria artesanal, amateur, o una educación en manos de verdaderos profesionales de hecho y de derecho, como corresponde y nos merecemos, y sobre todo en un país en serio, donde debe reinar por encima de todo el Estado de Derecho, al todos debemos propender para que su ejercicio, no sea una expresión de deseos, sino una realidad, a la que todos sin ninguna duda aspiramos.
Lo habitual, tanto en universidades publicas como privadas y con la anuencia de sus autoridades, los Profesores Universitarios, son solamente de hecho, detentan una carrera de grado y tanto ellos como las autoridades, consideran suficiente merito para habilitarlos como profesores, en abierta contradicción con las leyes que regulan el ejercicio de la profesión, L.E.S. Art.. 36, Código Penal, etc.
Palabras claves
Usurpación de Titulo, Profesor Universitario, Estado de Derecho
Fecha de envío
24/11/06
Fecha de recepción
24/11/06
Introducción
Desde un punto de vista estrictamente jurídico estamos frente a una flagrante violación de la ley, delitos penales incluidos, creo que no es necesario recordar que todo ciudadano tiene obligación de conocer la ley, ni que decir si se trata de letrados.
Desgraciada y alegremente tanto participes necesarios, como autoridades que nombran en estos puestos, están incursas en el delito, recordar el CP, cuando nos dice aquel que designe a alguien sin titulo suficiente, podemos cerrar los ojos o mirar para otro lado, tal como hemos hecho hasta ahora,pero después nonos quejemos de los resultados o busquemos chivos expiatorios en la escuela secundaria, cuando el verdadero problema, núcleo de esta cuestión es la universidad misma, que claro, manejada por amateurs y no verdaderos profesionales, titulados los resultados no pueden ser otros que los que se exhiben, lamentablemente.
Desarrollo
El Estado Nacional, a través del Ministerio de Educación otorga como corresponde, autorización a diferentes universidades publicas y privadas, el permiso para el post- grado de Profesor Universitario y posterior otorgamiento del titulo correspondiente, luego de cursada y aprobada la curricula especifica de la carrera.
Ahora bien, la gran mayoría de los profesionales que ejercen como docentes universitarios, salvo raras excepciones, carecen del titulo de Profesor Universitario.
El Profesor Universitario, cuando esta en clase frente al alumnado, no esta en calidad de abogado, juez, medico, ingeniero, etc., sino cumpliendo la función y desempeñando el rol de Profesor Universitario, y para lo cual y se cae de maduro que su carrera de grado no es suficiente para el ejercicio profesional como Profesor Universitario, tal como lo marca el sentido común y las regulaciones de las leyes.
Prima facie, estos profesionales, sin titulo de Profesor Universitario, estarían alcanzados por el Art.. 246.- inc.1.-Usurpación de Títulos.-del Código Penal, que dice:el que ejerciera o asumiere funciones publicas sin titulo.- Art., 247.- Según ley 24527.- Usurpación de Títulos,- Código Penal.- que dice: el que ejerciere actos propios de una profesión......, sin poseer titulo...... y luego dice: el que se arrogare grados académicos, títulos profesionales u honores que no le correspondieren.
La ley de Educación Superior N* 24521, Art.. 36, nos dice: los docentes de todas las categorías deberán poseer titulo universitario de igual o superior nivel a aquel en el cual ejercen la docencia.........,o sea que si ejercen como Profesor Universitario, tal como taxativamente lo marca la ley, deberán tener titulo de Profesor Universitario, además del titulo de la carrera de grado que lo habilita en la especialidad.
Las universidades otorgan el titulo de Profesor Titular, Asociado, Adjunto o Jefe de Trabajos Prácticos. Le recuerdo aunque parezca una verdad de Perogrullo, para acceder al titulo de Profesor Universitario, hay que cursar y aprobar una determinada curricula. La ley de Educación Superior, que la que norma, contiene y da marco legal a las universidades, ni aun en el párrafo referido a la autonomía universitaria, no dice en ninguna parte que estas puedan nombrar a cualquier profesional con titulo insuficiente como Profesor Universitario.
Desde el punto de vista del Derecho, supongamos que alguien que ejerce la profesión de Abogado, pero no sabe que es el Código Civil, ni quien fue Vélez Sarsfield, con toda seguridad ningún letrado aceptaría esta situación,sin embargo la mayoría de los Profesores Universitarios ( de hecho ), no saben quien fue Amos Comenius, ni que decir de su " Didáctica Magna ", o incluso mas en nuestros días, el colega Abogado y Pedagogo Paulo Freire, quizás el mas importante en la historia de la educación latinoamericana, con su celebre texto " La Pedagogía del Oprimido ".
El Profesor Universitario, tiene la obligación de conocer, perfecta y profundamente, las corrientes didácticas imperantes, para que de acuerdo con su leal saber y entender, y luego de todos los análisis pertinentes, se enrolaren en la corriente conductista, humanista, constructivista o mixta, o incluso alguna elaboración personal basada en conocimientos que los especialistas elaboraran día a día, para aquellos a los que de verdad nos importa la educación universitaria abrevemos.
Lo mismo sucede con cual es la metodología de enseñanza, que aplicaremos con el alumnado, será lineal, concéntrica o espiralada, el manejo de cualquiera de estas técnicas, debe ser algo tan habitual para el verdadero profesional, que cumple el rol de Profesor Universitario, como el hablar o escribir para cualquiera de nosotros.
Lo expuesto hasta aca, no llega a ser ni la punta del iceberg
Entonces señores de una vez `por todas a llegado el momento de ponernos los pantalones largos, y que asumamos como no puede ser de otra manera, que no se puede ejercer una profesión, ni ser un profesional de la misma sin titulo habilitarte.
Como colofón y para dejar palmariamente demostrado todo lo expuesto hasta aquí, digamos que todos los meses cobramos una limosna, a la que las universidades llaman sueldos, y las remuneraciones son en concepto de Profesor auxiliar, jtp, adjunto, asociado o titular, insisto a cualquiera de estas categorías llegaron por una varita mágica que los designo inmerecidamente contra de todas las leyes del sector incluso reitero el Código Penal, que en este caso no cumple su función preventiva como debería y todos estamos esperando el irrestricto cumplimiento de la norma
Conclusión
Seria deseable, que las autoridades competentes y dando un plazo de 24 o 36
meses, para que los actuales Profesores Universitarios de hecho, se conviertan en Profesores Universitarios de Hecho y de derecho, para orgullo propio y de toda la comunidad educativa.
Temas a debatir
Profesores Universitarios de hecho o de hecho y de Derecho
Profesores Universitarios Profesionales de la educación o amateurs de la educación universitaria
Bibliografia
Ley de Educacion Superior Nro. 24521
Codigo Penal Argentino

--
Posted by PROFESOR COCCA to PROFESOR COCCA at 11/25/2006 12:19:00 PM

[Mike Morgan]

Not only does Donna Shalala not care about the janitors and others at University of Miami, she does not care about American homeowners, so how can Bush expect her to function to fix our veteran and military hospitals?

Dr. Shalala sits on the Board of Directors of Lennar Corporation, the nation's third larges home builder. In this position, she has influence over the actions of Lennar Corporation. As noted on our website www.Lennar-Homes.info/defects Lennar Corporation has grave issues with building and delivery of defective homes nationwide. In fact, here in Florida a man was electrocuted in a new Lennar home that had just received an inspection. Dr. Shalala refuses to address these issues, as Lennar Corporation turns the American Dream into the American Nightmare for thousands of American. Clear evidence of Lennar's defective homes is documented at www.Lennar-Homes.info/defects and many other websites.

As a Board Member, Shalala is compensated by Lennar Corporation, and the University of Miami received a $100 million donation from the Miller family to rename the medical school to the Leonard Miller School of Medicine. Stuart Miller is the CEO of Lennar Corporation. It becomes clear that Shalala puts personal financial gain and recognition over the interests of American homeowners. She will do the same in her position on the President's commission to investigate our nation's military and veteran hospitals.

It is interesting to note that Shalala is teamed up with Senator Bob Dole on this project. Senator Dole's wife, when she was on the Federal Trade Commission, made the following comments in a speech: " . . . for too many Americans, the dream home has turned into a nightmare. You know as well as I do that as families move into their own little Garden of Eden, more and more are finding the apple full of worms. As a result, some homebuyers believe they are being bilked for thousands of dollars, and they are expressing not only anguish but outrage. Shoddy building practices can be concealed from many purchasers who cannot be expected to have the technical expertise to evaluate the structural soundness of a home or the quality of electrical, plumbing, or air conditioning systems…The patience of the American consumer is rapidly running out. . . . Consumers are demanding more protection from the government, not LESS. The consumer movement is no longer made up of small bands of activists with no troops standing behind them; the consumer movement is now part of our culture – it embraces every one of us. And it will not be denied over an issue so fundamental as decent housing . . ."

This statement was made in 1979, but nothing has changed, and Shalala's position on the Board of Lennar has demonstrated her lack of empathy and respect for the American public. President Bush should clearly remove her from her current appointment on the commission to address problems in our military and veteran hospitals.

Open letter to President Bush – http://www.Lennar-Homes.info/shalala

Dr. Shalala has far too much on her plate, and her interests are for personal gain and recognition . . . not veterans, active military, or homeowners with defective Lennar homes.