------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 15, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: STUDENTS ARRESTED SUPPORTING WORKERS' RIGHTS
By Steven Ceci Washington, D.C.
Eleven student activists were arrested on March 28 at George Washington University here in a solidarity action supporting workers' rights at the wealthy school, located just blocks from the White House.
Nine of those arrested were GW students; the two others were from Georgetown University.
The students had set up a tent city at the Marvin Center, the main student center on campus, to demand that GW affiliate with the Workers Rights Consortium. To affiliate, the university would have to verify that apparel bearing its logo was not made by sweatshop labor. It would also have to institute a labor code of conduct that guarantees a livable wage, affordable health care and the right to organize to university employees.
Senior Allie Robbins, who cheered "No justice, no peace!" while being put in handcuffs, said she was wrongfully detained and that she was participating in a peaceful protest. "It's obviously scary knowing that we were doing the right thing ... but the fact that 10 other students were with me was absolutely empowering," she said. Alex Freedman, another student who participated in the tent city, said the arrest of the 11 would not deter activists from demonstrating for greater worker rights.
The tent city encampment followed a spirited rally of close to 200 students and workers outside GW's Rice Hall and the office of university president Joel Trachtenberg. It was organized by a coalition of student groups and unions representing many of the workers at GW--from housekeepers and food service workers to adjunct faculty. The action was part of the Student and Labor Action Project (SLAP), a nationally coordinated week of activities at universities and colleges to bring attention to workers' rights. The week includes March 31, the birthday of farmworkers' organizer Caesar Chavez, and April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
GW is the largest private employer in the District of Columbia and second only to the federal government as an employer in the District. The university is a wealthy institution and a large property owner in the District. At the end of 2002 it had assets of $1.7 billion and liabilities of $826 million. It also has endowments of $635 million.
GW is notorious in the D.C. area for failing to respect workers' rights or provide a livable wage. The university is trying to cut health insurance benefits to its janitors, housekeepers and maintenance staff, represented by SEIU local 82. It gets university apparel from sweatshop companies. And it is trying to keep part-time faculty from organizing their own union with SEIU Local 500 by hiring one of the most notorious union-busting law firms in the country, Krupin O'Brien.
In yet another labor struggle at GW, parking lot and garage workers are trying to organize with HERE Local 27. The university contracted out its parking garages to Colonial Parking, which has refused to recognize the workers' right to form a union. Using this tactic, George Washington University claims its hands are clean while it refuses to put leverage on Colonial Parking to respect the workers' right to unionize.
With all these attacks and abuses, student groups and the AFL-CIO Metro Labor Council are planning to broaden the struggle and make George Washington University's labor record a citywide issue.
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