Following the Living Wage Campaign's hunger strike, Michael Strine, University executive vice president and chief operative officer, emailed the University community making a number of promises. The Living Wage Campaign will be vigilant in holding the administration accountable for them. We demand the University confront its long, shameful history of slave labor, underpaid labor and poor community relations with the simple step of ensuring what we call "a living wage" for all employees, both those directly employed by the University and those employed through contractors such as Aramark.
Every contract the campaign has reviewed, including Aramark's, gives the University the unequivocal and immediate right to audit; that is, to know how many employees work on Grounds every day and what they are paid. Public entities throughout Virginia already require contractors to make such information on employee compensation publicly accessible. The University has yet to take the easy step, well within its rights, of calling up its own contractors to ask such an obvious question: How many people work on our Grounds every day, and what are they paid?
But in Strine's email, the University administration promises to do exactly this, committing to "begin to gather information on key contracting and trends, which will help us better manage and communicate to the Board of Visitors regarding our reliance on contracted partners that support and advance our mission." This is a step the campaign has called for since last year and now heartily commends. Strine's is a vague commitment at best, however, and was only granted after ten days of inaction during a student hunger strike. Administrations throughout the University's history have hidden behind empty rhetoric and promises, thinking that statements count as action. But an email isn't action. A "commitment to lowest-paid employees" isn't a living wage. And the minimum starting pay of $10.65 isn't "$17.07 to $20.20 per hour," as stated in an email by President Sullivan.
The campaign does not end with a hunger strike or a placating email: The campaign lasts precisely as long as the University's unjust wages last. To remind the administration of this, as well as to remind it that the rest of the country has gotten its first look into the University's inequitable labor practices, the campaign will stage a mass rally on May 1. If low-paid workers really are part of our much-touted "caring community," then they need to be counted as such. This starts with contract auditing. It starts with the University finally asking: How many people work on-Grounds every day and what are they paid? But contracted workers deserve more than vague promises: They deserve a concrete, practical plan for auditing, for ensuring that companies such as Aramark are engaging in fair labor practices. During the afternoon of May 1, the campaign will rally at the Rotunda to deliver just such a plan to the administration.
Strine made a promise. We'll show him how he can honor it.
Tim Bruno and Ajay Chandra are students in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
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