Students end nine day hunger strike at Harvard

On May 11, 10 Harvard students ended a nine day hunger strike for workers' rights after key concessions were made by the university. The students, who are members of the Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) and the Stand for Security Coalition. The coalition has now grown to include over 26 student groups who have been campaigning for better wages and benefits for Harvard's security officers since the fall of 2006. Although the strike has ended, the struggle for a fair working contract for university security officers continues. In 2004, Harvard University outsourced 250 security guards to Allied Barton, one of the nation's largest security subcontractors. Students, faculty and workers have been pressuring the university since then to uphold its Wage and Benefit Parity Policy, which would ensure that outsourcing does not result in lower wages, fewer benefits and a diminished right to organize for outsourced workers. All outsourced security guards are paid $12.68 an hour while newly hired in-house guards are paid $12.87. Cambridge self-sufficiency standards cite a minimum hourly wage of $13.67 for a single adult with no family. Guards on nearby campuses earn significantly higher wages than those at Harvard, Benjamin Landau-Beispiel a freshman and hunger striker told Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now!" "At [Boston University] and MIT, the wages are closer to $17 to $20. And other workers at Harvard–for example, dining hall workers and museum guards, people like that–are making $14, $15 an hour. Security guards have really been left behind." Boston City Councilman Chuck Turner joined students during a campus rally on May 10 to present a letter signed by eight city council members in support of the campaign. Turner was turned away by university officials when he attempted to deliver the letter to Massachusetts Hall, but he read the letter to students, workers and faculty gathered for the rally. Daily rallies last week drew between 200-300 students and community members and a petition for the campaign was delivered to Harvard's Director of Labor Relations containing over 1800 signatures. Still the administration was slow to respond. "I think the administration was really affected by it as slow as they were in their response. They didn't really seem to know what to do," said Alexandra Bush, a Harvard student who worked on media outreach for the campaign. During the nine day hunger strike at least two students were hospitalized due to dangerously low sodium levels. The university met with students on day six of the strike and again on day nine. In a letter addressed to the members of SLAM, the university expressed its interest in guaranteeing a "minimally decent standard of living" for its employees. The university also agreed to the "formation of an independent committee of workers, students, faculty and administrators to provide a short-term assessment of Allied Barton's wages and benefits on campus" according to hunger striker and Harvard senior J. Claire Provost reported in the Harvard Crimson. "I think that the hunger strike has been useful in drawing attention to this serious problem of outsourcing of security guards at Harvard. We got some useful concessions from the administration around affirming its commitment to employment principles of fair wages and benefits and the right to organize" said Kaveri Rajaraman, a Harvard graduate student in neurobiology and one of the hunger strikers. Additionally, the university has pledged to audit Allied Barton on its adherence to university employment principles. The results of the audit will be announced later this week. Aside from eliciting a response from the Harvard administration, workers told students that the hunger strike also brought an end to stalling on the part of Allied Barton, ending a 26-day stalemate in negotiations. Rajaraman warned, however, that the campaign was far from over despite the ending of the hunger strike. "Ultimately this is about the workers' contract. Unless the struggle continues to ensure a fair contract we do not have a victory." Rajaraman says workers are demanding a speedy resolution to their negotiations for a fair contract. "We are going to be supporting them [the workers] in all the escalation tactics that they have planned for this coming week." More information about the campaign including the online petition, workers' testimonials and media coverage are available on the Stand for Security website (www.stand4security.org).