To all of our student, faculty, and staff members, welcome back to Miami for Fall 2008! Our plans for this year include classroom presentations, a labor related film series, speakers, involvement in the Employee Free Choice Act campaign, and, as always, some action on campus.

Any singers, songwriters, or guitar players out there? We’d love to get the Student Labor Action Band going again!

If politics are more your thing, come help us get signatures for the Employee Free Choice Act to support the right of workers to organize.

Do you like writing? Come help out with our media and press exposure.

As you can see, there is a place for you in Students for Staff. If you are interested, come to a meeting, send us an email, or check out our table at Mega Fair from 1-5pm on Sunday Sept. 7th in Millet Hall.

At a recent meeting (April 15th, 2008) with President Hodge, Students for Staff requested that Pres. Hodge make a personal commitment to implement our living wage proposal.   His response?   “No”

So, we asked him to designate a living wage as a fiscal priority.  Again, he said “No”.

President Hodge has said that the staff are the heart and soul of the university but he won’t acknowledge that a living wage should be a priority!

What did he say at this meeting?  “A living wage will be a part of the discussion during negotiations next year.”

That’s right, folks.  Next year is union contract negotiations and we all need to be behind the staff 100% during this time.  We won’t just make a living wage part of the discussion, we will make it part of the reality.  Are you ready?

Thanks to everyone who came out to the rally. We estimate that about 80 people came, including students, faculty, staff and some supporters from Cincinnati. We rallied at Shriver Center with some great speakers, including three staff members who shared their stories. Then we marched to Roudebush (the administrative building) where we planted our proposal for a living wage policy and everyone put in their yard signs “For A Living Wage”. Again, thanks to everyone who came to the rally and helped us pull off a great event with an amazing amount of energy. We’ll see you on Tuesday April 8^th at noon for our kickoff at the hub to mark the countdown until our meeting with President Hodge on April 15th.

Join Students for Staff and other students around the NATION by participating in the 9th annual National Student Labor Week of Action. 

WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR CAMPUS:

 What: RALLY FOR A LIVING WAGE!

          SFS will be releasing our proposal for a living wage policy, which will include the long-awaited living wage number!
          Come hear staff members, professors, and students tell their stories, and show your support for a just wage policy at Miami and for workers around the nation.

Where: Shriver Patio
When: Wednesday, April 2nd at 5pm
Who:  Hosted by Students for Staff and officially endorsed by the Miami Valley Jobs with Justice Coalition. 

…We did this last year, and we’re doing it again, because OUR MIAMI IS BETTER THAN THIS!

On Tuesday, Students for Staff spoke with a full-time staff member at Miami who lives alone and provides for herself by working a second job. Recently, she woke up in the hospital—her blood sugar had plummeted overnight and the sudden drop almost killed her. Now she’s afraid to go to sleep. She broke her tailbone last year when a sudden drop in blood sugar caused her to fall, and she crashed her car when her blood sugar got so low that she nearly passed out.

An automatic insulin pump would be enough to prevent these incidents from ever happening again. She and her doctors are trying to get the pump covered through Miami’s insurance, but she’s been told it will likely be denied. The “market-competitive wages” from the “employer of choice” aren’t enough that she can afford the device herself. Even with the addition of a second job, she is still forced to choose between her proper medication and other basic necessities. These are the realities at the heart of our demand for a living wage.

Nevertheless, the university’s response to our concerns has been consistently clear: “not now, not here.” Most recently, at ASG’s Annual State of the Student Body Address, President Hodge said he was disappointed in us for bringing up “our” issue at yet another public forum. This comment followed a speech in which President Hodge commended students for embracing the issues that confront Oxford as a community. In response, we would like to inform President Hodge that poverty is a community issue, and, as community leaders, President Hodge and the administration have the responsibility to pay Miami’s hard-working staff what they deserve, not as little as Miami can get away with. Furthermore, the entire student body was invited to this event and encouraged to ask questions. It reflects poorly on our president’s commitment to community if one of the few student organizations that cared enough to come to the event was denigrated and condemned for voicing community concerns. We would like to inform President Hodge that community must emerge from collaboration and dialog; it doesn’t appear overnight with the construction of an $80 million bicentennial student center.

It is practically impossible to muster the excitement and enthusiasm President Hodge invoked in his discussion of plans for the bicentennial student center when you remember the full-time Miami staff who must live in extreme frugality because Miami refuses to pay them a fair wage.

If students’ concerns for local poverty and economic justice are consistently unwelcome at student forums and events, when and where will community finally be realized at Miami?

Students for Staff had a great fall semester and we are anticipating an even better spring semester. Some of our achievements for Fall ’07:

• Throughout the semester, SFS students gave interactive presentations to many classes to raise awareness about the living wage issue. If you want a presentation in your class please contact us!
• Staff Day (see previous post)
• SFS launches the Student Labor Action Band and students walk around campus singing living wage songs and strumming guitars.
• The Living Wage Committee put in many hours researching wage and poverty data, including Miami University’s history of labor relations, comparisons with other universities, the cost of living in Oxford, and comparison between inflation and wage increases.
• Though the Associated Student Government fails to pass a bill in support of a living wage, The Graduate Student Association passes the following bill urging President Hodge to implement a living wage:

Living Wage Bill
11-07-2007

We the Graduate Student Association:

1) Acknowledge that all employees, including the approximately 1,600 full-time classified staff, are indispensable parts of the Miami University communities.

2) Believe that the fiscal/financial policies of the University cannot be carried out to the disadvantage of our university communities’ most vulnerable.

3) Acknowledge that there is an unresolved problem with the ability of staff’s wages to cover basic necessities for themselves and their families.

4) Urge President Hodge and the Board of Trustees to implement a living wage policy.

5) Encourage students, staff, faculty and administration to work in collaboration and open dialog with each other to find an equitable wage scale for all university employees.