Miami University Living Wage Campaign

A report recently published by the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies uses self sufficiency standards to measure poverty in Ohio as an alternative to the problematic federal poverty line. According to these standards, a single parent with a preschooler and an infant in Butler County needs $46, 638 a year to meet the cost of living. Read more about this report in local newspapers or see the full text of the report.

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.

The SFS alumni have heard that it’s crunch time and they are getting organized.  If you are a Miami alum, we need you now!  Please sign the following petition and then email us if you want to get more involved

“Until Miami University implements a living wage policy as outlined in the Students for Staff Proposal for a Living Wage, we will withhold donations to the University. Additionally, we will encourage fellow alums and potential future donors to withhold contributions to a University that seems to love and honor the poverty wages it forces on the very workers that make it successful.

We will instead contribute our money to fund efforts by Miami students and workers to organize themselves to win a living wage for everyone employed by our alma mater.”

http://www.petitiononline.com/MUalumni/petition.html

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?

We’ve released the proposal for a Living Wage at Miami. Read it here!

This Tuesday at 10am, we are sending a delegation of students, faculty, and staff to President Hodge, asking him to implement a Living Wage at Miami. Do you want him to stop Miami from paying poverty wages? Then contact him:

Phone: (513) 529-2346

E-mail: hodgedc@muohio.edu

You are welcome to say the following:

“Hi, my name is _______. I am calling today to inform you of my support for the Living Wage proposal developed by Students For Staff. I believe that paying poverty wages at Miami is morally indefensible, and must stop immediately. I urge you, President Hodge, to agree to implement the Living Wage proposal at the April 15th meeting with Students For Staff.”

Continue reading →

On Monday, University Senate passed a resolution in support of a living wage for Miami’s full-time staff. While this resolution is non-binding, it does signify serious community support for a living wage policy at Miami. Specifically, University Senate urges President Hodge to implement a living wage at Miami. U. Senate is made up of representatives of faculty, students, staff, and administrators.

Here’s an article about our resolution.

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!

Today, we received a public letter of recognition from Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator for Ohio:

2/25/08
Dear Members of Miami University Students for Staff,

Thank you for contacting me about Students for Staff at Miami University of Ohio. While I do not feel it is appropriate to endorse the efforts of a non-governmental body like yours, I do believe strongly in the mission you shared with me in your letter.

It is unacceptable that individuals caring for our university students are struggling to stay above the poverty line. I applaud your efforts to bring undergraduate students, graduate students, university alumni, and staff together to promote broad-based access to a living wage.

Your commitment to improving working conditions and the lives of workers is admirable. We must continue to push for a living wage for all of America’s hardworking men and women.

Sincerely,

Sherrod Brown
U.S. Senator

(View the signed letter.) Senator Brown’s views on a living wage and other issues can be found on his website.

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?