Miami University Living Wage Campaign

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?

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.

To celebrate autumn, and all that it entails (like cold weather, unpredictable Ohio rains, and beautiful red leaves), we’ve got some surprises for you!

First, the campaign is really gaining steam as we network with organizations and people from all over the country. We’re building connections with supporters of the living wage movement at large, and we’ve already got some famous names. Do you want to publicly support the Students For Staff campaign to get a living wage for Miami workers? Go join Noam Chomsky and the Center For American Progress in endorsing our campaign!

Second, a few of our veteran members collaborated recently, and put together a pretty comprehenseive history of Students For Staff. It’s a fascinating story, and we hope you’ll read it all.

Third, our website just got a big overhaul. Not only does it look prettier (well, that’s a matter of opinion), but the changes take a lot of burden off of our webmaster! (and that’s a fact). If it gives you any trouble, please contact us!

Finally, this semester is going by fast, and we’re not wasting any time. A number of interesting projects are in progress, and we want you to be informed! To help keep track of the news updates on this website, we’ve set up an RSS Feed for you. Just click on that big orange button, or here, to sign up. If you want to know more about RSS feeds, check out Wikipedia’s article.

Thanks for reading! Let’s close with a chant:

What do we want? A living wage!
When do we want it? Now!