Harvard protesters continue sit-in to raise University employee wages

After a week-long sit-in at Harvard University President Neil Rudenstine’s office in Massachusetts Hall, students protesting the University’s labor policies show no sign of moving.

“We had to escalate. The University stonewalled us,” said protester Emilou Maclean, referring to the University’s repeated refusal to discuss its labor policies with student activists.

The student protesters, members of the Harvard Campaign for a Living Wage and the Progressive Student Labor Movement, drove Harvard staffers from the Hall last Tuesday, demanding Harvard pay its employees $10.25 per hour, the figure the Cambridge City Council has recognized as the area’s minimum living wage.

“There are some workers who have been here for 10 or 12 years … and they say, ‘I came here twelve years ago and I’ve been given raises, so now I get $9.55 [an hour],” said Movement spokesman Scott Swaner.

Although the protest is aimed at Harvard’s treatment of part-time labor, some full-time Harvard employees feel the University deals unfairly with them. Harvard food service worker Shel Higgins said he finds making ends meet almost impossible on the $20,000 a year Harvard pays him.

“My family’s been part of this institution for four generations,” Higgins said. “My father’s worked here, my grandfather worked here. … We try to do our best to make sure they [the students] feel as comfortable as possible. … Meanwhile, our managers are trying to intimidate us.”

Since it began seven days ago, the sit-in has gained the support of the AFL-CIO, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Boston University Professor Emeritus Howard Zinn, Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) and a score of trade unions, activist groups and Harvard professors.

“It seems like the only people who aren’t listening to us are the top administrators of Harvard,” Swaner said.

Although a chain of police keeps anyone from entering or leaving the embattled brownstone, protesters continue to preach their message through open windows to passersby and to the crowd that gathers every day at noon to support the sit-in. The police have refused entrance to anyone approaching the building, including Kennedy and Cambridge Mayor Anthony Galluccio.

Although police initially refused to allow food deliveries, a stream of sympathizers have brought food in for the past week. Outside the building, a tent city of approximately 60 students has sprung up in solidarity with those inside.

Inside, morale remains high as protesters spend their days organizing and mapping out strategy.

“Everybody cares. There’s so much energy, you tend to forget yourself, forget things like eating and sleeping,” protester Brent Zettle said from a first floor window.

“They’ve got to begin feeling the heat,” added fellow protester Jane Martin.

In 1999, the Cambridge City Council passed a living wage ordinance establishing a minimum wage of $10 an hour for all city workers and employees of firms with city contracts exceeding $10,000. However, according to the Movement, Harvard continues to pay hundreds of its employees lower wages, forcing them to work long hours and live in distant, less expensive suburbs.

“A lot of people end up working a second job and a third job, and hardly anybody who works here on campus … actually lives around here, because they can’t afford to,” Swaner said.

According to Swaner, Rudenstine publicly commented on the sit-in for the first time in yesterday’s issue of the Harvard Crimson.

“Essentially, all he did was just reiterate what they said in the report,” Swaner said.

Although the Harvard administration steadfastly refuses to meet the protesters’ demands, cracks have begun to show in the school’s resistance. According to Swaner, Harvard Business School agreed to reopen negotiations with 100 employees whom the University planned to classify as part-time or “casual” employees.

“Today was a really big success in terms of the downward trend of outsourcing and changing people’s work classifications. … It’s seemed to stop, at least for now,” Swaner stated.