Led by an immense heart-shaped valentine urging him to “Have a Heart,” hundreds of janitors, students, alumni and community members marched from Harvard Square to Harvard University President Lawrence Summers’ home in Cambridge to protest the president’s lack of action on janitorial wage increases.
“Two, four, six, eight, living wage just can’t wait!” screamed members of the Justice for Janitors, a part of the SEIU Local 254, the largest union statewide.
The Harvard janitors have asked Harvard to pay wages comparable to those of other Boston-area universities with much smaller endowments. Boston University pays at least $14.50, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pays at least $15.49 and Wellesley pays more than $15.26, according to the Harvard Living Wage Campaign.
Although Harvard has quadrupled its endowment and raised tuition by more than 50 percent since 1992, the university has cut janitors’ wages by more than 30 percent during this period.
After landmark negations resulting from the student occupation last May, Summers and the university offered a wage increase of $1, raising the hourly wage of $11.
The money Harvard saves by paying substandard wages and benefits equals less than one-quarter of a percent of annual university expenses, according to Harvard Living Wage Campaign. Harvard’s negotiators maintain the university can’t offer more than a minimal wage increase.
“The students are here today as a means to protest Harvard’s power structure,” said freshman Emma MacKinnon. “It is not right for Harvard’s endowment to quadruple in 10 years, for them to raise tuition and increase professors’ salaries while cutting janitorial wages.”
Although there have been four bargaining sessions since May, no settlement has been reached.
“This march on Summers is the last and final reminder to the apparently intransigent administration that time is running out and it is running out fast,” said Harvard sophomore Daniel Dimaggio.
In addition to poverty wages, a number of other crucial problems are left unsolved by Summers’ policy changes, the protesters said. While many workers have been offered health benefits, the co-payments are so expensive that the majority of service workers choose to forgo them.
“We’re asking President Summers to have a heart,” said Daniel Mejia, a bargaining committee member and a part-time janitor at Harvard. “Right now, many of us can’t even afford the family health insurance the university offers.”
Living wage is notably higher in Cambridge, and the Harvard employees said it is difficult to live decently and raise their families on their current salaries.
“I mean, my kids don’t really think they’re poor. When we go to a soup kitchen, they think they’re going to a restaurant,” said Jane Mawson, a 40-year-old janitor.
“I’m 63 now and I’m really busted. I literally have no money. I make $9.40 an hour and I’m in debt,” said Gene Bartles, a Harvard security guard. “Working overtime is how I survive. Five years without a raise … At this point, and at this rate, I’ll work forever. I’ll never retire.”
Nearly a year has past since the last Harvard protest, and janitors and students say they want results and commitment from Summers and Harvard. The Valentine’s Day protest at Summers mansion is just the beginning, the protesters say.
“The memory of the sit-in should be fresh in the mind of Summers,” said Harvard junior Matthew Komarovsky. “If it is not, well, the spring will be a rather unpleasant time for the Harvard administration.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
