George,

Casteen mishandled the Living Wage Campaign. He denied the students food, he intimidated the 17 students by denying them sleep, he wrote a letter in the Alumni Magazine with untrue charges (pandering to rich alumni) , he filed -- or had a student file -- UJC charges against them, he filed city charges against them (which they were acquitted of), he had a faculty member arrested (her charges were thrown out). He also accused the students of bringing national labor unions and professional activists in to our community.

Truth is, the only union was the Staff Union at UVA which the administration refuses to recognize or meet with, so I'm not sure why he would accuse SUUVA of being a outside national labor union. SUUVA is only made up of local University employees. There were no professional activists in our community that I was aware of. Not one union member participated in the sit in. Not one union member called Carr's Hill that evening that Casteen and others were so upset about. Not one union member was arrested.

The facts are: The median home price in the area is $277,000, the poverty rate in our area is is 25 percent, homeless people have jobs at the University $9.37 per hourequal $19,489.00 a year (barely above the poverty line). The state of Virginia gave $240 million to the University this fiscal year. Billions of dollars have been raised in the capital campaign. The Higher Education Restructuring Bill gives the University greater autonomy to give its employees raises.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is not over. It is only just begun. I'm pretty sure that the University can afford to pay a living wage to its employees and to its contract workers. Especially with their $240 million windfall from the state.

Jan Cornell (electronic mail, July 20, 2006)
President
Staff Union at UVA,Communications Workers of America

Editor's Note: An index to coverage on the Loper website of the Living Wage campaign can be found at http://george.loper.org/~george/trends/2006/Apr/914.html