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George. The "living wage" issue has been boiling away at the University for nearly a decade. Some good things have come out of it in the past 10 years: in 2000 a raise to $8.56 per hour for the lowest paid employees, in 2002 a labor union for the employees was formed and more recently, in April of this year, the University raised its lowest wage from $8.56 to $9.37 per hour for all direct employees. It took the University six years to raise its lowest wage $0.81 an hour. This does not include thethousands of contract workers thousands who work for private firms under the University umbrella, like the dining hall employees who work for ARAmark who make even less. The Living Wage Campaign, a group of students, faculty, staff and community members, accomplished all of this. Through the years this group also helped to put pressure on the City of Charlottesville and the local school boards to pay a living wage. The University is the largest employer in this area of central Virginia, therefore setting the market for wages in the area. The current lowest wage of $9.37 an hour ($19,490 per year) is still not acceptable for this very expensive town. The median cost of a home here is $277,000.00. Put that together with outrageous health care costs, gas at nearly $3.00 a gallon, and high energy bills a person cannot make it on that little amount, especially if they are trying to raise a family. After years of talking to the administration, having rallies, doing reports and studies, petitioning and picketing, it was decided something more drastic needed to be done to get the University's attention to put pressure on the administration to seriously negotiate a true "living wage" for its lowest paid workers. Four days before Easter, 17 students walked into the main administration building and sat down. They planned on staying until the University agreed to pay its lowest paid workers $10.72 an hour. Four days later, the students were physically hauled out of Madison Hall by the local police and put in jail for Easter weekend. It is generally agreed by most that University President John T. Casteen III completely mishandled this situation -- denying the students food, intimidating the 17 by denying them sleep and having a faculty member arrested (her charges were thrown out). Surely, we have enough creative minds around that we can figure out how to make sure all workers are treated with dignity and respect. And University workers should not be an exception. Lets all urge Casteen to do the right thing and establish a true living wage for all University workers. Jan Cornell (electronic mail, September 6, 2006)
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