Students for Economic Justice Unrecognized

= Mission Statement =

WE ARE CURRENTLY: trying to get a written statement from Jonathon Lash affirming the (legal) rights of Hampshire staff and faculty to organize. This would probaby be like the statement written by Marlene Fried last year. He has expressed verbal support several times to both students and staff but has yet to come out with a written statement. The time is now!!! We are also looking for a student liason to join the Staff Advocacy Committee. This is a relationship we have built over a couple of years and involves attending SAC meetings biweekly to provide student support to staff interests. Contact any of the signers if you are interested.

Our intentions are to keep alive the history of Hampshire College's past efforts, including fear-tactics, to prevent its employees from forming a union, and also to ask that the administration apologize and make amends for this unacknowledged legacy of union-busting. To this aim, we have advocated and continue to advocate for the adoption of a statement of union-neutrality by the administration. Hampshire staff are a vital element to this community and we wish to support them in any efforts they wish to take towards increased communication, collaboration, and community building. We are currently working with the Staff Advocacy Committee to learn more about dyamics of working at Hampshire College as well as hosting biweekly free staff lunches where students can come to talk with staff members and engage ideas of solidarity. We also wish to raise awareness among the student body regarding workers’ rights and struggles around the world. We see participation in SFU as one small step in students' lifetimes of activism around dignity and justice in work.

= Statement on the rights of employees of Hampshire College to unionize- March 2011 =

Submitted by Marlene Gerber Fried, Interim President, Hampshire College March 2, 2011

In response to concerns brought to me by the Students for the Freedom to Unionize and other constituencies on campus, I am issuing the following statement, which has also been endorsed by a unanimous vote of the Monday Group (senior administrators and academic deans), on the rights of employees of Hampshire College to unionize:

Hampshire College recognizes that the right to organize is legally protected and the College is bound to adhere fully to the provisions of labor law. Further, the College is committed to ensuring that the climate at the College enables its employees to engage in open discussion, debate, and education about unionization.

Although I cannot speak for, nor commit, any future administrations, during my tenure as president of Hampshire, to ensure that the above statement is implemented, I pledge to adhere to the following specific points:

- Neither the employment nor the advancement of any Hampshire staff member will be compromised because they have engaged in discussion or other activities about union organizing.

- No officers or employees of the College will use threats of job losses to discourage or encourage unionization.

- Hampshire College will not itself engage in practices which impede staff organizing, nor will it hire outside entities whose purpose is to impede staff organizing.

- Channels of campus communication that are regularly open to staff, faculty, and students shall remain available to all employees to express their views about unionization.

= Summer 2010 Petition in Support of Staff (Distributed at the 40th Anniversary) =

To The Hampshire College Administration And The Board Of Trustees,

The staff members of Hampshire College are an integral part of this community, but are consistently excluded from larger conversations about community at Hampshire. They are greatly under-appreciated by the administration and students alike. As members of the Hampshire Community we feel strongly that the administration must make substantial strides towards an equitable relationship with the staff of Hampshire College. These efforts should ensure the security of staff jobs and provide adequate channels for accountability, communication, and transparency.

We, the undersigned, hereby express our solidarity with the staff of Hampshire College in all the intimidation, salary cuts, and job insecurity that they continue to face. Because we are deeply invested in Hampshire becoming a democratic community, the administration’s treatment of staff will significantly affect our verbal and monetary contributions. We feel obligated to speak truthfully about our school, act morally with our donations, and ensure that Hampshire College strives towards just working conditions and community relations.

If the administration dedicates itself to providing an equitable and non-fear based environment for staff, it will positively affect our verbal and monetary contributions*. It is for the prosperity of Hampshire College, of which staff are a vital element, that we feel obligated to make this statement.


 * Members of the Hampshire Community will be able to donate with specific stipulations through the newly created Democratic Capital Campaign (insert website). Information about staff conditions and administration actions as well as other pertinent situations and events on campus will be available at: hampsignboard.wordpress.com

To sign this petition electronically, please visit: http://www.petitiononline.com/SFUpetit/petition.html

SFU Panel February 23rd 2010
On February 23rd 2010, Students for the Freedom to Unionize organized a panel to discuss the importance of Union organizing on campus as well as the history of unionization attempts at Hampshire. Professor Margaret Cerullo presented an analytical history of the 1993 and 1997 Union drives at Hampshire and the administration's tactics at combating it. Professor Stephanie Levin gave a talk addressing the reason of why should one care about a union and the labor movement. Lastly Physical Plant staff member Kevin Schmith gave a talk in which he explained why he was hoping to get a union at Hampshire. The panel was introduced and closed by SFU members Emelia Martinez Brumbaugh and Jayme Winell.

Kevin's Talk
While delivering his talk, Kevin's body language and tone exposed the fact that he was afraid and distressed from the exposure and the fear of losing his job as a result of talking about the union. The speech reads as follows:

"Well, the first thing that people told me is not to mention money. So, I went online and the one top reason to unionize in the United States is higher wages. that's not why we need a union. It's communication, or lack of it; the environement of fear and there are no real grievance procedures.

If they decided to fire me tomorrow, hey... i'm gone. People didn't come tonight because they were afraid of retribution.

I feel we need someone on our sides. If We're treated unfairly, there's not much we can do, and if fired byu the college, they actively try to deny our unemployment benefits.

If we had a unionthere would be due process. Right now the only reason why they can't fire me is for discrimination. I think they should have to have a reason to fire me, but tomorrow I could be gone.

In 1997-1998 there was a campaign here at Hampshire College for a union. 80%of the workers signed cards to say they were interested in the union. The vote was lost by one vote.

I think maybe its time for a new vote."

Files
1994 Anti union Campagin

Letters from Physical Plant Workers

Deception

Hampshire Gazette Article 1994

Local 509

What is a Card Check?

The Valley Advocate 1997 Hampshire Union Article

Staff Statement

SFU forum on Union Busting 2-28-2005

Current Events in Labor Organizing Mexican "guest workers" in Amite, LA
Thirty Mexican "guest workers" are courageously organizing against the slave-like conditions in the strawberry fields of Amite, Louisiana. Their boss has seized their passports, is paying them sometimes as little as $2 an hour, and has threatened them with deportation if they stretch or use the bathroom.

On Valentine's Day, workers walked off the fields to reclaim their dignity. In solidarity, a delegation of African Americans attempted to conduct a citizen's arrest of their boss, Charles "Bimbo" Relan, because he is violating the federal laws that define slavery, peonage, human trafficking, and servitude in the United States. We read him his rights, and told him he was violating the laws our ancestors fought for. Bimbo struck back: he was forced to return the passports but fired the worker and illegally evicted them. The workers are continuing their fight. And they need our support.

The workers are members of the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, a Gulf-Coast wide organization led by guest workers who have arrived to work in horrific conditions after Hurricane Katrina.For coverage of the unfolding drama in Amite on Valentine's Day go to: http://www.wwltv.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=218183&amp;she=1

The thirty men come from the indigenous community of San Luis Potosin, in Mexico, to work for Bimbo's Best Produce, Inc. US trade agreements have destroyed their economy and forced these men to become cheap, exploitable workers. Recruiters in Mexico promised them the American dream, with one catch: they'd have to pay almost a thousand dollars in recruitment fees. They paid, and were brought to Amite, Louisiana on H2A visas in a bus that dropped them off at a Walmart in the middle of the night last winter. Then they found out that all the promises recruiters had made them were false: steady jobs, decent wages, good conditions – none of it was true. They realized they had been trafficked to the fields of Amite.

Relan confiscated their passports to hold them in his fields. He forced them to work for sometimes as little as $2 an hour. Strawberries are back-breaking work – the men were bent down over bushes for hours. When they stopped to stretch, Bimbo yelled that he would deport them back to Mexico. They weren't given water, or allowed to use the bathroom. Under US law, these men can only work for Bimbo. Guest workers can only work for one employer. So they had a choice: work under slave-like conditions, or go back to Mexico to joblessness and poverty.

So they decided to organize. The workers invited us to a meeting and described their conditions. We told them: as African Americans we recognize what you're describing, and we are with you. The next day the workers walked off the plantation to demand their dignity. We charged their boss with federal crimes. He returned their passports, but told them he would not change the working conditons. Just before midnight on Valentine's Day, the workers went on strike, refusing to return to the degrading treatment in his fields.

The workers now need your support to continue in their struggle. In the coming days, they will pressure the FBI, the Department of Justice, and governments of the US and Mexico to take action. Bimbo, meanwhile, has fired them, evicted them, and intimidated them. The workers are now in hiding, in New Orleans.

Please make a contribution to the strike fund we are organizing for these workers.

You can make checks out to: National Immigration Law Center and can be mailed to: National Immigration Law Center, 3535 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2850 Los Angeles, CA, 90010.

The Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity is a project of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice. For more information about the campaign you can contact Saket Soni, Director, New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, at 504 881 6610.

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