ANNOUNCEMENT: Unfair Labor Practices in the University A Public Hearing in NYC Participants include Eric Foner Victor Navasky Chriss Quinn Ed Sullivan David Dyson & Testimonies from Students and Workers involved in current campus struggles email Johanna Fernandez @ jf133@columbia.edu for more information ********** "Fair Labor Practice" University Code of Conduct Hearing Thursday, November 16, 6-8 pm. Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South New York, NY MAKE UNIVERSITIES FAIR LABOR PRACTICE EMPLOYERS Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice (SAWSJ) is pleased to announce a national campaign to promote a code of fair labor practices for campus employers.To launch the campaign, we will be holding a hearing on November 16 on the denial of basic rights to college and university campus workers. The event is being organized in coalition with student organizations and unions representing all sections of university and college employees including the AFL-CIO, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), the UAW, AFT, AAUP, SEIU, HERE, Jobs with Justice and the Laborers International Union. Chaired by Columbia University Professor Eric Foner, the event will feature an introductory address by a national AFL-CIO leader and a panel of distinguished political, academic, cultural and religious leaders who will hear testimony from workers and students involved in a variety of campus labor struggles. Campaigns featured include: * Adjunct faculty organizing in BostonAmerican Association of University Professors, Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor and the University Organizing Project * New York UniversityGSOC (Graduate Student Organizing Committee) * New York UniversityClerical & Technical Workers (AFT Local 3882) * SUNY AlbanyHERE foodservice workers (a successful struggle by students and unions against the use of non-union contractors) * SUNY StonybrookLabourers (non-union contractor issue) * Wesleyan UniversityUnited Student-Labor Action Coalition and SEIU janitors (successful labor code of conduct campaign) * Yale University - GESO (Graduate Employee and Student Organization) and Healthcare Workers At this hearing, and in the campaign, we will highlight the Fair Labor Practice Employer University Code of Conduct (see attached) and call on all universities to adopt and implement it. We hope this code will be circulated nationally by students and activists on campuses for endorsement by university administrations. We believe it is important to examine the ways in which the increasing corporatization of university life affects faculty, undergraduates, graduate students, adjuncts, professional staff, clerical staff, and service and maintenance employees. We are committed to bringing together all segments of the campus community to resist corporate domination of the university and hold administrators accountable to fair labor practice standards that guarantee academic freedom and decent working conditions for all campus workers. For more information contact: Josh Freeman(718) 997-5384 JBFJBF@aol.com or Corey Robin(718) 951-5308 crobin@brooklyn.cuny.edu A "Fair Labor Practice " University Code of Conduct Colleges and universities are threatened today by the growing sway of corporate values over university life.We see evidence of this influence in curricular decisions, research priorities, the declining role of faculty, and most visibly in the sphere of employment relations. University employees are often denied elementary democratic rights of free speech, economic security, and equal opportunity.No educational institution can fulfill its mission unless these rights are protected.To that end, every educational institution should become a "fair labor practice employer" by ensuring that it and all contractors doing business with it secure and uphold the following rights: 1. Employees at educational institutions have the right to participate fully in determining the conditions of their work. Every employee has the right to free association, to organize unions without fear of retaliation, and to good-faith bargaining.Whenever a majority of employees have expressed the desire to be represented by a union - whether by signing a petition or union card, or by voting in a union election - colleges and universities should recognize their union. Educational institutions should not engage in protracted legal struggles to thwart these democratic decisions.University and college administrators should conscientiously adhere to fair labor principles in contract negotiations and in their relations with employee unions, and refrain from practices aimed at undermining them. 2. All members of the university community have the right to learn, teach, work and conduct research in an environment that values and protects academic freedom. 3. Employees have the right to a living wage, including health, pension, and other benefits. 4. Employees have the right to a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and a workplace that practices affirmative action.International students, postdoctoral fellows, and workers have the right to workplaces free of intimidation, coercion and misinformation regarding immigration, visa, and citizenship status. 5. Employees have the right to humane and dignified working conditions in an environment that protects the health and safety of the workforce and the surrounding community. 6. All members of the university community have the right to learn, teach, and work in an institution that does not depend upon prison labor. These rights should be guaranteed to all employees, including service and maintenance workers; clerical and technical workers; security personnel; faculty and professional staff; full-time, part-time, and subcontracted employees; and adjunct instructors and graduate-student employees.
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