ND opts not to formally affirm workers' rights
By JUSTIN KRIVICKAS
News Writer
Notre Dame has rejected a proposal by the Progressive Student Alliance for the University to make a formal statement affirming the rights of workers in the Catholic tradition.
Since its inception, the PSA has been working on labor issues. "There was the sweatshop campaign, fair trade coffee and taco-bell boycotts … but throughout this year, we have been talking to labor and taking in their concerns. It just seemed that the logical next step would be on campus," said Paul Graham, PSA co-president.
On March 20, the PSA sent the proposal to University President Father Edward Malloy's office and requested that the school consider the proposition and act by April 4. The letter stated that in keeping with Catholic teachings, the University should make a statement that adheres to Catholic social teaching on the rights of labor and also that it won't hinder or help the workers of Notre Dame in forming unions. Thus, the University will have a firm basis in order to respect the dignity of all labor on campus.
"If they make a statement, especially one that could be legally binding, there is a base on which the labor and those sympathetic to their conditions could start," said Graham.
On April 4 University spokesman Dennis Moore sent a letter to the PSA rejecting their request. The letter asserted that the University does recognize the dignity of each of its employees to organize and form unions and said the University did not agree with the PSA's proposal.
"If the University were to believe that organizing was in the best interest of a group of workers, why would we not seek to help in that? On the other hand, if we did not believe that such a move was in the workers' interests, why would we [the University] not say so, consistent with the law?" Moore wrote.
Charles Wilber, professor of economics said, "I thought the University's statement issued by Dennis Moore was reasonable. It confirms the University's acceptance of Catholic social thought but, of course, doesn't pledge to help its workers organize or raise their pay. I think asking the University to make a public statement was not an appropriate tactic."
Graham and other members of the PSA are not discouraged by Notre Dame's response but will seek to get clarification of the letter they received.
"We are trying to get a hold of the University to clarify their statement," said Graham. "What we need to do is work on organizing the labor on campus for support."
Currently the University requires that all its suppliers and vendors give workers the right to organize into unions but it currently does not extend this right to its own workers. The PSA proposal requests that Notre Dame guarantee its employees the right to organize.
In the late 1970s, Notre Dame agreed to contract out only to organized labor. Other than contracted labor, no workers on the Notre Dame campus are unionized, not even faculty.
Notre Dame in 1997 became the first university to establish a code of conduct for its licensees and in 1999 it became the first to begin monitoring overseas factories that manufacture its licensed products. The requirement of the right to organize, which will be added to the University's code of conduct and become part of its contractual agreement with licensees, will require that all countries where Notre Dame licensed products are made be signatories to the relevant International Labor Organization treaties and/or have national laws guaranteeing the legal rights of free association and union organizing.
All News Stories for Friday, April 12, 2002
