ND must respect workers' rights
Paul Graham
Another Perspective
Around campus, the invisible army of campus workers is busy making this school one of the most beautiful places in the world. The bathrooms are spotless, rooms are clean and the food service staff has given us two of the best dining halls on any college campus.
Their work, unfortunately, goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Most students and faculty are unaware of difficulties and problems that most staff people face. Through discussions with workers, I have heard repulsive stories about what it is like to work for this University.
Last spring, Notre Dame had a meeting with its entire maintenance staff, notifying them that the school will no longer replace maintenance employees who retire, quit or are fired. This creates more work for the remaining staff; not only do they still clean their original sections, but they also have to clean new sections. Maintenance workers are then expected to handle their old duties, which used to take the whole 8-hour day, and add in the new areas and duties from past employees without a raise in wages and the same high standards of quality.
I spoke with two workers on the night shift in one of the larger buildings on campus, and they went on for their entire break about how this policy has made working seem like torture. They have more than twice the area as they had before and are still expected to keep the building shiny. I talked to them again later, and they complained during another break about the lack of livable wages. One of them said that she would quit if there were other jobs available (but the unemployment rate was 5.2 percent in August and is still growing).
Another worker from the library broke out into tears, sobbing for the entire length of her break about how she is unable to move to the day shift. She works nights, which puts a strain on her home life. She never sees her husband and her kids, and has had to pick up a second job to help support her family. She wants to start taking night classes, but Human Resources will not allow her to move to days.
Workers in food service are similar. One worker told me that all she wanted was to feel as if she was a part of the daily operations. She wanted to have more control over her station so that she could be more efficient and a part of the process. She didn't feel valued and appreciated. This employee also told me that the Staff Advisory Council was just a token bone thrown to the workers. The SAC has the power to advise Human Resources, but no actual power for change.
Our campus employees are paid less than livable wages for the work that they do each day. Most of the staff are paid at level 1, 2 or 3 out of 20 on the University's pay scale. This translates to an hourly wage from $6.29 to $10.78 an hour with many workers earning around $8.10 to $9.65. At these pay rates, many workers are forced to work two or more jobs.
These problems should not exist at a Catholic institution like Notre Dame. The Catholic Church has more than 100 years of social teaching that speak of the importance of work and unions. Starting in 1891, when Pope Leo XIII issued "Rerum Novarum," the Church has put a strong emphasis on the rights of labor, including the right to join unions. Work is not a commodity to be bought and sold. The Church teaches that people are more valuable than profits and capital. Pope John XXIII, in "Mater et Magistra," declared work as "the immediate expression of the human personality ... and must not be regarded as a mere commodity." Pope John Paul II stated in his encyclical, "Centesimus Annus," "the freedom to join trade unions and the effective action of unions ... are meant to deliver work from the mere condition of `a commodity' and to guarantee its dignity."
Workers on campus have attempted to organize in the past, but each drive stopped when workers were fired or the school gave the workers a sudden raise to quiet the voices. Two major occurrences were in 1977 with the grounds crew and in 1996 with the secretaries — in both cases the actions taken by Notre Dame were illegal according to federal law. Most of the workers that I have spoken with want a union, but are too afraid to fight for one.
Workers on this campus deserve a good union, a voice in their workplace and a chance to have a good job where they are not forced to take on more employment elsewhere. Write a letter to Father Edward Malloy and Father Tim Scully asking for a statement of neutrality, which is a statement asserting that the school will not hire union busters or fire workers who try to organize. Please consider the workers on campus and write a letter to Malloy and Scully asking them to affirm Catholic social tradition and to support workers' rights here at Notre Dame.
Paul Graham is a senior sociology major and a Catholic social tradition minor. Contact him at pgraham@nd.edu. His column appears every other Wednesday.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, October 16, 2002
