CPUC meeting discusses WROC

At yesterday's meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community, leaders of the Worker's Rights Organizing Committee had a chance to formally present their cause to a large group of University administrators.

Despite the choice of venue, the WROC representatives were not targeting their pitch at the entire U-Council. Instead, they directed the bulk of their comments at members of the University Priorities Committee, which sets budget priorities for consideration by the Board of Trustees.

With only 10 minutes at the podium in Dodds Auditorium, David Tannenbaum '01, Nick Guyatt GS and Seth Green '01 began their presentation with the briefest of introductions.

Guyatt launched immediately into a discussion of the proposed cost of living adjustment while Tannenbaum and Green tried to set up the group's Powerpoint presentation.

Speaking briskly but deliberately, the students laid out WROC's three main demands — a COLA for University workers, an end to outsourcing and vision and dental benefits for employees. The bulk of the discussion, however, focused on the COLA, which would automatically adjust worker's wages to a price index.

"It's just keeping wages constant [relative to inflation]," Tannenbaum said. To support their case, the trio displayed a variety of statistics to demonstrate that workers' wages have not kept up with inflation, wages at similar organizations or University expenditures.

Throughout their presentation, the three students appealed repeatedly to the University's sense of pride. "We feel the current practice is embarrassing," Guyatt said at one point. "We believe Princeton can be far better . . . [Princeton] should be telling other Ivy League schools how to pay and treat workers well."

Despite pleas from the WROC representatives, however, administrators remained cautious about meeting the group's demands. Provost Jeremiah Ostriker, a member of PriCom, said he was concerned that the University might have a budget deficit for the 2001-2002 school year and may not be able to pay for a COLA.

Ostriker told the audience that PriCom did not "micro-manage" the funds that various departments receive from the University. He compared the possibility of the committee mandating a COLA to telling the University library what sort of books to buy.

"I would be astonished if [PriCom] would vote for it," Ostriker said after the meeting. "What PriCom can do is recommend to next year's PriCom that adjustments be made."

WROC had previously submitted a written report to PriCom two weeks ago, according to Green. Since then, the committee has held a closed meeting devoted to the issue.

PriCom meetings are not open to the public and the committee has chosen not to allow WROC representatives to sit in on meetings. "We've been completely excluded from the process," Guyatt said.

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One of the most acrimonious moments at today's U-Council meeting came when Vice President Richard Spies GS '72, also a member of the priorities committee, said that he had never seen some of the financial figures in WROC's presentation.

Green said, however that the figures had been part of the WROC's written report to PriCom. Ostriker maintained that the report had indeed been distributed at the first priorities committee meeting.

Green and Guyatt said later that they were frustrated because they could not attend the priorities committee meetings in person. They said they felt that members of the committee did not seem to be taking the WROC report seriously.

Overall, most participants in the meeting expressed optimism for the resolution of the workers' rights issue. Tom Parker, president of the union which represents many University workers, said, "Anytime you have the opportunity to present your position in an open forum it goes a long way."

Guyatt pointed out that the University has already changed policies on so-called "casual" workers after lobbying from the WROC. He said that decision provided a precedent for further change.

USG president Joe Kochan '02 said the issue would remain important regardless of the result of today's meeting. "While I hope [the priorities committee] yields good results," he said, "it's not the end of the discussion."