PriCom should give workers top priority

Although the Workers' Rights Organizing Committee has built up a formidable group of supporters since its formation last November — hundreds of students and workers, over 90 faculty members, religious leaders, local politicians and alumni — it has so far forced only one change in University policy. Vice President Richard Spies GS '72 an-nounced a plan on March 7 to deal with the high number of casual employees.

However, the casuals represent only around 40 of the workers in the WROC campaign — more than 500 other low-paid employees in the dining halls, on the janitorial staff, in the library and in the maintenance department will not be affected by the casuals plan. The issues which are vital to these workers — outsourcing, weekend and night pay, dental and vision benefits and especially a cost-of-living adjustment to ensure that workers' wages don't fall behind inflation — have all been referred by the University administration to the Priorities Committee. PriCom, which usually meets in the fall to consider the University's budget for the coming year, has scheduled a special series of meetings in March and April to look at the issues identified by WROC.

PriCom is composed of student, faculty and staff representatives, as well as University administrators. It is a powerful body which can distribute extra funds from any budgetary surplus that the University may post in a given year (or make cuts if there's a deficit). PriCom can also make recommendations to University departments for future budgets and can even ask the president and trustees to sanction additional endowment spending to pay for particular University needs.

So far, so good. The University has taken action on casuals and convened PriCom meetings to discuss the rest of the WROC agenda. WROC has prepared a detailed report for PriCom, including cost estimates for its various proposals, which you can read online at www.princeton.edu/~speac/pricomreport.htm. However, WROC members have been getting some bad vibes in the past few weeks which suggest that our cautious optimism about WROC's progress may be misplaced. Bad vibe number one: Spies and Provost Jeremiah Ostriker have played down PriCom's ability to make recommendations on these issues, suggesting that PriCom can merely look for "flexibility" in the current budget and declaring ominously that PriCom can only help low-wage workers at the expense of other "substaffs." Bad vibe number two: Administrators have refused to allow WROC to make a presentation to PriCom, which usually meets behind closed doors. Given that PriCom is only in session because of the efforts of WROC and the low-wage workers, it seems odd to suggest that the committee doesn't have time to talk to the people who've precipitated this extraordinary series of meetings. Further, several administrators who have expressed their opposition to WROC's solutions actually sit on PriCom.

University administrators have, from the start, made clear their opposition to WROC's agenda and particularly to WROC's central argument — that low-wage workers should receive a COLA each year to prevent their wages from being eroded by inflation. Workers themselves have also felt this opposition: According to some workers, supervisors have implied that those involved with the WROC run the risk of having their jobs outsourced.

Although we hope that PriCom will give serious consideration to the WROC report, we're anxious that administrators may have already made up their minds. If administrators shepherd the Committee towards a rejection of these proposals, they may claim that the University community, through its PriCom representatives, has endorsed this decision. PriCom's second meeting takes place tomorrow, so it's vital that we remind the administration of WROC's wide support. WROC is holding another rally today (12 noon, on the patio at Frist behind the cafeteria), featuring workers, faculty speakers and State Senator Shirley Turner. It's time for the University community to show that respect for workers is a high priority. Tim Phillips is a janitor on the night shift at Princeton. Julia Salzman is a math major from Los Angeles, CA. She can be reached at jsalzman@princeton.edu.