Workers' rights organization continues mission, despite low forum numbers

The Workers' Rights Organizing Committee held a forum Thursday as part of its continuing effort to address the needs and concerns of the University's low-wage workers.

The forum, specifically for workers, was poorly attended, organizers believe, because of a scheduled dinner being held that day in the dining halls. Few dining hall workers were able to leave the residential colleges to attend.

WROC held its latest public event, a rally on Oct. 18, when more than 200 students, workers, faculty and community members attended.

"The rally on 10/18 was one of the most successful rallies WROC has held," organizer Julia Salzman '02 said in an e-mail.

The rally was held to "show the administration that there is still extremely high support for Princeton to treat its low-wage workers better," Salzman said.

There are no upcoming events now planned, but more rallies will be held by WROC as they are needed, Salzman said.

"WROC is continuing to open communication routes between workers and students, and trying to provide workers with a voice in a system that largely ignores their concerns," she added.

Since its creation in November 2000, WROC's goal has been to increase wages and benefits for University workers, according to the group's website. In its first rally, held last year, 200 people gathered in McCosh Hall.

Last year, WROC persuaded the University to allocate $1.5 million to increase salaries of dining hall, maintenance and other low-wage workers. The goal was to raise wages to 101 percent of market rates, reduce the outsourcing of labor to independent companies and reduce hiring of temporary workers, the website said.

WROC made several recommendations to the University in the spring opposing "pay-for-performance" reviews. They recommended a raise structure that would fix increases for all salaries. This recommendation has not been implemented.

The main issues WROC is addressing are balancing workers' wages with the cost of living and protecting them from inflation. WROC has said the University claims that cannot provide cost of living adjustments for its workers, partially because of affordability and danger of runaway inflation. WROC has suggested a "capped COLA," which would top off at a 4-percent rate of inflation.