A Sit-In for Jobs with Justice at Ohio State University

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2000
For more information, contact Yoshie Furuhashi at 614-299-3313 or
furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx or Mark D. Stansbery at 614-252-9255 or walk@xxxxxxxx
A SIT-IN FOR JOBS WITH JUSTICE
AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
In support of Local 4501, Communications Workers of America, students have
organized a sit-in in front of the office of President William Kirwan (Bricker
Hall, 190 N. Oval Mall) at the Ohio State University. The sit-in began after a
support rally for the CWA workers on Wed. April 26. Today is the third day of
the sit-in. Hundreds of students, unionists, faculty, and community supporters
have already taken part in the sit-in; our number is growing, and we shall not
move until the OSU will meet all the demands of the CWA workers and negotiate a
fair contract that respects the needs of the lowest paid OSU employees that have
been neglected for the last fifteen years!
Current OSU pay rates are 10-25% below the market, and one fourth of the Local
don't even make $8.00 per hour. One half earn less than $10.00. Many workers of
this academic sweatshop have to work more than one job to make ends pay. The CWA
is demanding modest pay increases (which affect less than 1% of the OSU budget)
as well as opportunities for training, education, and promotion, but the
management has been intransigent, forcing the workers to strike.
While the OSU workers' wages have lagged behind their counterparts' at
comparable institutions (adjusted for inflation, in fact, workers made more
money ten years ago!), the top OSU administrators have recently given themselves
gigantic raises. This is injustice! A flagship university in the state of Ohio
has come to behave like the greediest corporation. We, students, demand that the
OSU respect its workers and pay living wages, instead of exploiting them.