On May 21st students held a letter delegation demanding that ARAMARK meet with Teamsters Local 743, who represent Pierce dining hall workers. Although the company agreed to meet with the union, the meeting did not end in a guarantee of no layoffs of UChicago Dining Staff, or result in significant concrete information about the effects of the closure on individual workers.

The UChicago Housing Office has been able to promise that no facilities or residential services permanent staff will be laid off, including those subcontracted to other employers. We see no reason why ARAMARK and UChicago Dining, which purport not to intend any layoffs, should not be able to make the same guarantee.

Send a message to President Robert Zimmer and Dining Director Richard Mason: ARAMARK must work with the union and guarantee no layoffs!

ARAMARK has not done an impressive job of earning students’ trust this year. For this reason, nothing short of a guarantee will assure students of ARMARK’s commitment to retaining a large enough dining staff to adequately serve the higher number of students, or the company’s honest intention to work in good faith with the Union.

In April 2013, students protesting Macalester’s relationship with Wells Fargo, the bank responsible for the most foreclosures in Minnesota, performed peaceful direct action during a sit-in. In response, administrators placed 17 students on disciplinary probation. This rare punishment prevents them from studying abroad, holding internships, leading student organizations, playing sports, participating in arts, and other important opportunities that are essential to learning at Macalester.

Administrators’ choice to punish student activism and retreat from social justice doesn’t match Macalester’s values. The effort to silence and punish students who are engaged in non-violent protest is extreme. The administration’s action is unnecessary and polarizing. It sends a message to students, alumni and the broader community that constructive free speech and dissent are not welcome at Macalester. This is in direct contradiction to Macalester’s  values and the kind of open, politically engaged campus we have grown to appreciate during and since our time at the college. This is not the Macalester we know and love.

In the spring of 2012, Macalester students listened to a call from their community. Supported by faith, labor, and neighborhood groups, the students formed the Kick Wells Fargo Off Campus (KWOC) coalition to cut Macalester’s purchasing-card contract with Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo was the recipient of a $25 billion government loan during the financial crisis. Yet the bank has shirked its responsibility to the community that bailed them out, possessing a particularly troublesome record of foreclosures. In the Twin Cities area alone, Wells-Fargo foreclosed on thousands of homes. Key institutions including the Minneapolis School Board have divested their assets from Wells-Fargo in an effort to change the company’s predatory lending practices and large number of home foreclosures.

For a year, KWOC students worked closely with college administrators to explore the problems and possibilities of Macalester’s Wells Fargo contract in relationship to the housing crisis in the Twin Cities. Through a Request for Information process, they discovered Sunrise Community Bank would offer a better deal and reinvest revenues in local businesses and community well-being. Administrators had the opportunity to engage students in constructive dialogue about how Macalester can use its considerable resources to address the foreclosure crisis in Twin Cities neighborhoods. Their refusal to consider options that would even begin to address student grievances is of great concern.

When we were students, Macalester encouraged us to respond to the social justice issues of our time. Macalester College is an exceptional place for students to learn and apply complicated ideas and values. The College’s job is to develop student leaders who affect ethical responses to urgent issues. The administration’s punitive action sends a chilling message to students who are engaging the best civic traditions of involvement in the community around them. Student activism should be valued rather than scorned. The fact that the administration chose to punish students by taking away internships, involvement in student government and study abroad is especially cynical, and should be reversed immediately. That’s not the Macalester we know and love, and we won’t give our money until the College:

1. Removes disciplinary probation from the students who engaged in peaceful protest, part of Macalester’s proud tradition of activism.

2. Returns to the negotiating table with KWOC and concludes an agreement with students that upholds Macalester’s commitment to our community and responds to urgent concerns regarding the foreclosure crisis.

Real action from Gap on fire and building safety is long overdue. The death toll of the Rana Plaza collapse now exceeds 1,100 garment workers, making it the deadliest industrial disaster in a manufacturing facility in recorded history. This also means that since 2005, more than 1,800 garment workers have died in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh alone. Gap’s refusal to sign onto a binding safety agreement since 2010 means that the company has the blood of these workers on its hands.

While students and community members take action outside the Gap shareholder meeting, send a message to Gap executives that they must sign the binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh now.

Rather than ensure the safety of its workers, Gap has been playing public relations games to undermine the accord. It has claimed that a binding agreement poses too much financial risk to the company within a “litigious” US legal system – a claim that US legal scholars have since debunked. Gap has joined Walmart as a ringleader of the “go it alone” approach to fire and building safety that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of workers.

Gap should know by now that USAS and our allies like the International Labor Rights Forum won’t stop until it makes a real commitment to the safety of its workers. We’ve campaigned to bring giant multinational brands like Russell Athletic, Nike, and Adidas to the table to negotiate landmark agreements with their workers, and the stakes are higher than ever for Gap to take responsibility for its workers.

Fill out the form on the left to send a message to Gap: not one more fallen worker.

The Evergreen Student Support Services Staff Union, affiliated with the Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28 in Washington State, supports students as academic advisors, mental health counselors, financial aid specialists, admissions recruiters, resident housing directors, student activities advisers, athletics coaches and other workers.

Since the Student Support Services Staff organized their union in 2011, they have been trying to negotiate a fair first contract with Evergreen’s Administration. Yet they still have no agreement on basic protections such as “Just Cause.” Currently, Student Support Services Staff are at-will employees, which members of the union feel puts them “at risk.” Just Cause means a fair process of discipline for everyone and protects workers from being fired unfairly, or without being given an opportunity to do better. All three other Evergreen campus unions are afforded this basic protection. It isn’t clear why the Administration is resisting agreeing to this protection, especially when they have already agreed to just cause for both Evergreen’s faculty and classified staff. Union workers shouldn’t have to fight this hard for basic labor right.

Send Evergreen President Les Purce a message using the form on the left: the Student Support Services Staff Union deserves the basic right of Just Cause.

Evergreen has a hard time attracting and retaining staff. In the past 16 months, over one third of the Student Services Support Staff Union members have had to make the difficult decision to seek employment elsewhere. This high turnover has meant that many positions have remained vacant. There are 67 funded positions in student support services, but only approximately 55 of these jobs are filled. The remaining staff must take on extra work previously performed by 10 or more other employees. Evergreen’s President, Les Purce says: “We value our employees.” The actions of his Administration tell a different story.

Pay is low and turnover is high among student support services staff. Student support services staff haven’t received a raise since 2008; not even a cost of living increase. A stable and knowledgeable student support staff means that students receive a better educational experience, but members of the Student Support Staff Union simply cannot afford to keep working at Evergreen.

While the Administration claims it doesn’t have the money for fair compensation for direct line staff who support students on a daily basis, they did somehow find funding to propose a raise for themselves. This has widened the already large chasm between senior management and direct student support services line staff.

Members of the support staff union are saying enough is enough! Over 76% of the Student Support Services Staff Union members signed a petition in support of taking actions, up to and including a strike. Just yesterday, 90% of WFSE’s Student Support Staff Union voted YES to STRIKE, with nearly 90% of the union’s eligible members voting. Evergreen United Students Against Sweatshops and the student Staff Solidarity Coalition will do everything to support a possible strike by unionized workers on campus.

Evergreen’s progressive values should embrace basic worker rights. Tell Evergreen President Les Purce to step in and demand that the College immediately agree to just cause, fair compensation and a union contract by graduation, 2013.

• Learn more about WFSE’s Student Support Services Staff Union strike vote
• Watch this video about the struggle of the Student Support Services Staff Union
• Watch a video of students supporting just cause for all campus workers, as well as a possible strike on campus
• To stay informed, follow the union on Facebook

The students and workers are demanding that the Regents tell the hospital CEO’s to put patients and students first rather than awarding their executives with exorbitant salaries. Diverting money away from patient care and instruction to shamelessly enrich UC executives is unbecoming of a world class institution. UC cannot forget its mission.

The Regents need to propose real pension reform and lower the cap on UC executive pensions, which currently top out at $250,000 or $375,000 per year. To drive that message home, we delivered actual baseball caps to the regents with the words “executive pensions” on them. Imagine our shock when the Regents refused to wear them!

Support the arrested students and workers by sending an email to the Chair of the UC Board of Regents Sherry Lansing and the CEO of UCSF Medical Center Mark Laret telling them to put patients and students first. Use the form on the left to send your message.

On Tuesday, nearly 13,000 workers will go on strike after nearly a year of contract negotiations, while executives like Mark Laret continue to pull down exorbitant salaries. Laret even had the nerve to threaten to sue UC if the Regents didn’t abolish his pension cap, which would have raised his annual pension payout to nearly $800,000.

At the same time, he laid off 300 nurses, pharmacy technicians, and other patient care workers, at a hospital that was already dangerously short-staffed.

It’s clear that UC executives are determined to grant themselves massive rewards, even if that means putting patient safety at risk. That’s why USASers like me from UCLA, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis are standing arm-in-arm with AFSCME members today at the Regents meeting.

Tell Sherry Lansing and Mark Laret to put patients over profit and agree to safe staffing committees, limits on subcontracting patient care work to inexperienced temps, and reasonable caps on executive pension payouts.

The workers at Penn’s Falk Dining Commons were officially recognized as union members of Teamsters Local 929. Bon Appetit employees Troy Harris and Kareem Wallace met with Bon Appetit Management Company to do a card check, ending the meeting early after the 9th name was read and a majority of worker unionization was determined.

Union contract negotiations will take place in the coming months. Workers and the Penn Student Labor Action Project at the University of Pennsylvania will continue to push for wages and a paid sick leave policy that match that of the contracted dining hall workers at Penn, along with other improvements in working conditions and benefits. “I’m excited, but more so pleased, that we’re finally getting on the right track,” said Rabia Abdul, a worker at Falk Dining Commons.

This economic justice campaign is the product of a unique partnership between students and dining hall workers who have come together to demand change on their campus and in their workplace.

“It has been so exciting to watch the campaign unfold with workers leading the efforts,” said Eliana Machefsky, a junior at Penn. “The workers have put everything on the line for the campaign and their commitment to seeing a victory is palpable.”

But what really is the whole story behind Compass Group? Just ask Compass employees at the Comcast Center in Philadelphia where, in a demonstration of modern-day Jim Crow segregation, Compass only allowed its white employees to serve guests during private catering functions, forcing employees of color to work in the kitchen. White supervisors would take prolonged lunches while sitting at the only table designated for the Company’s employees. Since the Company also prohibited the African-American employees from leaving the premises during lunch breaks, they were forced to eat lunch in the Company’s locker room.

Use the form on the left to send President Donna Shalala a message: Chartwells workers deserve the right to join a union without fear and intimidation.

Despite workers’ repeated complaints about racial discrimination at the Comcast Center, Compass failed to take any remedial action. In fact, many workers have been demoted, stripped of their job duties, unfairly disciplined, and fired for speaking up. At the University of Miami, a majority of the workers are people of color, and they’re well aware of Chartwells’ history. Would you trust a company with this track record to give U Miami workers accurate information about their right to join a union?

Chartwells officials have told U Miami workers that the “union doesn’t believe in democracy,” and to “call the police” if a union organizer comes to the door. But if Chartwells really believed in democracy, why would they force U Miami employees to attend anti-union captive audience meetings as a condition of employment?

A company like Compass cannot be trusted to give workers a fair process. Tell U Miami President Donna Shalala to step in and demand that Chartwells immediately put an end to all captive audience meetings with workers.

Sumi has been sharing her story at US universities, as well as Gap and Walmart stores across the country. Last week, she said she was afraid to return to work in a garment factory because she worried that there would be another accident.

Tragically, her prediction came true. On Wednesday, another horrific catastrophe struck in Bangladesh when the Rana Plaza building collapsed, killing at least 377 workers. Already it is the deadliest garment factory disaster in known history, and the death toll is still rising. Those deaths could have been easily prevented: cracks appeared in the structure the day before it collapsed, but workers who refused to enter the building were told they would lose a month’s pay if they didn’t report to work.

It will take time to sift through all the rubble and identify which companies were producing garments there, but already links to major western brands like Walmart are coming to light. Even now, while surviving garment workers are still trapped beneath the ruins of Rana Plaza as rescuers work frantically to save them, brands like Walmart and the Gap still refuse to take responsibility for preventing these deaths.

Use the form on the left to sign our petition to the three largest brands in Bangladesh — Walmart, the Gap, and H&M — demanding that they stop allowing garment workers to be murdered. We’ve known for over a century how to produce clothing safely, and the brands could make their supplier factories safe right now by signing on to the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement, a commonsense proposal that would make the brands responsible for funding renovations to unsafe factories and give workers the right to refuse unsafe work.

Today, on International Workers’ Memorial Day, we ask you to join us in observing a day of mourning for garment workers who have been killed by corporate greed and negligence.

In hard-fought victory, students and workers have forced German sportswear giant Adidas to compensate 2,700 former Indonesian garment workers who produced collegiate apparel at PT Kizone, an Adidas supplier factory that closed down over two years ago. While the contents of the agreement remain confidential, the PT Kizone workers’ press release stated that “the former workers will receive a substantial sum from Adidas” and the settlement will resolve a powerful international campaign over Adidas’s prior refusal to pay $1.8 million in unpaid severance pay following the closure of PT Kizone.

This agreement builds on the historic precedent that USAS activists set with Nike in 2010 when the brand was forced to pay two million dollars in legally owed severance pay to 1,800 former Honduran garment workers.

“For years, workers in the global apparel industry have routinely been robbed of their legally mandated severance pay when factories close. With today’s announcement, students and workers have established a new norm in the global garment industry; the two largest sportswear brands in the world have both acknowledged that they can no longer walk away when their contractors deprive workers of money they have legally earned,” said Lingran Kong, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Adidas’s decision to compensate its subcontracted workers for the first time in history is a victory of the “Badidas” campaign led by United Students Against Sweatshops. After two coast-to-coast worker tours and escalating on-campus actions across the country, the campaign provoked the largest collegiate boycott of a top-three sportswear company in history, with 17 total universities and colleges ending their contracts with Adidas.

These schools include Cornell University, Oberlin College, the University of Washington, Brown University, Rutgers University, Georgetown University, the College of William & Mary, Santa Clara University, Penn State University, Northeastern University, the University of Montana, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Crookston, and Morris, Oregon State University, Temple University, and Washington State University. Allies in Europe, including People & Planet, Clean Clothes Campaign, and War On Want also launched campaigns, bringing incredible international pressure to bear on the company.

While there is certainly more to be done to clean up violations of workers rights in Adidas’s supply chain, USAS is very pleased that the DPC union and the PT Kizone workers coordinating committee have reached an agreement with Adidas that will achieve long-awaited justice for the 2,700 former PT Kizone workers and their families.

Join USAS and the PT Kizone workers in celebrating this victory by adding your name to our letter of congratulations using the form on the left!

USAS statement for the media.

The most recent of these tragedies took place last November, killing 112 workers who were trapped inside a garment factory called Tazreen Fashions. These workers, many of whom were women and children, burned alive because of inadequate fire safety regulations and their managers’ orders to continue working so the factory could meet the production deadlines for companies like Walmart and the GAP.

Can you take a stand? Sign this petition and ask UW apparel licensees to sign onto the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement. Nobody should die for our UW fashion.

Our group, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) has been organizing at the UW for over a decade to advocate for better working conditions in factories where collegiate apparel is produced. We use our power as students to put a stop to the working conditions that allowed for tragedies like the Tazreen factory fire.

On Tuesday April 23rd, USAS will be bringing Sumi Abedin, a survivor of the Tazreen tragedy to our UW campus. Sumi will be talking about how she survived the tragic fire and the on-going problem of fire safety in the Bangladesh garment sector. In addition to Sumi, internationally recognized labor rights advocate, Kalpona Akter will lead a discussion on the Bangladeshi garment industry, her experiences as a garment worker and how UW students can get involved in improving conditions in the international garment industry.

We can make a difference. Add your name to the list of students who are already standing up for enforceable fire safety regulations at the UW.