Photo Action: Support Campus Workers! #WeAreAllEssential #NoLayoffs 

Today we’re shifting our Wednesday action to campus workers! Be in solidarity with Teamsters 2010 workers across California who are supported by USAS Locals at the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems. Teamsters Local 2010 is the union for 14,000 clerical, administrative, and skilled trades workers at the UC and CSU systems. Teamsters 2010 members do everything from early child education, to checking in patients at UC medical centers, to electrical and other maintenance work in campus housing. Along with tens of thousands of other UC and CSU workers, Teamsters have continued to work and serve university students and the public during the pandemic. These workers and their families now fear for their jobs and pay despite their dedicated service to these massive institutions of higher education. Leslie Renee Settle, an Access Services worker at the Rivera Library at UC Riverside shares her story:

“My name is Leslie Settle. I was the first person in my family to graduate college. The first person to buy a home at a time when many of my family members did not even own cars. I also attended UCR. I have worked here since 2003. I often refer to UCR as my second home. My kids are growing up on campus and seeing things as a child that I only saw on TV. As a single mother, I work so my children can have a better outcome. I work so their basic needs can be protected. I work so they can be better prepared for life. I do not come from generational wealth. My life and accomplishments have been learn-as-you-go. Employment for me equals some measure of security. Security that bills will be paid, food will remain on the table, and if my kids need to go to the doctor, there is insurance in place to get that done. With the majority of my earned income going out to bills and food, I do not have the luxury not to work. I want to work and I need to work. Times are hard right now for me as a single mom and a woman of color. UCR always reinforces the notion that we are family and we need to stick together and support each other. It is easy to make this statement when everything is going right. I hope UCR does not get rid of integral family members just because times are getting hard. We all play a part in the bigger picture and I look forward to continuing work at UCR. It is not only blessing my home, but allowing me to be a blessing to the students I work with every day. Help me keep a smile on these kids’ faces. They are the future.”

Read more worker stories on Facebook. Click here to tweet in solidarity.

In the face of a massive state budget deficit and disruptions related to the pandemic, workers and students face unprecedented challenges. University leadership has spoken about the difficult choices and austerity measures they’ll have to take, including the possibility of a 10% CUT in state support for the UC and CSU systems next year. We know from experience, that the burden ultimately falls on workers and students who have already made far too many sacrifices during this crisis and in years prior. Teamsters 2010 members are asking for support in these dire times to prevent layoffs and other reductions in pay that would be devastating for them and their families. We are asking everyone to support campus workers in sending a message to UC’s, CSU’s, and the state of California, that there can’t be more cuts for workers and students because #WeAreAllEssential.

Join USAS students in a photo action today! Post a pic of yourself with a sign in solidarity with campus workers and make sure to add the following hashtags when you share it on social media: #USAS4CampusWorkers #NoLayoffs #WeAreAllEssential #Teamsters2010 

Check out the collage below with examples from USAS members. You can also use this draft language in your solidarity post:

Solidarity w/ UC & CSU campus workers who put their health on the line & make our universities run. Workers fear for their jobs/pay despite their dedicated service. @UofCalifornia & @CalState do the right thing! #NoLayoffs #WeAreAllEssential #Teamsters2010 #USAS4CampusWorkers

 

Let Essential Student Workers Eat! 

UIC #StudentWorkerWednesdays

For this week’s #StudentWorkerWednesdays, we are again highlighting student workers at University of Illinois at Chicago. UIC Campus Housing Summer Staff Assistants (SSAs), like Cortland pictured here, are considered “essential” but are not being treated with the respect that should come with that. SSAs in campus housing are being compensated unequally, leaving many concerned about their food, income, and even their safety. Some SSAs are receiving a meal plan, while others are not being compensated in any way for meals. SSA’s have reported that in past summers they received meal compensation, so why is it now — during a pandemic — that past precedent isn’t being honored? SSAs at UIC demand equal meal plan compensation, by giving the SSAs that live on the South and West sides of campus a stipend worth the meal plan.

To be in solidarity with Cortland and his coworkers, click here to tweet the following:

I’m in solidarity w/ @UIC Summer Staff Assistants like Cortland demanding fair meal plan compensation. UIC must meet their demand promptly so essential student workers can eat, especially during a pandemic! Read Cortland’s story: usas.org/studentworkerwednesdays #StudentWorkerWednesdays

Cortland, a second year Math and Computer Science major, shares his story: “One of the biggest problems I’ve seen while working for UIC campus housing is pay. I’m really grateful for being able to work with campus housing, but UIC has been neglecting their students, especially student workers like myself this summer. In past summers, our pay has included a room and board package, but this year they changed the payment structure, and we haven’t gotten any compensation for meals. We need to eat, and other SSAs across campus are receiving a meal plan, so I know it’d be no problem for them to pay us the meal plan compensation added to our stipend. Student workers are the security for the buildings, triage emergencies for the students still living here, and are leaders in our campus community. As a Black man, I’m already fearing for my life and safety going grocery shopping now with the curfews put in place and not getting off work until later in the day. The least UIC can do is give us meal plan compensation so we can afford to eat!”

To be in solidarity with Cortland and his coworkers, click here to tweet the following:

I’m in solidarity w/ @UIC Summer Staff Assistants like Cortland demanding fair meal plan compensation. UIC must meet their demand promptly so essential student workers can eat, especially during a pandemic! Read Cortland’s story: usas.org/studentworkerwednesdays #StudentWorkerWednesdays

 

TODAY #ProtectAmazonWorkers #StudentWorkerWednesdays

This week’s #StudentWorkerWednesdays is on the same day as Amazon’s shareholders meeting! We’re highlighting demands in solidarity with Amazon workers, many of whom are students and students’ family members. Feliz, a member of USAS Local 559 and a student worker at Fresno City College (FCC), is in solidarity with Amazon workers including their own friends and community members. While their friends who work at Amazon were scared to speak out because they can’t afford to put their jobs on the line, Feliz sees the way Amazon is harming their community and people close to them and felt the need to speak out.

To show your solidarity with Amazon workers please sign this petition and tweet the message at the bottom of this post. 

Feliz, like many of us, is concerned and angered by the harmful conditions in Amazon warehouses where COVID-19 outbreaks have spread, leading to workers dying (which Amazon has attempted to keep quiet about) and the continuation of unsafe working conditions. At the same time, the corporation is ramping back up their production as if the pandemic is over. Meanwhile, Amazon’s sales continue to soar.

Feliz shares with us, “Big companies are winning in this pandemic. My friends and people close to me are seeking jobs at Amazon. Hell, I’ve even thought about applying several times. Amazon has been highlighting this hazard pay for the past 2 months and just as fast as they hired all those workers they are willing to take the pay from the people who work for the company to support their families. How are they going to remove hazard pay without ignoring the fact that Fresno cases continue to rise? Nothing has changed. Stores are opening back up and this virus has gone nowhere. The first case confirmed in Amazon here was kept from workers for two weeks. And my friends are scared and anxious at work because they know Amazon WON’T tell them. Around the warehouse, rumors are spreading that multiple workers have already contracted the virus and are being sent home quietly. There is no way to safely enforce social distancing especially when they are hiring more workers. The least Amazon can do is stop calling workers heroes and start providing paid sick leave, hazard pay, sanitize facilities, and be transparent about outbreaks.”

Today marks Amazon’s shareholder meeting where executives, board members, and investors are discussing the company’s future. To show your solidarity please sign this petition and tweet the following: 

As @Amazon’s shareholders meet today I’m in solidarity w/ warehouse workers demanding hazard pay, facilities sanitation & more. @JeffBezos meet their demands now! Sign+share: bit.ly/amzncovid Read more: usas.org/studentworkerwednesdays #StudentWorkerWednesdays #ProtectAmazonWorkers

 

Living Wages and Health & Safety for Student Dining Workers at Kent State University

This week we’re escalating our #StudentWorkerWednesdays campaign at Kent State University. Since the university attempted to ignore us, it’s time for us to increase the pressure. Student dining workers like Shreya, pictured here, are demanding clear communication regarding their pay and future employment, as well as $15/hour, PPE, and paid sick leave upon their return to work. 

To be in solidarity with Shreya and her coworkers, sign and share this petition now: bit.ly/supportstudentdiningworkers!

Two weeks ago USAS highlighted KSU student and USAS member Shreya’s story in our #StudentWorkerWednesdays post:

“I have been working for Kent State Dining Services (through Aramark) since 2018. They’ve paid me Ohio’s minimum wage the entirety of my time there, which is currently $8.70 an hour. Dining Services employs the most students at Kent — yet pays less than any other job on campus. For many students like myself, these Dining Services jobs are the only job they can get. It’s difficult for me to afford things, period, with this wage. Now due to COVID-19, I’ve effectively been laid off. Communication from my supervisors has been abysmal. I don’t know whether or not I’ll have a job in the fall — which, uh, I need for living expenses — nor do any of my coworkers.” 

To be in solidarity with Shreya and her coworkers sign and share this petition and click here to tweet the following: 

I’m in solidarity w/ @KentState student dining workers like Shreya (USAS Local 27) demanding transparency, $15/hour, PPE, and paid sick leave upon their return to work! President Daicon must meet their demands. Sign/share petition: bit.ly/supportstudentdiningworkers #StudentWorkerWednesdays

 

CALL-IN TODAY! #StudentWorkerWednesdays

at Northeastern University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this week’s #StudentWorkerWednesdays our target Northeastern University is back. Thank you for participating in last Friday’s twitter storm where we demanded Northeastern pay and give medical benefits to their dining workers. Tomorrow will be two months since Northeastern announced that all on-campus students were required to move out — essentially evicting nearly all students including Resident Assistants (RAs) from campus housing. Since then – all students except RAs – have been given prorated housing and meal plan refunds. Take action now and show your solidarity by calling Northeastern President Aoun today!

Call this number (617) 373 – 2101 and share this script:

“Hi, I am calling in support of dining workers and RAs who are demanding President Aoun to take responsibility for its staff’s health and safety. I urge Northeastern to meet their demands such as ensuring back pay and benefits to dining workers and refunding room and board expenses to RAs. If it is true that maintaining the health and well-being of the Northeastern community is the University’s core value, then show us!”

Northeastern claims that “maintaining the health and well-being of the Northeastern community is a core value,” and yet they left students homeless, RAs without refunds, and their dining staff without pay or medical benefits all in the midst of a global health crisis! From dining hall workers to student workers, Northeastern has given the cold shoulder to all the essential workers that make the university run. We say this is unacceptable and it’s time to turn up the heat and call on the university today to follow through!

There’s no reason why student workers should be left out of this refund that everyone else received. Especially after these same RAs – who were also getting evicted – were risking their health and safety working on the frontlines doing room check-outs and helping other students move out. Even the RAs that were allowed to stay on campus, most of them international with little or no family in the country, were kicked out after a month!

The way student workers have been treated — from getting no PPE until a few weeks in, no hazard pay, being evicted from campus housing and then not receiving room and board refunds like all other students — parallels the way Northeastern has furloughed most of its dining staff, refusing to pay their workers or their medical benefits, all in the middle of a pandemic. Since March 19th, Northeastern has not provided dining workers with any pay or benefits, meanwhile NU received $11.6 million from the CARES Act. This is more money than other Boston-area universities such as Tufts, MIT, Harvard, and Lesley, who have all agreed to pay their dining workers. 

You can also show your solidarity with Resident Assistants as well as Dining Workers at Northeastern on Twitter:

Click this link to Tweet directly: https://ctt.ac/7tWhC

OR

Copy & Paste this Tweet: .@Northeastern’s community won’t be healthy unless dining workers at NU get pay and medical benefits and RAs get prorated housing! #NUexperience #StudentWorkerWednesdays https://twitter.com/Northeastern/status/1259829359101214720?s=19 Read more: usas.org/studentworkerwednesdays 

Please donate to USAS and support more #StudentWorkerWednesdays!

 

#StudentWorkerWednesdays at

Kent State University

 

This week’s #StudentWorkerWednesdays is at Kent State University. Student food service workers like Shreya at KSU have been fighting for better wages and better working conditions. USAS Local 27 at KSU has had several wins in the past including getting the university to pay for their uniforms and shoes in 2018 – which student workers previously had to pay out of pocket for. However, their demand to raise the wage to $15 an hour has been brushed aside by the university time and time again. These student food service workers are calling for solidarity as they demand Kent State pay them $15 an hour upon their return to work, communicate clearly to student workers the details of their pay and future employment, and sever the university’s $22 million contract with Aramark.

Tweet to show your support for student workers like Shreya: I’m in solidarity w/ food service & other student workers at @KentState like Shreya (@usaslocal27 member) demanding $15/hr, clear communication re: pay & employment details, & the severing of their Aramark contract! #StudentWorkerWednesdays More: usas.org/studentworkerwednesdays @USAS

Shreya, a student worker in dining services, shares: “This week commemorates an especially important week at Kent State where it is the 50th anniversary of the Kent State May 4th massacre by the National Guard, which we continue to hold onto the legacy of protesters of the day. The Kent State Four could not have died in vain, as they have inspired the spirit of student movements on campus to this day.

I have been working for Kent State Dining Services (through Aramark) since 2018. They’ve paid me Ohio’s minimum wage the entirety of my time there, which is currently $8.70 an hour. Dining Services employs the most students at Kent — yet pays less than any other job on campus. For many students like myself, these Dining Services jobs are the only job they can get. It’s difficult for me to afford things, period, with this wage. Now due to COVID-19, I’ve effectively been laid off. Communication from my supervisors has been abysmal. I don’t know whether or not I’ll have a job in the fall — which, uh, I need for living expenses — nor do any of my coworkers. 

In order to work for Dining Services, workers must sign a contract that forbids them from speaking out against the company publicly. Unfortunately, due to many cases of racist, homophobic, transphobic, and sexual harassment on the job, this particularly puts marginalized students at risk. Kent State has all the leverage in their contract with Aramark. They can choose to terminate it any time, but refuse to do so — and are exploiting their students’ labor in the process.”

On Kent’s campus, as well as in other schools, Aramark has consistently denied workers living wages, created massive amounts of food waste, and has ignored the health and safety of campus dining workers. Kent State currently has a $22 million 10-year contract with Aramark to employ their student dining workers and supply food and financial assets to their dining facilities. Aramark is the largest employer on campus, with the majority of its student workers making $8.70 an hour, which is far below a livable wage especially considering the ever rising cost of tuition, housing, debt and other college expenses.

Aramark holds contracts with over 500 prisons, 31 of which are in the state of Ohio, and has been cited with atrocities against incarcerated people. Aramark profits off of mass incarceration and anti-Black policing. For example, Aramark is the dining provider at Marion Correctional Institute, site of the state’s largest COVID-19 outbreak with 80% of imprisoned people testing positive. Aramark’s long unethical history, from health risks to labor abuses, makes it clear that KSU should cut its contract with Aramark.

While student dining workers are receiving sick pay through the end of the semester, the details of this pay have not been clearly communicated, and now more than ever students deserve a living wage! This summer is looking worse than usual for student workers as more positions are being eliminated, and reliable summer work will be hard to find in the midst of this health and economic crisis. All campus workers need a living wage now to ensure their health and safety. Kent State University must pay student workers $15 an hour upon their return to work, communicate clearly to student workers the details of their pay and future employment, and sever the university’s $22 million contract with Aramark.

To be in solidarity with Shreya and her coworkers at Kent State tweet the following:

I’m in solidarity w/ food service & other student workers at @KentState like Shreya (@usaslocal27 member) demanding $15/hr, clear communication re: pay & employment details, & the severing of their Aramark contract! #StudentWorkerWednesdays More: usas.org/studentworkerwednesdays @USAS

Donate to USAS and support future #StudentWorkerWednesdays 

#StudentWorkerWednesdays at

Colorado State University 

 

This week’s #StudentWorkerWednesdays target is Colorado State University. Resident Assistants like Kaori at CSU only have access to gloves and hand sanitizer. In terms of masks the university advised them to wear bandanas up until a few days ago when some RA’s received cloth masks. RAs had been told that proper PPE is not needed and yet there are RAs currently working desk shifts. RAs are demanding hazard pay of $200 as essential workers who have risked their health and safety, and continue to do so. This pay should be distributed no later than by the end of the semester.

To be in solidarity with Kaori and her coworkers share our Facebook post and tweet the following: I am in solidarity with CSU Resident Assistants & Inclusive Community Assistants at @ColoradoStateU like Kaori, who are demanding hazard pay as essential workers who have risked their health and safety! #StudentWorkerWednesdays Read more: usas.org/studentworkerwednesdays

Kaori, a RA at CSU, shares with us the risky situation she is facing as a student worker:  “On the evening of April 10th, RA’s like myself received an email telling us that our positions would be terminated on April 17th. We were told that we could show a preference for doing one of two jobs that would significantly increase the amount of time we were spending in shared spaces and in direct contact with other people. They would assign us to one of the two positions based on preference and need with no guarantee that you’ll get the position you ask for. If you weren’t comfortable putting yourself at risk in one of these positions, you could resign. However, by doing so, you would lose your compensation for meals and housing on April 20th. We were given one and a half business days to decide if we wanted to get sick or be homeless. My family lives right outside of New Orleans where there is one of the highest COVID death rates in the country. I’m on medicaid. If I leave Colorado, I basically lose my health insurance coverage. Going back home isn’t an option for me. 

Multiple RAs mentioned considering having to sleep in their cars. I’m graduating in May, but the pandemic has put a pause on a lot of jobs. I don’t know what I’m going to be able to do when the semester is over. The university should have been focusing its resources to make sure people are housed, not threatening to take people’s housing away. You could pay to stay in the halls for the last month, but at a time when millions of people are filing for unemployment each week, most people can’t take on unexpected expenses. 

After a weekend of collecting signatures from student workers and other allies, and a few days of pressure from phone calls and social media posts, the department offered us a position that would be 100% remote and virtual work. We were able to choose between a position that was all virtual work or a position that involved working at the front desk. If we didn’t feel comfortable doing in-person work, we were guaranteed that we wouldn’t have to do that. We were also told that our stipends would be paid out earlier this year, but now we are getting them on the last day of classes, May 8th, with no hazard pay. Not every staff member even receives a stipend. The students who used to work the front desks were receiving differential pay for working during the pandemic. The university has already acknowledged that that work is high enough risk for additional pay, so why are RAs and Inclusive Community Assistants (ICA)’s receiving what amounts to less compensation than we’ve been receiving all year? We need hazard pay as essential student workers ASAP!”

As essential workers who have risked their health and safety, and continue to do so, the least CSU can do is to meet the RA’s reasonable demand of hazard pay of an additional $200 to be paid by the end of the semester. 

Please tweet the following to let CSU know they must meet student workers’ reasonable demand for hazard pay:

I am in solidarity with CSU Resident Assistants & Inclusive Community Assistants at @ColoradoStateU like Kaori, who are demanding hazard pay as essential workers who have risked their health and safety! #StudentWorkerWednesdays Read more: usas.org/studentworkerwednesdays

Donate to USAS and support future #StudentWorkerWednesdays 

 

BREAKING: UIC USAS Victory for Essential Student Workers

We just won a big victory for RAs, and all essential student housing workers, at the University of Illinois at Chicago! After multiple call-ins last week, the administration sent essential student workers an email meeting their demands on Friday. Thank you for participating in our escalation at UIC. Student workers couldn’t have won this without your solidarity!

Essential student workers at UIC are receiving full PPE kits, proper social distancing protocol, an increase in transparency regarding safety, and a major victory of a wage increase — including back pay through March 22nd — with an additional $1/hour. We have yet to see whether students may advocate for additional compensation in line with their original hazard pay demand. Also, in response to our concerns, essential student workers were notified by HR that those with pre-existing conditions will be allowed accommodations while working during this global health crisis.

Kait, the UIC RA we highlighted during this #StudentWorkerWednesdays campaign shares what this victory means to them: “I feel so much safer at work. I got a N95 mask, gloves, hand sanitizer and tissues. The back pay is gonna make me be able to afford my basic needs. It’s making me feel more secure because there’s lots of bad family things going on, and now I can help them.” 

Thank you all for being part of this struggle at UIC — from your tweets, to your petition signing and your call-in efforts, we have won this #StudentWorkerWednesdays campaign!

Donate to USAS and support essential student workers as they continue to fight back during this pandemic!

 

UIC Escalation TODAY! #StudentWorkerWednesdays

 

 

Thank you so much for all of your solidarity thus far! Now we need your support in our next step of escalation in solidarity with RAs, peer mentors, and other essential student workers at UIC. Wednesday’s call-in was successful in that we were able to speak directly with UIC Housing Director Teggatz. She shared that student workers have PPE (thanks to our organizing efforts!) but would not promise hazard pay or our other demands. Director Teggatz implied that decision-making power ultimately wasn’t in her hands, so we’re fired up and ready to turn up the heat on UIC and target Chancellor Amiridis. Join us today for our call-in action:

Call this number 773-704-2284 and share this script:

“Hi, I am calling in support of UIC RAs, peer mentors, and other essential student workers. I urge Chancellor Amiridis to meet their demands for things like hazard pay and transparency that are outlined in the petition that was sent to him. Please pass this message along!”

Please donate to USAS and support more #StudentWorkerWednesdays!

 

UIC #StudentWorkerWednesdays Call-In Action

 

 

For this #StudentWorkerWednesdays we are shifting our focus back to the University of Illinois at Chicago! Just last week we circulated a petition (bit.ly/SupportRAs) and received about 400 signatures – thank you all for signing! 

After all your help sharing the petition and tweeting, Resident Assistants and other essential student workers successfully won PPE. In the first week they received masks, and this past week they were notified of the availability of gloves. While this is a great first step towards making UIC a safer workplace there are still outstanding demands that haven’t been fulfilled including: securing Hazard Pay of $1600 which is the equivalent of an RA stipend, ensuring social distancing protocols including an end to overstaffing the desks, paying Chicago’s minimum wage for any additional duties, and communicating transparently to inform RAs of major updates.

UIC must do right by its essential student workers. Today, please join us in our call-in to UIC Campus Housing at 312-355-6300. Here’s the script:

“Hi, I’m calling in support of UIC RAs, peer mentors, and other essential student workers. I urge Director Teggatz to meet their demands for things like hazard pay and transparency. Please pass this message along!”

 

*Student workers are likely to answer the phone so please make sure to be respectful, compassionate, and brief.*

Please donate to USAS and support more #StudentWorkerWednesdays!

 

#StudentWorkerWednesdays at Northeastern University

To show your solidarity please tweet the following: 

Call to action tweet: I am in solidarity with @Northeastern Resident Assistants like Alana who are demanding prorated housing/meal refunds as well as personal protective equipment & housing for RAs with nowhere to go who are continuing to work. Meet their demands now! #StudentWorkerWednesdays

 

#StudentWorkerWednesdays

at the University of Illinois at Chicago

 

This week’s #StudentWorkerWednesdays target is the University of Illinois at Chicago where Resident Assistants like Kait, pictured here, are facing hazardous working conditions. 

To be in solidarity with Kait and their coworkers, sign and share this petition now: bit.ly/SupportRAs!

Also share our Facebook post and tweet the following: 

@thisisUIC @UICHousing we are in solidarity with UIC Resident Assistants like Kait (SWAN UIC-USAS Local 15 member) who are demanding PPE, Chicago’s minimum wage for extra work, hazard pay, stopping overstaffing, & transparency! #StudentWorkerWednesdays

“I am a 3rd year student at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where I’ve been a Resident Assistant (RA) for almost 2 years and I’m a member of SWAN UIC – USAS Local 15. Students are still living in UIC dorms and the RAs are on the frontlines making sure our residents are safe. My job is crucial because as an RA I live alongside students and am a first responder in the residence halls. I’ve supported students with everything from their mental health to responding to dangerous facilities issues in the residence halls. We’re essential to the quality of living for UIC students and I feel like the university is taking advantage of us and is failing to pay attention to our safety and our community’s safety. Just yesterday when I walked into work I was unable to find gloves and my only PPE was a mask I sewed myself in my dorm room. It’s really stressful that we aren’t being provided masks. We also don’t have easy access to gloves. At this point there are at least 3 confirmed cases within my campus housing section; two residents and one janitor. I’m worried that I’m not only putting myself at risk but also the people who I love and live with. Many people in our workplace, building, and community are immunocompromised and I know that having PPE in my workplace would give me peace of mind and support the safety of student workers and all of the students that live here.

The first and immediate action UIC has to take is to provide proper PPE including masks and gloves for everyone. Also, RAs are now required to work additional desk job hours but the pay they’re offering us is below Chicago’s minimum wage. We demand to be paid our city’s minimum wage for any additional work asked of us. And for those of us who are still here, putting our health on the line, we also need hazard pay just like so many other essential workers across the country are demanding. Additionally, since the outbreak, UIC started scheduling extra people to work at the desk, even though some of this work can be done remotely, which means we aren’t able to practice proper social distancing. They must stop overstaffing the desks to do jobs that can be done remotely such as online occupancy checks. It is unnecessary and increases the risk we face being so close together. 

Lastly, we would like transparency. For instance, there was a whole floor where people were confirmed positive for COVID-19 and needed to self-isolate. However, when the RA showed up for a work shift a supervisor she normally doesn’t work with said that she shouldn’t have come to work and should be isolating in her room. We need transparency because as RAs, we should know as soon as something like that happens before we show up to work and put ourselves and others at risk! We also need to know where there are confirmed cases and where the quarantine areas are that still haven’t been blocked off. Finally, we should be informed of important building procedures and events. For example, the other day people in big hazmat suits came into the building and freaked everyone out because none of RAs knew who they were and then of course none of our residents knew either which caused alarm! 

At this point student workers have been asking themselves, should I stay and risk it or quit and leave? But since our housing is tied to our job, if we quit that would leave many of us without a safe place to live, so taking this safety risk is a necessity for many of us. The university is making people like me choose between being homeless or being sick. PPE, receiving Chicago’s minimum wage, hazard pay, stopping overstaffing, and transparency are all reasonable and necessary for us to carry out our essential jobs at this time UIC!” #StudentWorkerWednesdays

To be in solidarity with Kait and their coworkers sign this petition and tweet the following: 

@thisisUIC @UICHousing we are in solidarity with UIC Resident Assistants like Kait (SWAN UIC-USAS Local 15 member) who are demanding PPE, Chicago’s minimum wage for extra work, hazard pay, stopping overstaffing, & transparency! #StudentWorkerWednesdays

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#StudentWorkerWednesdays Launch & Victory!

USAS launched #StudentWorkerWednesdays on April 1st with the University of Alabama as our first target. Colleen, pictured here, is an English major and learning assistant who had been laid off. She’s a member of UA Students for Fair Labor-USAS Local 144. Here’s Colleen’s story:

“I lost my job as an undergraduate learning assistant very suddenly two weeks ago when, after weeks of saying that they were not planning to, the UA administration decided to close campus on the day before spring break. I was never officially let go–I had to reach out to a coworker to find out we were no longer getting hours. I remember calling her on the phone and asking, “are we fired?” I have four months of rent to pay for an off-campus apartment that I am no longer staying in and no income, facing the worst job market in over a decade–and where is the university in all this? At first it seemed like the university was downplaying the epidemic but then suddenly everything became very real very quick. I had to pick up and drive home 12 hours and am now living with my parents. This is stressful not only because I don’t know when I’ll be paid next but because if I got sick I could put my dad at risk who is an older person. At the end of the day I know I’m not alone and student workers across the country are being impacted as well. I’m grateful for USAS because it’s an accepting environment and I feel like in USAS I have other people to back me up. While the university has decided to forget about us, and while we’re not able to mobilize in person at this time, it’s important our voices are heard. So if you’re a student worker too, please reach out so we can support each other during this time. UA is just one university that needs to step up to the plate and think about how it distributes resources and supports the people who make our universities run. Power to the workers! Students are workers too!”

We know that students and workers across the country are struggling right now and many were justifiably calling for a #RentStrike on April 1st and we are in solidarity! We also know that our issues overlap, everything from economic justice to racial justice. Most recently, a spotlight was shone on UA when they fired a Dean because he made a social media post about the U.S. flag being a symbol of racism. Our universities need to be responsible to their students, workers, and community members. We asked our community to Tweet at UA to show support for student workers like Colleen. This Tweet was shared: “@USAS demands @UofAlabama pay its student workers now! #StudentWorkerWednesdays” and ultimately gave us the pressure we needed to win.

 

For our allies and supporters — please donate to USAS and help us win more victories like this during these trying time