The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/uaw-strike/)
The Sun interviewed Vice President Ryan Lombardi about how the University tried to account for dietary preferences, sustainability and student well-being in its dining contingency plans throughout the UAW Local 2300 strike.
Now that the strike is over, we must not forget the lessons we learned during those two weeks.
It doesn’t matter how often Cornell says “thank you” to service workers and offers free pizza, ice cream or Bubbly. There is no amount of “thank you”s that can compensate for the need for a wage that reflects both the day-to-day tasks of a job and its “side effects.”
Dear Cornell Administration,
On Sunday, Aug. 18, Local 2300 of the United Auto Workers called a strike of full-time service and maintenance workers at Cornell. Cornell workers tried to avoid escalation through good-faith bargaining — but the greed and intransigence of the administration has left our full-time workers with no choice. Now, students, faculty, staff and the entire Cornell community are worse off because the administration refuses to work toward a fair contract. The UAW is asking for a 20 percent raise to establish a $24/hour living wage for all workers, a cost of living adjustment for their wages, no-cost parking and steps to address unsafe working conditions.
“Once you start working here and you’ve got a family, you’re never going to see them,” a striking worker told The Sun.
Instead of reviewing other areas of its supposedly-meager spending budget, Cornell has decided to find out how well the University functions without the people who take out the trash, mow the grass and cook the food on our campus.
As Cornell workers continued their third full day of striking, the University attempted to recruit retirees to help with vacancies amid negotiation efforts for a new contract.
Bangs Ambulance Workers United stands in Solidarity with our Sisters and Brothers of UAW 2300. We support their decision to strike and we salute their courage to stand up for themselves.
Rather than negotiating in good faith, Cornell sent a committee of highly paid lawyers, negotiators and administrators — many, no doubt, with salaries pushing six-figures — to stonewall the UAW bargaining team.
Given the status of the negotiation, I think it would serve both the University and the UAW to avail ourselves of every obtainable resource.