Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

I’d like to read the university’s report on pay and benefits for contract workers. I’d like to link to it too. But there’s still nothing on the UM web site. Nothing.

I called UM’s usually efficient Media Relations. “Evlynne” — who wouldn’t give her last name — said that she didn’t know anything about getting copies of the report. And there was no statement available from the university. There is no press release. “Where did the Herald get its information?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she said. There will, she said, be a letter to the faculty on Monday. Then she put down the phone.

In fact, it turns out, the Herald sourced its story to an interview with Shalala. I called the President’s office. The person answering the phone said she didn’t know anything about copies of the committee’s report or a statement, and someone would call me back. So far, no one has.

Is it just that everyone is on vacation (it’s Spring Break) or is this just slightly odd?

It looks as if the requst to professors to move classes off campus is being lifted. That’s very good news for the law school. Here’s what it says at the Picketline Blog:

As many of you may have heard by now, Donna Shalala today announced that the university will set its own minimum wage for all contract employees (not just those employed by UNICCO) and offer them some health insurance. …

This is a step in the right direction. However, we have not yet crossed the finish line and attained a place at the table for the workers. A one-time raise from the University (which, if the details reported in the Herald are true, still does not guarantee a living wage for most campus workers) while a very positive step in itself, is no substitute for the on-going ability of the workers to have a say in the full range of decisions that affect their working lives, let alone for a permanent “place at thetable” where they can ensure that these hard-fought gains do not deteriorate over time.Without successful unionization, it may only be a matter of time before we have to go through this whole process again. UNICCO is still under investigation by the NLRB (indeed, additional charges alleging further labor-law violations will be filed by SEIU tomorrow). The strike continues until UNICCO recognizes the right of the workers to form a union in a manner that is not contaminated by intimidation and ceases its violations of labor law. (Read the SEIU response here.)

What can and should sympathetic faculty members do at this point?

Acknowledging the progress we are making, we suggest that faculty return to teaching in normal class rooms, starting this Monday, March 20th, and that we begin a new series of actitivities and events designed to demonstrate our continued support for the courageous strikers whose preliminary success we celebrate today. We urge everyone to attend and publicize these events as much as they are able.

There’s a number of events listed, and they promise more.