Rep. Pressley, supporters call on Harvard to increase staff salaries at Tuesday rally | New

Nearly 200 protesters, including U.S. Representative Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.), Other elected officials, undergraduates and union supporters, called on Harvard to offer higher wages to its guards and security guards during the of a rally at Harvard Yard Tuesday afternoon.

The Harvard College Student Labor Action Movement organized the event in conjunction with the Young Democratic Socialists of America to support Harvard guards and security officers, who are represented by the 32BJ Service Employees International Union.

The union began negotiations in October for a new contract with the University; his current one-year contract is due to expire on November 15.

According to SLAM, Harvard this week offered the union a five-year contract that includes a 2% annual pay rise, which SLAM says does not match the rate of inflation and does not match the cost of living. standard.

Harvard spokesman Jonathan L. Swain declined to comment on the rally.

Roxana Rivera, vice president of 32BJ, told the rally that the 1,000 Harvard workers the union represents “deserve a living wage.”

“We’re coming out of a pandemic and we’re still there – it hasn’t happened for a century,” she said. “Now what is the richest university in the world going to do to help these families catch up? “

“It has to be a payback contract – a contract that allows people to move forward for the next four years,” Rivera added.

Harvard custodian Itelvina Fernandes told protesters workers are not asking for more than they feel they have to.

“It’s what we believe in and what we deserve,” Fernandes said. “With over $ 53 billion and they come next with 2%. They think we’re going to fall, but that just makes us stronger.”

Doris E. Reina-Landaverde, who also worked as a custodian at Harvard for 17 years, said in an interview that she plans to go on a hunger strike on Monday if Harvard does not respond to requests from the 32BJ SEIU before the expiration. of the contract that day.

“Most of us, we’re immigrants, and most of us have two or three jobs because what we get here at Harvard is just for rent, but we need the money for buy food, and that’s what we’re fighting for, “says Reina-Landaverde. “We want a fair contract, a better salary, because we have to bring bread to the table for our families. “

Speaking at the rally, Pressley expressed support for 32BJ and its demands.

“Organized power is realized power,” Pressley said. “I think people are wrong and think we are sort of appealing to a charity or trying to speak to their benevolence. It’s not charity, it’s reciprocity.

SLAM organizer Raghav R. Chopra ’24 urged undergraduates to contact University administrators to advocate for fair compensation for wardens, appropriate winter uniforms and job protections for workers reporting injuries.

“If we show them that we support them – that we are aware of the amount of effort they put in and that they deserve to be treated fairly because of the work they do to help us get a proper education.” – while I will give them the will and the courage to get through these negotiations, ”said Chopra.

Carter G. Demaray ’25, a rally participant, said undergraduates would stand behind Harvard staff members.

“There are students here who care,” Demaray said. “There are students here who are ready to stand up and make sure everyone gets what they deserve.”

Members of other Harvard unions, including the president of the Harvard Graduate Students Union and United Auto Workers, Brandon J. Mancilla, argued at the rally that Harvard had not provided any salary increases sufficient to any of its unions in recent negotiations.

“It is unacceptable to come and see the workers who have supported this campus during the quarantine, and in this pandemic, they have again made a fairly easy and seamless transition to a semester in person, and saying to them ‘Oh, we can’t to truly enable us to give you what you need to survive in this city ‘as the cost of living increases again,’ he said.

State Representative Michael L. Connolly, who represents part of Cambridge, said in an interview after the rally that “the wardens do some of the toughest jobs in the world.”

“The idea that after everything they’ve done on the front lines of this pandemic to keep the university open and make it work, the fact that the raise offer was only 2%, this that doesn’t even keep up with inflation, is incomprehensible and outrageous, ”Connolly said.

In an interview after the event, Pressley said she hoped the Harvard administration would respond to the union’s demands.

“It is an august institution that develops world leaders,” Pressley said. “I think leadership is about empathy and compassion. And so it is not enough to produce leaders in the world who you ask to practice this, if the institution itself is not.