Images from 12/2 action for laid-off workers to be rehired, and against furloughs!

Front-page Harvard Crimson article on 12/2 action to get laid-off workers rehired, and against furloughs

Several dozen Harvard employees and students rallied outside the Holyoke Center last night, protesting the budget cuts that may dim the holiday season for some University staff.

Members of the local branch of the Service Employees International Union, which represents security guards and janitors, joined other unions representing technical and clerical workers and dining hall staff, waving picket signs and chanting as University administrators streamed out of the Holyoke Center at the end of the workday.

Union officers addressed passers-by on a portable P.A. system, trying to encourage them to participate in the rally as they walked past.

“Most people have no idea how they are going to pay their bills, no idea how they are going to feed their family!” said Edward B. Childs, a cook in Adams House and the Co-Chief Steward of Unite Here Local 26.

Emeka Onyeagoro, a library employee running for Widener union representative of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, said that University staff were most concerned by the prospect of additional furloughs, which require them to take an unpaid period of leave while still paying out of pocket toward their benefit packages.

Other workers protested the replacement of full-time staff with part-time student workers. Desiree A. Goodwin, a library assistant at the Graduate School of Design, said that this meant students would be deprived of a dedicated library staff, and laid-off workers would lose their primary source of income.

According to Onyeagoro, fewer than half of the 119 workers in HUCTW who were laid off earlier this year have found employment elsewhere at Harvard, even though they had been promised priority consideration for other positions.

Harvard announced in June that it would lay off a total of 275 employees from across the University, in an effort to cut labor expenses after a precipitous decline in the value of the endowment.

Members of the Student Labor Action Movement carried a sign that read “The Harvard Corporation Stole Christmas,” and one pedestrian who noticed the student criticized the University for what he considered “unconscionable” actions.

“Harvard should be setting an example, according to principle,” said Mike McGann, an Ohio resident visiting Cambridge who observed the rally for a few minutes.

Workers, Students Rally Against Layoffs

Workers, Students Rally Against Layoffs
Union members and supporters express discontent with budget cuts
By Jacob D. Roberts, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Published: Thursday, December 03, 2009
Rally for Workers

Harvard workers and their supporters rally outside of the Holyoke Center yesterday evening. Rally participants chanted slogans and held signs that urged Harvard to rehire laid-off workers.

Several dozen Harvard employees and students rallied outside the Holyoke Center last night, protesting the budget cuts that may dim the holiday season for some University staff.

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No More Layoffs - Rehire all laid off workers - Rally - Wednesday, Dec 2, 5pm

Hey Harvard--NO MORE LAYOFFS!

Rehire the Laid-Off Workers! No Furloughs!

RALLY! Wed., Dec 2, 5pm

Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave. Cambridge

(next to Au Bon Pain, Harvard MBTA stop)

Harvard University’s highly-speculative investments caused its endowment to soar during boom times. Predictably, when the market tanked, Harvard’s risky bets on private equity, hedge funds, etc., lost some money. Refusing to resort to pay cuts for top administrators like many other institutions, Harvard has chosen to balance its books mainly on the backs of lower-paid workers. Hundreds of staffers have been pushed to retire early amid ominous noises about budget cuts and potential job losses. In June, Harvard announced it would lay off 275 clerical and administrative employees. At least 115 members of Harvard’s largest union, HUCTW/AFSCME local 3650, were laid off, not counting term employees whose contracts were not extended. Five months later, less than half the laid off union members have found non-temp positions at Harvard, despite supposedly having preference for open jobs. Some union members now face furloughs (weeks of time off without pay), when they must continue to pay their usual deductions for health-care, etc. despite getting no paycheck!

Harvard’s endowment is still $26 billion! Despite this huge pile of money, Harvard enjoys “non-profit” tax status and doesn’t pay the taxes that ordinary businesses have to pay. We rally to say that Harvard owes the surrounding communities more than layoffs and furloughs! For more information pls. email nolayoffscampaign@yahoo.com

FAS to Decrease Size of Faculty (Harvard Crimson)

FAS To Decrease Size of Faculty

Hiring to continue but not at same rate; retirement packages to be offered

19 Nov. 2009

By Noah S. Rayman and Elyssa A. L. Spitzer, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Dean Michael D. Smith said he will shrink the number of professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, ending a decade-long expansion in order to offset the school’s $110 million deficit.

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Harvard ignored warnings about investments

Harvard ignored warnings about investments
Advisers told Summers, others not to put so much cash in market; losses hit $1.8b

By Beth Healy
Globe Staff / November 29, 2009

It happened at least once a year, every year. In a roomful of a dozen Harvard University financial officials, Jack Meyer, the hugely successful head of Harvard’s endowment, and Lawrence Summers, then the school’s president, would face off in a heated debate. The topic: cash and how the university was managing - or mismanaging - its basic operating funds.

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Emeka Onyeagoro

Emeka Onyeagoro
Candidate for HUCTW
Union Rep, Widener

I'm running for Widener Rep because of my strong commitment to social justice. For nearly two decades I've participated in community-oriented activism and organizing. As a Union Rep, I will keep employees updated about union resources and actions. I'll also do everything I can to help union members who have problems on the job.

Before I joined HUCTW, I was elected Shop Steward here at Harvard, as a Security Officer in SEIU (Service Employees' International Union) local 615. I acted as a source of information, and investigated and handled grievances. I won major, precedent-setting cases, including reversing terminations, and recovered union members' lost wages and vacation days. I fought for and won unemployment benefits and back pay for my fellow workers. I also served on the union negotiating team at our contract talks with management, which achieved seniority rights, much-improved wages, and an effective grievance procedure with arbitration, among other benefits.

During the struggle for our first contract, I helped organize large "living wage" rallies on campus. I worked closely with pro-labor students, and with members of HUCTW who supported the security officers. I maintain those links today, and believe that cross-union solidarity and work with sympathetic student organizations can help HUCTW too! We are always strongest when we stand together.

Recently I have participated in the No Layoffs Campaign, initiated by activists in HUCTW. I feel our union should publicly oppose layoffs. We need to make sure that the laid-off workers get rehired! I also believe we should push strongly for seniority rights, which help prevent age discrimination, and make jobs worth keeping, in our next contract. A no layoffs clause in the contract would be a big step forward, and I will advocate for this. Harvard still has incredible resources and I believe we should bargain from a position of strength, and push for good raises and a cost-of-living adjustment, which we need in such an expensive city.

On December 8, I hope you will consider voting for me, and the other members of the No Layoffs Campaign. Together we will win! Please feel free to contact me at eonyeag@fas.harvard.edu.