Friends,

Join us today at 4:00 p.m. in solidarity with workers as we rally to voice our opposition to many of the recent cutbacks. We will gather in front of the Holyoke Center to reaffirm our commitment to those members of our community hit hardest by recent administrative decisions and let Harvard know that the campaign for transparency, dialogue, and alternative solutions to layoffs and injurious cutbacks has not been buried by the summer months. If the following issues speak to you, it is important that you attend this rally.

The cuts instituted by the university have affected workers in unimaginable ways, beyond the numbers we have become accustomed to reading about—the 275 layoffs occurring over the summer. Harvard and its respective vendors have not only laid off employees, but cut hours, reshuffled schedules, and effectively increased workloads. Consider the custodian who works at a river house and has suffered a 12.5% cut in his hours. Those hours were needed to cover his family's cost of living. Without it he must find a second job, but he fears that Harvard will cut his hours only more if he does so. He's afraid to even speak out on the matter.

Or what about the employee who already works a second job? The university has instituted a scheduling change that requires custodians to be available throughout the week; their work hours will change with each cycle. Many will have to abandon their second jobs, which they depended on to make ends meet, and now with decreased hours.

Consider how work has changed for employees after the layoffs and hour cuts. Buildings must still be cleaned as they were the year before, so management has required remaining workers complete the same aggregate sums of work with less time—a speed-up. This practice endangers the health and safety of many workers. Consider the custodian who recently tore a ligament after the stress of carrying more trash, cleaning more floors, and with less time. The bruises on the arm of another tells a similar story.

Under no circumstances should we compromise the health and safety of workers. Yet, Harvard has chosen to do so, without any consideration of salary cuts for the university's highest paid employees—high-level administrators, financial officers, and our faculty, whose average salary is more than $12,000 higher than Princeton's. The university not only refuses to consider alternative budget cutting mechanisms, but it has even resisted open dialogue on the matter. The university and its vendors have slashed hours without notifying the union, and even now have decided not to sit down with workers and union organizers to discuss hour cuts or the implementation of a more flexible schedule. Instead, Harvard has placed an embargo on this sort of information.

As a university that strives to foster open dialogue and creative problem-solving, Harvard has failed this mission over the past months. If Harvard refuses to create genuine channels of discussion over these issues, then we must amplify our voice more loudly until Harvard is forced to listen.

Please, join us today at 4:00 pm in front of the Holyoke Center.

Best regards,

Student Labor Action Movement

Friends,

We are asking for your support this week, as we rally behind Ravi Raj, a Harvard employee who has endured considerable harassment in the workplace and now faces the loss of his job. We will gather to picket in front of CGIS North (1737 Cambridge St.) on Thursday, September 3rd at 12 pm.

Ravi Raj is employed at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS). Beginning in 2007, Ravi suffered racial slurs and the ridicule of his Indian accent on the job. He approached many responsible administrators on the matter, with the result that his office was taken away, his work was subjected to heavy scrutiny, and he received mediocre evaluations despite superb productivity and credentials. Ravi, a member of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, turned to the union for help, only to face retaliatory discipline from management.

Ravi was confronted at work and threatened by a stranger, hours before a planned meeting with administrators to address racial discrimination. He has experienced anonymous telephone harassment. Ravi has faced unusual surveillance: a supervisor was once observed taking pictures of his friend's car, parked near Ravi's workplace. Throughout, Ravi has provided excellent IT desktop support. His work output was recently proven to be among the best in his unit, below only the department manager's level of production. He often receives effusive compliments from clients. Nevertheless, on August 20, Ravi was threatened in writing with termination, supposedly for poor performance. His job is now on the line after a protracted struggle to end discrimination in the workplace

Ravi has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD). He has refused to be intimidated, even as he faces being fired. Ravi supports two children who are pursuing higher education and an elderly father. He urgently needs our support! Please join workers, students and concerned community members this Thursday.

Best regards,

Student Labor Action Movement

Earlier today dozens of Harvard workers joined the immigrant rights protest at noon in front of the Science Center. Despite rain, students and workers stood united to celebrate May Day with millions worldwide. The issues that impact workers and migrants are inherently intertwined and we are happy to see a rally that reflects that. Much thanks to Harvard' Act On A Dream for including us in their planning process.

Want to do more? Join us at 4:30pm in the MAC quad for more May Day action.

Some outside of the Harvard community have asked, why "Greed is The New Crimson"?

Well, the answer is simple. It's a play on the recent (and very public) initiative to green the Harvard campus. All across Harvard Yard are banners that read "Green is the new Crimson" along with a myriad of wonderful initiatives coming from the Office for Sustainability and the Environmental Action Committee (EAC).

We have no intention of being critical of the green work taking place on campus but wanted to spin a phrase that we knew all members of the Harvard community would recognize.

We hope that green initiatives can assist in the solution to our budget crisis by helping to reduce unnecessary expenses that can both save the environment and save jobs. Click to learn more about Green Jobs.

Members of SLAM and EAC participating in the Green Jobs Day of Action

"Greed is the new Crimson. No Layoffs!"

This afternoon, FAS Dean Michael Smith hosted a town hall meeting on FAS finances in Sanders Theater. He opened the event with a PowerPoint presentation on the state of the budget. He said that the budget for Academic Year (AY) 2010-11 will have a starting deficit of $220 million and in order to make up that deficit we must "not just resize but reshape and revitalize" the university.

To do this, the FAS administration says it has already achieved $4 million in cuts and has another $73 million planned. Dean Smith did not describe in any detail where exactly those planned cuts would take place. However, he did say that in assessing the FAS budget, expenses were categorized into three "buckets": (1) expenses that can be made up for by better use of resources, (2) expenses that if cut will have a "challenging or negative effect on some people", and (3) expenses that if cut would have a negative effect on Harvard's educational mission. He said that cuts would then be coming from the first and second buckets.

What was most striking about the meeting was the narrow scope in which the administration seemed to see Harvard's educational mission. Lowell House Master, Professor Diana Eck, asked why house staffs were being cut when they were such a central part of the educational experience at Harvard. An HCL staffer asked why the library system was not being valued as an integral part to the educational mission of Harvard. I asked about the exclusion of service employees (janitors, dining hall workers, security guards) from town hall meetings when they are responsible for the safety, health, and comfort of every student on campus.

Despite our certain differences on how Harvard should move forward, the overall tone of the event reflected the frustration and exclusion that members from all parts of the university feel in addressing the budget crisis. All accept that cuts will need to come from somewhere, but the lack of transparency thus far has raised fear and suspicion throughout the university - pitting workers against one another and department heads competing for cash. One audience member even asked for Dean Smith to clarify rumors that certain insiders were being exempt from the hiring freeze. Additionally, when I asked Dean Smith whether high level administrators would be taking pay cuts like at Stanford, Wash U, and UPenn he said that he is essentially taking a pay cut (since he is not getting his raise this year and the effects of inflation). He then quickly added that would need more than "a few dollars" to make up the deficit.

The irony is rich (pun intended): when an amount of money is coming from his salary it has no real impact, but when a similar amount is used to pay the entire salary of a low-income worker it suddenly becomes so significant that it is holding back the educational mission of the university.

We've been making t-shirts! If you want one, just get us a t-shirt and we will screen print it for you. Email us at slam[at]hcs[dot]harvard[dot]edu to arrange.