Hopkins Living Wage Sit-In Ends with Wage Increases, But No Living Wage for Hopkins Workers
The 17-day occupation of the Johns Hopkins adminstration building ended yesterday with an agreement that will raise wages for some of Hopkins' lowest paid workers. The agreement, between Hopkins and the Student Labor Action Committee, commits Hopkins to accelerate efforts to ensure that workers receive the compensation necessary to live in dignity and to support their families. Hopkins refuses, however, to introduce a living wage policy, which would bring workers from as little as $6 an hour to $7.90, and then tie wage increases to the poverty line for a family of four.
The agreement committed the Student Labor Action Committee to end the sit-in, and also commits Hopkins to: * Report annually on its efforts to ensure that workers can support their families, including public reporting of compensation at Hopkins * Work with SLAC and its community allies on a Committee on Poverty to investigate the impact of Hopkins' compensation and other practices on poverty in the city, particularly in East Baltimore.
These measures open the Hopkins institutions up to public scrutiny of its wage structure, a first step to making Hopkins more accountable to the Baltimore community, but fall well short of the SLAC coalition's demands.
The sit-in attracted a broad coalition of activists from community organizations, local high schools, unions, City Council, and churches, as well as leaders of the Baltimore civil rights movement of the 1960s. The coalition maintained the sit-in for over two weeks, despite Hopkins' attempts to freeze out protestors by turning the heat off.
The SLAC living wage coalition will continue to fight for a living wage at Hopkins, through its new committee, but will also take the struggle to the streets and to the sources of Hopkins' economic power: its donors, City Hall and the state Assembly. Johns Hopkins University and Health System is the largest private employer in Baltimore and Maryland, and receives substantial public subsidy, despite its $1.5 billion endowment, and annual investment returns of $128 million. We will work to hold Hopkins accountable for the public subsidy and philanthropic donations it receives, and to ensure that Hopkins' wealth flows through to the workers who keep its facilities running. The fight for justice at Hopkins continues with a bigger, more powerful and more committed movement than ever before!! Thanks for your support!!!!
S T U D E N T L A B O R A C T I O N C O M M I T T E E (March 17, 2000)
-- Jess Walsh McGill Fellow Economic Policy Institute 1660 L Street NW Suite 1200 Washington, DC 20036
PH: (202) 530-2484 FAX: (202) 775-0819
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