>
>Demanding an answer
>
>
>
><http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/userhomepage.php?userid=92>Staff Writer -
>
>2005-04-18 20:12:14
>
>For several years, the fight for justice on the job has been a 
>controversial issue around campus. This semester, the United Campus 
>Workers-Communication Workers of America Local 3865 has campaigned for a 
>fair raise of a flat $1,200 to all of the workers on campus, rather than 
>the currently proposed 1 percent raise, which will disproportionately 
>benefit employees who already make the most. The extra $100 a month will 
>make a real difference in the lives of the immorally underpaid employees 
>of this university. Our student group, the Progressive Student Alliance, 
>which works for social justice and peace, has worked closely with the UCW 
>to raise awareness and support among the students about their Fair Raise 
>campaign. We built a display, which many of you may have seen, that began 
>to reveal the real, lived experiences of workers on this campus and the 
>need for a fair, flat raise. At the display, in our classrooms, in the UC 
>Plaza and elsewhere on campus we collected over 2,000 petition signatures 
>in support of the campaign, mostly from students. And then we requested a 
>meeting with President Petersen to bring him those signatures, and speak 
>on behalf of the 2,000 voices who said that they wanted campus employees 
>to get a fair raise, voices that demanded a better quality of life for all 
>of UT’s employees.
>
>On Wednesday, March 16, fifteen minutes before our 4:00 appointment, 11 
>well-dressed members of PSA and two staff members of The Daily Beacon, a 
>photographer and a reporter both there to cover it for the paper, filed 
>onto the eighth floor of Andy Holt Tower to formally meet with Petersen, 
>who had denied to meet with the UCW already. After a few minutes, our 
>group was escorted into the conference room and told, “It will only be a 
>few moments.”
>
>At 4:15, our group began to worry.
>
>At 4:30, we became a little angry.
>
>Around 4:40, a secretary came in for PSA member Aimee Boer. Despite the 
>fact that Aimee had told the secretary, Jane Pullum, that there were to be 
>several members attending this meeting, she was told that only she could 
>meet with Petersen on the grounds that she scheduled the appointment. We 
>asked if someone could go in with her. The answer was a flat “no.”
>
>We asked if one of our prepared speakers could go in instead.
>
>“No.”
>
>We asked if The Beacon could go in.
>
>“No,” again.
>
>At 4:45, 45 minutes after the time our meeting was scheduled, Aimee was 
>escorted into the secretary’s office where she met with a man to whom she 
>was not introduced, and then, finally, she was taken to meet with 
>President Petersen.
>
>On the outside, our group worried about Aimee. She didn’t even have our 
>prepared information or a copy of our 300-page, 2,000-signature petition 
>to present to him. We asked the secretary if she could give these 
>materials to her so that she might present them to the president. She 
>agreed to do so. We later found out that what we had sent to her was given 
>to her only at the end of her meeting, and she was able only to give them 
>to the president without explanation.
>
>Petersen did most of the talking. He asked her questions about herself, 
>her major and chatted about his son. After she tried to discuss the Fair 
>Raise campaign with him, he avoided the issue, mostly stating how the 
>budget was just a “big balancing act” and not ever speaking directly to 
>the issue of the raise, which will cost the university less than the 
>percentage raises would. Tired of going in circles, she asked directly, 
>“How do you feel about this raise?”
>
>He repeated himself.
>
>She asked him if he would go on record and sign our petition.
>
>His response was that he “does not sign petitions.”
>
>She asked, “Are you aware that one-third of hourly workers on this campus 
>make poverty wages?”
>
>He answered, bluntly, “I’m aware.” Shortly thereafter, the meeting was over.
>
>We were lied to, treated without respect, bullied and ignored. Petersen 
>refused to respond to the 2,000-plus voices that called for him and our 
>university’s administration to support a fair, flat raise of $1,200 for 
>all employees on campus, and in doing so support a higher quality of life 
>for them all.
>
>We have since attempted to reschedule a meeting with President Petersen, 
>but his secretary, Jane Pullum, who has personally expressed that she 
>doesn’t feel as if we should meet with him again, has yet to be of 
>assistance. We also requested to meet with Chancellor Loren Crabtree, who 
>also said that he didn’t want to meet with us, despite the fact that we 
>represent over 2,000 students, faculty and staff who support this fair raise.
>
>Petersen and Crabtree may not care. We, however, do.
>
>We have a problem with the fact that one-third of our full-time, hourly 
>workers live in poverty and are paid poverty wages. We have a problem with 
>the fact that our administration refuses to meet with an organization of 
>its workers. We have a problem with the fact that our administration 
>refuses to meet with a student group, speaking on behalf of 2,000 of its 
>peers (that’s one in every 13 students, and undoubtedly there are more who 
>have not yet signed the petition).
>
>We demand an answer, and we, along with thousands of others, demand that 
>it be YES to the fair raise.
>
>— Ruba Nuwayhid and Brian May are freshman members of PSA and can be 
>reached at [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask] Inquiries can also be sent 
>to Progressive Student Alliance at [log in to unmask]
>Cameron Justin Brooks
>Organizer
>United Campus Workers
>Communications Workers of America Local 3865, AFL-CIO
>1721 Cumberland Avenue
>Knoxville, TN  37916
>865-387-4408
>1-877-CWA-3865

Fritz W. Efaw, SB, AAdipl, PhD,
Rose of Cimarron Distinguished
Chair of  Excellent Edu-Babble.
         FACIEMUS !