Lesson for Vanderbilt Students: Solidarity Scares U.S. Employers

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/03/10/lesson-for-vanderbilt-students-solidarity-scares-us-employers/

by Tula Connell, Mar 10, 2010

Warning to college students: Joining in solidarity with low-wage workers on your campus can be hazardous to your freedom of speech.

At Vanderbilt University, members of Vanderbilt Students of Nonviolence recently met with campus workers to talk about working conditions for the lowest-paid employees and hammer out concrete actions all could take to make Vanderbilt a safer and more just place to work and learn.

Instead, they found out what life can really be like outside the campus green and inside the U.S. workplace. In a letter to the editor signed by seven members of the student nonviolence group and those in the Living Income for Vanderbilt Employees organization, they described how university management attempted to intimidate them.

The meeting was intended to be a safe place for workers and students to meet—we had heard rumors that due to a dictatorial contract and management hostility, it’s challenging for employees to claim that space. Despite being warned, we were shocked when we got our own taste of the intimidation that workers apparently experience when they try to talk and organize among themselves.

Throughout the meeting, university management stationed people to watch who went in and out of the doors, taking notes; after the meeting, they searched the trash cans for anything we might have thrown away and talked about whether they had gotten any photos of the meeting (”no luck,” they sighed).

FULL story at link.