The Georgetown Solidarity Committee (GSC) is ten years old this year. We are officially a Georgetown tradition; we were invited to table on Copley Lawn during Traditions Day. We’ve done a lot in those ten years. I’m not going to list all of our accomplishments in this column—for that, go to www.georgetownsolidarity.org—but I will tell you why we’ve lasted so long, drawing enough students to our weekly meetings to become a lasting voice on campus.
Fighting for worker justice is relevant to all of us, everyday. You know all those things that make you love Christmas morning, a beautiful summer day, the first snowfall of winter? Those are the same reasons you should love student labor solidarity. Let’s start with Christmas morning: you get to wake up early, eat great food and enjoy warm family moments. Every Friday GSC hosts a breakfast for all the workers on campus. We wake up early, set out food and get to enjoy talking to the people that work here on campus, the people who make up our Georgetown family.
What about a beautiful summer day? Twice a year, we host a barbecue for workers and their families. For some workers, this is the only “worker appreciation” event that Georgetown will host. A first snowfall? Like the snow that makes a familiar landscape new, English as a Second Language classes give workers a new way to interact with the world. GSC’s ESL program has been wildly successful and is now run through the Center for Social Justice.
At all of these events, we talk to facilities workers, groundspeople, GUTS bus drivers, janitorial staff, DPS officers and others. We hear about the good days when students, faculty and administrators treat workers with respect. We also hear about the bad days when people leave trash out, look past them in the hallways and let doors slam in their faces. The most important thing is that the conversation is happening, and it’s been happening for the past ten years with a lot of help from other student groups that share our mission.
We are lucky to be at Georgetown, where Jesuit ideals inform the University’s values. DeGioia and the rest of the crew that work in Healy ultimately answer to students because our tuition pays the bills. GSC is looking to ensure our tuition dollars are put to use to create a just and equitable workplace. We want to encourage people who hold positions of power in our campus community to think about the everyday concerns of the workers on campus. We hope that when people hear the words “Georgetown community,” they think of the whole community.
Fortunately, we have tools available to implement these values. We have a document called the Just Employment Policy (JEP), which sets the standard for how workers should be treated on campus, won by janitors and students after a four-year Living Wage Campaign and a nine-day hunger strike in March 2005. We even have contracts with the companies that make Georgetown apparel, obligating these companies to remedy sweatshop abuses. Since GSC’s 85-hour occupation of the President’s office in 1999, we have been involved in urging the University to cancel their apparel contract with New Era, which uses sweatshop labor in its factories.
So, what can you do to put our ideals into action? Next week will be Georgetown’s ‘Student-Worker Solidarity Week: 10 years of Building a Better Georgetown!’ On Tuesday we will be screening our award-winning documentary Living Wage 101, followed by a chance to speak to hunger strikers. On Wednesday, employees at Georgetown will talk about how we can work together to do better. On Thursday, there will be firsthand student accounts of a visit to the Coalition of Immokalee Farm workers (CIW), an incredible group in Florida winning worker justice campaigns against big names like Taco Bell and McDonald’s. The week will end with a demonstration at the K St. Burger King at noon. You can get all the details for the week of action, full text of the JEP and much more at www.georgetownsolidarity.org.
