With the introduction of new restaurants in Hoya Court, concerns regarding the extension of the Just Employment Policy to all campus workers have emerged among unions and student activist groups.
Employees at Hoya Court will not be included under the union contract that protectsAramark workers at Leo’s and other campus amenities until the contract is renewed on January 1, 2015. This lack of official representation leaves workers at Hoya Court unprotected from harassment and without an institutional route for self-advocacy. Georgetown needs to extend the benefits of this policy to workers at Hoya Court as soon as they arrive on campus, not a year later.
Georgetown’s Just Employment Policy, created in 2005 after years of efforts by both students and workers, has held the University to a higher standard of working conditions, providing not only “fair and competitive compensation packages” and the right to “freely associate and organize,” but also a “safe and harassment-free” working environment for University employees and contract workers on campus. It is a pointless policy, however, if its benefits do not extend to all who work at Georgetown, including new employees.
In the years since the implementation of the policy, the administration has made some progress in supporting workers’ rights. In 2011, Georgetown supported Leo’s employees, who rose up against Aramark in an effort to create a union. In May of this year, the administration also backed the unionization of adjunct faculty members, who advocated for greater job security and consistency in wages.
Despite these steps forward, it is clear that more work is necessary. Ongoing reports of harassment of Leo’s workers and employees at Epicurean that have occurred just in the past year point toward the University’s failure to enforce the Just Employment Policy. Without the protection of the Policy, workers would certainly be unable to count upon the University to protect them from abuse.
Additionally, adjunct professors make up 45 percent of Georgetown’s total faculty, but they do not receive any health or retirement benefits, monetary aid for research and conferences, or office space from the University. While the administration has not obstructed adjuncts’ efforts to unionize, passively supporting unionization efforts is not enough.
The University needs to uphold workers’ rights by holding itself accountable to the standards set forth in the Just Employment Policy, as well as every company it contracts out to. Rather than waiting for students and unions to force it into action, the administration must take on a proactive role in protecting the rights of every individual it employs, and it must send the message that the harassment of workers will not be tolerated on this campus.
The University’s Just Employment Policy covers EVERY contract worker on their first day. You can argue whether it’s fairly enforced, but it’s not true that there is a waiting period to be covered under the policy. You are confusing the policy with a union contract. They are two different things.