PSLM Argues Benefit Increases Are Not Enough

Despite winning major concessions from the University this week regarding worker benefits, organizers of the living wage campaign said yesterday they would continue to fight for their primary demand--a minimum $10.25 hourly wage for all Harvard employees.

Despite the initial positive reaction of some members, the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM)--the organization responsible for the living wage campaign--met last night and decided to adopt a hard-line response to the report released by the Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies on Wednesday.

"The report can be seductive at first glance," PSLM member Stephen N. Smith '02 wrote in an e-mail message. "Upon further review, it appears plain to me that the lives of workers will not be sufficiently or substantially benefited until Harvard makes policy changes that can be implemented effectively and that see workers as equal and important members of our community."

Many PSLM members, however, had initially expressed approval of the committee's plans, endorsed by President Neil L. Rudenstine, to increase worker benefits.

Students who met with Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 and committee chair D. Quinn Mills, Weatherhead professor of business administration, in Mass. Hall on Wednesday at first said they were "pleasantly surprised" by the committee's recommendations.

"I think they're great...everyone's excited about the benefits," one member said.

The committee's report, which was the product of 13 months of meetings and research, recommends that the University offer health insurance to 500 more employees, require contracted firms to provide health insurance, grant paid leave and job training to 500 workers each year and provide increased benefits to casual workers.

The report cited the living wage campaign's work as a primary factor in its decision to boost benefits for employees.

"The Committee finds itself in agreement with the underlying premise of the Living Wage Campaign--that workers on the Harvard campus should be paid fair and competitive compensation for the jobs they perform and should be treated with dignity as part of the larger University community," the 100-page document states.

But PSLM members called the report unresponsive to the campaign and said last night that the policy changes proposed by the report would be ineffective.

"The troubles with the report far outweigh these small concessions because, for one, there is no mechanism for insuring their implementation and second, that they do not address the major concern of dealing with workers on the basis of need," Smith said.

The living wage campaign's next rally is scheduled for 1 p.m. tomorrow on the steps of the Littauer Center and will feature Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Class of 1992.

Representatives of the Cambridge City Council, which adopted a living wage for city employees last spring and have repeatedly urged Harvard to do the same, saying the University needs to do more to improve the economic status of its workers.

"[The report calls for] important steps but falls far short of increasing the consumer power of individuals," said Councillor Marjorie C. Decker. "You must look at a baseline wage."

But Tripp Jones, executive director of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, an economic think-tank, said health insurance and job training benefit workers more than wage increases.

"Those opportunities over the long term could do a lot more to advance the economic well-being of the workers than a wage hike here or there," he said.

Howard Zinn, professor emeritus of political science at Boston University, who will speak at tomorrow's rally, urged Harvard students to continue fighting to raise wages.

"The fact that [Harvard has] made a concession on a number of things doesn't take care of the fact that there's still no living wage," he said. "I think that Harvard can do better than that."