April 4, 2005 - Washington University students pile into the admissions office to begin their sit-in.

Sit-In Wins Breakthrough Agreement for Workers' Rights At Washington University

Updated 4/25/2005

A groundbreaking agreement improving workers' rights at Washington University was finalized Friday, April 22 ending the 19-day sit-in by members of Washington University 's Student Worker Alliance (SWA). The agreement includes:

Commitment of at least $1 million in the next two years towards salary and benefits for lower-paid contract employees, a significant step towards a Living Wage for those workers,
Membership for the University in the Workers Rights Consortium, which ensures factories producing clothing and other goods bearing college and university names respect the basic rights of workers,
The formation of a joint committee comprised of students, faculty and administrators with SWA representation to improve University policies so they "better meet the needs of lower-paid service workers" which includes protecting freedom of association and working towards living wages and benefits for all workers who are directly and indirectly employed by the university.

"I'm so thrilled with what these students have won!" said janitor Chrystal Wells, employed by Aramark."I've never worked at a place where the people I perform services for take up for you like this."

The agreement also includes amnesty for those students and faculty that participated in the sit-in. Several student leaders were threatened with judicial sanction in the course of the campaign, and nearly 200 faculty signed an ad supporting Living Wage and the freedom to form unions in this week's campus newspaper.

"This agreement makes important changes in the lives of workers at Washington University ," said St. Louis Workers Rights Board Co-Chair Joan Suarez. "The new committee also provides a very strong springboard for future progress in protecting campus workers' rights."

Students and campus workers were were buoyed by growing community support throughout the hunger strike and sit in. National figures weighed in supporting the campaign, including Actor Danny Glover, Vice-Presidential Candidate John Edwards, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. US Congressmen Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan delivered refreshments to during the hunger strike. Congregations throughout St. Louis were keeping a 24-hour vigil outside Brookings in the final days of the sit-in

The Washington University students are part of the Student-Labor Action Project (SLAP), a national movement to address workers’ rights on college campuses, including victories at Harvard, Stanford, St. Mary’s and most recently the Georgetown Hunger Strike which won a Living Wage on that campus this March. SLAP is a joint project of the United States Student Association and Jobs with Justice.

Pro-worker activism will continue at Washington University . Only five of the students sitting in were seniors, and most were sophomores committed to continuing the SWA's work until graduation.

"We'll continue to involve the community in the fight for greater respect for workers' rights at Washington University," said sophomore Irene Compadre. "This victory is only the beginning."

Background: Washington University Living Wage Campaign ....
The struggle for a Living Wage at Washington University began quite uniquely in the fall of 2003, when a group of three dozen Nicaraguan lawn care workers here on seasonal H2B visas were asked to sign away their contractual rights and leave the country in two days. A group of five students who maintained close friendships with these workers committed to investigating this situation, working to bring their friends back from Nicaragua if possible, and find out if mistreatment by subcontractors and the administration was characteristic of employer-employee relationships on campus.

In this way the Student Worker Alliance was formed in November of 2003. The decision to launch a Living Wage campaign followed shortly thereafter when students discovered the working conditions for most campus workers suffered—unbearable poverty wages, with few benefits if any, feeling threatened and pressured by upper management.