A Truly Memorable Annual Dinner & SLAP ends Hunger Strike

By James Haslam
On Sunday April 29th over 150 people came from all over Vermont to the Old Labor Hall in Barre to celebrate the 9th Anniversary of the Vermont Workers' Center - Jobs With Justice. For folks who couldn't make it, I'm happy to report that we'll have video excerpts on our BlipTv website very soon, and they are worth watching, especially Elaine Bernard and the three Iraq Veterans Against the War. The best way I can describe the experience, is to say that the Workers' Center dinner brings all kinds of great people together, some of whom have just met or don't see each other except this once a year celebration, so there is often a small degree of quiet chatter that goes on during the event, even when it is time for listening. But for the entire time the veterans were speaking you could of heard a pin drop, as people were capitivated with their horrific accounts of what they had seen and their new fight to end the war immediately.

Below, speaking Iraq Vets Against the War members Drew Cameron (Burlington, VT) with Adrienne Kinne (Sharon, VT) and Matt Howard (Burlington, VT).


And Elaine Bernard was really inspirational, be sure to stay tuned for us to get the video online.


We honored all the Solidarity School graduates, COTS workers and Verizon workers fighting to Stop The Sale. We were also proud to honor(AND FEED!!) a big group of the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) folks who ended their hunger strike for livable wages last Friday. What they have been doing over the last three years leading up to the hunger strike has been amazing. The amount of public education about livable wages, social justice and solidarity was truly enormous as their fight became known widespread in the community and throughout the country. The rally on Friday was awesome, uniting UVM workers, multiple local unions, community members and more and more students have become involved in this movement for livable wages and workers' rights. We look forward to work SLAP in the many more battles ahead at UVM, as we make the entire City of Burlington and State of Vermont truly livable for everyone.

By the way, anyone who saw the Free Press and/or WCAX coverage of the end of the hunger strike likely had a similiar reaction that I did, one of confusion and mixed with a good deal of anger (the one very notable exception was the great article in Vermont Guardian). It was really negatively spun and not entirely accurate, but a big part of this was due to the fact that Legislative Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) produced some very misleading numbers discounting what UVM's livable wage should be and basically acted as the UVM Administration's spin doctor to help them justify paying below the livable wage. Since the JFO itself calculates these basic needs numbers, when this information was presented to the students it obviously led to confusion. We are working with the VT Livable Wage Campaign and Doug Hoffer (see his report) to get the real facts out, mainly that things like higher education benefits and disability benefits cannot be used to discount the basic needs budget when those costs are not part of the basic needs formula. Or as UVM Service & Maintenance workers' union, UE Local 267 put it, "you can't eat benefits".

Here's what SLAP had to say when they ended the strike.

Excerpt from SLAP Statement ending the Hunger Strike: "We have emerged from this struggle victorious – we began following a blatant denial by the administration that compensation for underpaid workers on this campus was an issue, and we ended with a commitment by the administration to continue working on this issue and a videotaped statement by Fogel that the livable wage issue will be significantly considered moving forward.

This is not the end. We will continue to promote and defend the rights of the under-compensated workers on this campus, today, tomorrow, and at everyday into the future. We have secured a firm commitment by the administration to put a renewed focus and effort on this issue. And we will remain vigilant in ensuring that the administration follows through on their promise.

The end of the hunger strike marks a significant and measurable victory in the history of equitable compensating on this campus. We hope to open a new chapter in negotiations with the administration, and will ensure that they follow up on the promises they made today.

We want to thank the entire UVM and Burlington community for their outpouring of support during this challenging protest, and wish to assure everyone involved that we have emerged with a significant victory that addressed the reasons for which the hunger strike began."