Thanks to everyone who came out to our Walk With Workers rally last Thursday! Luckily, we had a beautiful day. Our goal was to show our support for and alliance with Harvard’s workers, who often go marginalized and unrecognized by the powers that be. Many different issues and agendas are currently on the minds of Harvard’s workforce. Workers have suffered from hour cuts, speed ups, and mistreatment by non-union outside contractors, all with seeming disregard from the administration and in spite of our parity policy. We wanted to highlight these and other issues, as well as emphasize the fact that workers are part of our community, and that the economic issues faced by Harvard must be dealt with in a way that treats all parts of that community as equals.

We began outside of Mass Hall, where SLAM delivered a letter to President Faust asking her for a meeting with 10 workers from various sectors to discuss plans for the upcoming year. So far, we have not received a reply.

Colette Perold ‘11 introduced our first speakers outside of Mass Hall: Ed Childs, the chief steward of the UNITE HERE dining hall workers, gave an impassioned speech decrying the SB1070, the bill passed recently in Arizona that criminalizes presence on US soil without documentation, and declared his conviction that Massachusetts “will not be another Arizona.” He urged the Harvard community to take a stand against the racism and xenophobia behind the Arizona bill. Vicky Koski-Karell ’12 then spoke about the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), two important pieces of pending legislation. EFCA would facilitate the process of unionizing and bringing grievances in the workplaces, and ENDA would prohibit discrimination against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Our final speech in front of Mass Hall was made by Caroline Light, a labor historian and professor in the department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She told us about the ceremony of bread and roses, a ceremony with a long tradition in the labor movement, dating back to the Lawrence, MA textile workers’ strike of 1912. In this ceremony, bread and roses are given to workers as symbols of the two things a worker strives for: sustenance and dignity. Throughout our walk, we performed bread and roses ceremonies in honor of various sectors of the workforce.

We then marched to Annenberg Hall, where Democratic gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross voiced her support for the workers. We also heard a statement of support from History and African-American Studies professor Walter Johnson, read by Michelle Crentsil ‘10. We chose Annenberg as part of our walk to represent the dining hall workers; accordingly, we left bread and roses for them outside the building accompanied by a beautifully silkscreened thank you poster made by Remeike Forbes ’11 and signed by participants of the march.

Our next stop was CGIS, a set of buildings notorious for their mistreatment of clerical, dining service, and custodial workers alike. Currently, the management of CGIS is in the process of bringing in a non-union company, Eurest, to replace the current Hurley company, which follows the parity policy. Workers had only that day found out that their healthcare was slated to be cut. Daniel Becker, the union representative for SEIU Local 615, gave a speech followed by chants of “¡Sí se puede!” Some of the CGIS custodial workers took a moment from preparing for their shift, and we presented them with roses.

As we walked from place to place, we were led in song by Chris Johnson-Roberson ’11 on guitar and vocals and Remeike Forbes on banjo, singing labor songs that included “Solidarity Forever,” “Miner’s Lifeguard,” and “We Will Not Be Moved.”

We passed back into the yard through the gate by the Science Center, where we heard from Shawn Lynch, a security guard, and performed another bread and roses ceremony in honor of the security guards.

We stood for a moment on the steps of Widener Library, where Geoff Carens, a union representative from HUCTW, spoke about the tenuous situation faced by clerical workers. (Yesterday, in fact, we found out that four clerical workers have been notified of layoffs.) We left roses in front of the library and proceeded to our final destination, University Hall.

At University Hall, we heard closing speeches from Jane Williams ’13 and Memorial Church fellow Jonathan Page, and performed a final bread and roses ceremony. We felt that the rally went very well; it was wonderful to see so many of our comrades as well as some new visitors. For our coverage in The Harvard Crimson, check out Workers Advocates March on Yard. For photos of the walk, please look at our photo gallery!