Word: pslm
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When the Massachusetts Hall sit-in began, the living wage quickly became the dominant question of campus politics. But since the sit-in ended, the living wage campaign run by the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) has in many ways moved beyond its central issue and its namesake. In April, “$10.25” was ubiquitous, found on banners, signs and the walls of first-year dorms; in a recent newsletter door-dropped by the campaign, however, the standard set by the Cambridge living wage ordinance (now $10.68 per hour) is mentioned hardly at all. The call...
Rather than emphasizing a single issue and a single number as it did last spring, PSLM has now engaged in a far more general effort, focusing on the shift to “nonstandard” work (part-time and temporary work, often through independent contractors) that has been observed throughout the American economy in the last 20 years. Reversing this shift at Harvard—bringing outsourced service work back in-house, moving part-time work to full-time positions, and taking new measures to ease the process of union organizing —would take a far greater...
...same goes for PSLM’s call for a formal commitment to creating full-time rather than part-time jobs. According to Benjamin L. McKean ’02, a Crimson editor and prominent member of PSLM, some Harvard workers hold multiple part-time jobs on campus. These and other part-time positions could be combined into full-time jobs that carry increased benefits and a stronger role in collective bargaining. Yet even if Harvard agreed to such a commitment this afternoon, the changeover would take years, with full-time positions created through normal attrition as other part-time...
...report in late December the proposal of a wage floor will certainly return to the limelight. But the change in tone is visibly evident from the muted participation in the debate over the living wage, which by and large seems to have devolved into an occasional shouting match between PSLM and the Harvard Objectivist Club. A message board created a week ago by the HCECP, intended to allow public comment and discussion of wage issues, contains only four messages, one of which is an introductory statement from the HCECP staff...
Meanwhile, PSLM has faded slightly in prominence with the rise of terrorism as there arises another focus for social activism. One of the most recent demonstrations of any size right here at Harvard had about 600 students and community members in a rally for peace—and this just days after Sept. 11. Undoubtedly the PSLM has more to say about workers’ wages, but the question remains: have they revised their tactics and recreated their image enough to help sell their cause to the student body...