Word: wages
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Despite these accomplishments, PSLM has lost both credibility and visibility as its campaign has dragged on. After the janitors’ union accepted the minimum $11.35 per hour wage, PSLM maintained that the new wages still did not provide for a decent living, even though it claimed otherwise last year, when $10.25—and then $10.68—was its stated goal. Shifting its aims so unapologetically—one PSLM member said, “the numbers we’d been calling for were not sufficient”—significantly eroded student support...
...same time as it was changing its wage targets, PSLM’s tactics became even more coercive and inappropriate. Eight PSLM activists who sat in the middle of Harvard Square and disrupted traffic in the name of higher wages, for instance, made a mockery of true civil disobedience. Searching for new and innovative ways to be provocative, PSLM held an income-redistributing bake sale; white students paid more and minority students paid less. Yet even this effort failed to capture student interest or even promote discussion...
PSLM’s actions in the latter half of this academic year only drew attention away from its victories. Its dedicated members should continue to press for the one remaining major goal that has not been realized—a living wage that increases along with workers’ cost of living and inflation. PSLM must also refine its idea of what constitutes a “living wage;” a wage that was good enough for workers last spring should still be sufficient now. If PSLM focuses its energy on these two goals, it can regain...
...years as a reporter for The Crimson covering the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM). I could not have asked for a better assignment—the PSLM beat was controversial and exciting. Few remained neutral regarding Harvard’s sweatshop policy or the prospect of a campus living wage. As a group, PSLM members could be high-minded, engaged, passionate and inspiring. But, like people in any organization, they could also be misguided, stubborn and whiny...
...what you will about PSLM, however, they have been the most significant and effective student group on the Harvard campus in at least a decade. Harvard is a very different place now from what it was four years ago. The wages of Harvard employees are higher. Students understand the concept of a living wage. Rallies in Harvard Yard are now commonplace, not anomalous...