Base pay raise insufficient

Duke's announcement that it will raise the base pay for full- and part-time University employees to $10 an hour indeed sounds positive. It is essential, however, to recognize that this action does not address many of the most severe problems faced by employees.

The base pay raise is effective for only the "official" University employees; this leaves out all the contracted workers, meaning employees of outside companies hired by Duke. It therefore carries no benefit at all for Angelica workers, who provide clean linen for the entire Duke University Health System and whose mistreatment has been clearly documented by the National Labor Relations Board. It carries no benefit at all for the construction workers who build the Gothic Wonderland. Most of these contracted workers make a base pay of well less than $10 an hour.

Over the last few years, there has been an increasing trend to outsource basic service work on campus to private companies. As the trend continues (and it will with the expansion in Central Campus), it makes a mockery of the University's supposed effort to improve the conditions of employees on this campus, as it nominally raises base wages to $10 an hour only to outsource these jobs to companies who will pay far less.

Simply raising the base pay of Duke employees is insufficient. Duke has the resources to not only extend the base pay raise to all of its employees, contracted and otherwise, but also to offer full benefits, including healthcare, to all workers. We must not stop now when we have both the means and the obligation to truly live up to the ideals of this institution of higher learning and to provide an example for colleges across the nation.

James Zou

Trinity ?07

and 12 other members of the United Students Against Sweatshops at Duke.