Jose Ramon spoke to a crowd of 225 people about his mother, who works 7 days a week to support her four sons. Norma Mercedes, an Initial janitor, told how she has to work a night shift to be home when her kids get back from school. Manuel Rosaldo spoke of a janitor who got sick and had to quit her job at Wesleyan because she couldn t pay her medical bills on the wages she earns. The Argus insults Norma, Jose, Manuel, and everyone else at the rally by depicting people who stood up for their beliefs as protesting for the sake of protesting. We contend that a living wage is absolutely relevant to the issue at hand.
Benefits are relevant.
The right to unionize is relevant. In fact, most of the 8 Points come directly from the workers proposed contract. We ve distributed fact-sheets, spoken at dorm snacks and in classrooms, tabled, invited the public to our meetings, and answered all questions posed to us in Argus interviews. From day one, we have engaged many administrators in an ongoing dialogue. President Bennet has communicated to us his respect for how we ve conducted this campaign.