Friday April 2nd, 2010
On the evening of March 31st, the communication channels between the Claremont Colleges administrations were alight with worried tales of anarchy and occupation. The deans of Pitzer College communicated to their southern colleagues at Pomona College that the next day a mass of Pitzer anarchists would be marching to the Pomona administration building to lock down and take over. Pomona deans were so worried that they called multiple student organizers that night attempting to avert the expected strike.
What fool occupies on April 1st?
The threat manifested itself in the form of two anarcho-syndicalists who arrived in President Oxtoby’s office on a tandem bicycle, partially unclothed but extremely classy conscious, to deliver a stack of signed petitions and a thoughtful card. The card read, “I thought of you today, I thought of you yesterday. I’ll think of you tomorrow.” It bore a handwritten note,
Happy April 1st! You’re doing a heckuva job Oxie.
The time will come.
- Direct Action Claremont
With President Oxtoby still outright rejecting the demands of the dining hall workers for a fair process to establish an independent union, the college has good reason to be afraid of militant action. And good reason to grow some intelligence if they intend to fight the union with anything more than jittery nerves.
Showing posts with label President Oxtoby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Oxtoby. Show all posts
Monday, April 5, 2010
Pitzer Dean of Students threatens union organizers (Republished from Claremont Solidarity)
Wednesday March 31st, 2010
On Wednesday, with no apparent provocation, Pitzer College Dean of Students Jim Marchant (declared by his wife as a man who is bad in bed) sent a manifesto out to all students, warning them that while Pitzer students “are encouraged to be socially and politically active,” the rules state that “no Pitzer student shall act in an unauthorized way to make impossible the satisfaction of any physical condition necessary for the success of any authorized activity on College-owned property.” Those who do disturb the physical conditions necessary for the maintenance of capital and exploitation face “sanctions ranging from a warning to expulsion from the College.”
The context of this threatening message is a growing labor conflict that grows rapidly closer to coordinated workplace action as President Oxtoby continues to ignore the demands of the dining hall workers. With no other campus cause to bring students out to protest, it is clear that Marchant’s message is a pre-emptive move against those students who will be walking the picket lines with the workers.
The workers in the Pomona dining halls are already risking their jobs by publicly organizing for a union. Those students who stand in solidarity with the workers know that they are necessarily also standing in struggle against the bosses and college administrations, and they know that the college will treat them as enemies as well. The privilege that Claremont students hold shields them from the kinds of dangers the workers face, but nonetheless, victory will not come without risks, and it will not come without the threats of Dean Marchant being carried to fruition.
Follow the post for Marchant’s full message.
Dear Pitzer Students:
As a Pitzer student you are encouraged to be socially and politically active, both locally and globally. At the same time, you are encouraged to do so in an informed and responsible manner, one that is consistent with our community values and our educational objective of social responsibility.
It is with this in mind that I write to you on the subject of policies regarding protests and demonstrations at Pitzer and The Claremont Colleges. The Claremont Colleges have a shared policy regarding demonstrations on College-owned property. It is posted below and is on pages 78-79 of the 2009-10 Pitzer College Student Handbook at: http://www.pitzer.edu/student_life/pdf/Student_Handbook.pdf.
Furthermore, as part of the Code of Student Conduct, Pitzer has a policy regarding interference with college activities. This policy is on page 58 of the 2009-10 Pitzer College Student Handbook and is as follows: “Interference with College activities. No Pitzer student shall act in an unauthorized way to make impossible the satisfaction of any physical condition necessary for the success of any authorized activity on College-owned property (by College-owned property we understand property owned jointly or individually by any of The Claremont Colleges, or property of any facility or institution owned by or affiliated with the Colleges).” Keep in mind that violations of the Code of Student Conduct carry sanctions ranging from a warning to expulsion from the College.
Please read both policies closely and think carefully before deciding to take action. You should know that if you choose to take action on another Claremont campus, officials there can determine what is considered “non-peaceful” or “disruptive,” and they can involve Campus Safety or local law enforcement.
Again, please be mindful of our community values and educational objectives as you express yourself.
Sincerely,
Jim Marchant
Dean of Students
Vice President for Student Affairs
The context of this threatening message is a growing labor conflict that grows rapidly closer to coordinated workplace action as President Oxtoby continues to ignore the demands of the dining hall workers. With no other campus cause to bring students out to protest, it is clear that Marchant’s message is a pre-emptive move against those students who will be walking the picket lines with the workers.
The workers in the Pomona dining halls are already risking their jobs by publicly organizing for a union. Those students who stand in solidarity with the workers know that they are necessarily also standing in struggle against the bosses and college administrations, and they know that the college will treat them as enemies as well. The privilege that Claremont students hold shields them from the kinds of dangers the workers face, but nonetheless, victory will not come without risks, and it will not come without the threats of Dean Marchant being carried to fruition.
Follow the post for Marchant’s full message.
Dear Pitzer Students:
As a Pitzer student you are encouraged to be socially and politically active, both locally and globally. At the same time, you are encouraged to do so in an informed and responsible manner, one that is consistent with our community values and our educational objective of social responsibility.
It is with this in mind that I write to you on the subject of policies regarding protests and demonstrations at Pitzer and The Claremont Colleges. The Claremont Colleges have a shared policy regarding demonstrations on College-owned property. It is posted below and is on pages 78-79 of the 2009-10 Pitzer College Student Handbook at: http://www.pitzer.edu/student_life/pdf/Student_Handbook.pdf.
Furthermore, as part of the Code of Student Conduct, Pitzer has a policy regarding interference with college activities. This policy is on page 58 of the 2009-10 Pitzer College Student Handbook and is as follows: “Interference with College activities. No Pitzer student shall act in an unauthorized way to make impossible the satisfaction of any physical condition necessary for the success of any authorized activity on College-owned property (by College-owned property we understand property owned jointly or individually by any of The Claremont Colleges, or property of any facility or institution owned by or affiliated with the Colleges).” Keep in mind that violations of the Code of Student Conduct carry sanctions ranging from a warning to expulsion from the College.
Please read both policies closely and think carefully before deciding to take action. You should know that if you choose to take action on another Claremont campus, officials there can determine what is considered “non-peaceful” or “disruptive,” and they can involve Campus Safety or local law enforcement.
Again, please be mindful of our community values and educational objectives as you express yourself.
Sincerely,
Jim Marchant
Dean of Students
Vice President for Student Affairs
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Banner Drops on Pomona College Campus (Republished from Claremont Solidarity)
Wednesday March 17th, 2010
Last week, Claremont Solidarity decorated the campus with one banner for each day of the week, as a visual reminder of the ongoing labor conflict at Pomona College.
MONDAY, PEARSONS HALL:
LA UNION HACE LA FUERZA
TUESDAY: MASON HALL
SUPPORT ORGANIZING WORKERS
WEDNESDAY: DIGNIDAD SCIENCE CENTER
DIGNIDAD Y JUSTICIA
THURSDAY: FRARY DINING HALL
NO INTIMIDATION ON OUR CAMPUS
FRIDAY: SMITH CAMPUS CENTER
POMONA, ESCUCHA, ESTAMOS EN LA LUCHA!
http://claremontsolidarity.wordpress.com
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Worker Delegation Swells to Spontaneous Walkout (Republished from Claremont Solidarity)
Monday March 15th, 2010
A four person delegation of workers organized to deliver a letter to President Oxtoby turned into a short walkout today when the entire dining hall spontaneously decided to leave work and join the delegation. All 16 workers who where on shift at the time left the dining hall empty and took the letter to Alexander Hall. President Oxtoby was not to be found in his office, so the letter was left with his secretary.
The letter expressed the workers’ rejection of the College’s attempts at intimidation that have occured over the past week: a mandatory un-announced anti-union meeting, promising concessions to dissuade workers from organizing and discouraging workers from talking to each other about the union with threats of punishment for ‘employee-to-employee intimidation.’ The letter strongly re-iterated the demand for a card-check neutrality agreement, which the administration continues to reject without consideration or negotiation.
We are all ready for coordinated industrial action to secure workers’ rights. If a small delegation can turn into a walkout without any planning or advance notice, then the future certainly has the potential to bring wild things.
http://claremontsolidarity.wordpress.com
A four person delegation of workers organized to deliver a letter to President Oxtoby turned into a short walkout today when the entire dining hall spontaneously decided to leave work and join the delegation. All 16 workers who where on shift at the time left the dining hall empty and took the letter to Alexander Hall. President Oxtoby was not to be found in his office, so the letter was left with his secretary.
The letter expressed the workers’ rejection of the College’s attempts at intimidation that have occured over the past week: a mandatory un-announced anti-union meeting, promising concessions to dissuade workers from organizing and discouraging workers from talking to each other about the union with threats of punishment for ‘employee-to-employee intimidation.’ The letter strongly re-iterated the demand for a card-check neutrality agreement, which the administration continues to reject without consideration or negotiation.
We are all ready for coordinated industrial action to secure workers’ rights. If a small delegation can turn into a walkout without any planning or advance notice, then the future certainly has the potential to bring wild things.
http://claremontsolidarity.wordpress.com
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Students Support Worker Demands for Independent Unions and End to Abuses (Republished from LA Indymedia)
by Rockero
Monday, March 1, 2010
CLAREMONT, California - The student movement made an unexpected move in solidarity with university employees in a large-scale action at Pomona College, a private institution and part of the Claremont consortium of colleges at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. Well over a hundred students joined with numerous employees of the three campus dining commons, other Pomona employees, and a few faculty members to deliver a petition to Pomona President Oxtoby.
The mobilization began in the morning, when students from Pitzer College assembled on their campus, while Pomona students gathered on theirs. At about ten, the two contingents converged behind the banner "Trabajadores Por Justicia", singing the union hymn "No nos moverán."
Students, arm-in-arm with workers, entered the president's office two-by-two to deliver the signed petition demanding a neutral card check process to form a union. This is the process that would be permitted in all workplaces if the much-hyped but now-stalled Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would have become law.
The petition read, in part, "An NLRB-administered election, which permits management to campaign against the Union on work-time and create a climate of fear in the workplace, is not free and fair." It went on to demand employer neutrality in the workers' decision to organize, and recognition of a majority-backed union.
Previous efforts to organize food service workers on the campus have been thwarted by intimidation, collaboration between the administration and upper-level bureaucrats from established unions and bribery-based decertification drives by management.
This time, however, the workers are seeking an independent union to collectively bargain in their interest. Over 90 percent of the food service workers signed the petition.
Forming an independent union is the first step toward justice for the workers, who complain of poor salaries, few opportunities for advancement, abuses such as disallowance of breaks and working off the clock, and underemployment.
"The salaries that we have are miserable," reports Maria R. Garcia, a Pomona food service worker. "I've been working here for ten years already. I started at $8.40, and now it's $10.65 [per hour]. Two years without a raise. The first year, they said I didn't qualify because I was pregnant, and I had an injury. Another thing, we work for seven-and-a-half months of the year. So how do you support a family?" She made it clear that it wasn't an issue of disliking the job. "We like working here; we love working here. But with these conditions, it's hard. They just make it worse every year."
The action, impressive for its size alone, is all the more remarkable in that the student/worker organizers were able to keep all of their plans secret from the Pomona administration, taking President Oxtoby completely by surprise.
Efforts were made to ensure that the message would reach its intended audience. According to one of the planners of the events, "one of our organizers, having been head sponsor of the Sponsor Program, had arranged to have a meeting about the Sponsor Program with President Oxtoby at ten o'clock today to make sure that Oxtoby was at his office."
The Sponsor Program is "a residential program through which all first-year students are housed with approximately 15 other first-years led by two sophomore sponsors," according to the college's website.
While the day's emphasis was definitely on the exploitation of workers, the student movement, which began in opposition to budget cuts and tuition hikes and has since expanded to question the growing privatization of public education, occupy and liberate student spaces, and demand liberatory (rather than neoliberal) education, formed the dramatic backdrop for the action, particularly in light of the multiple actions being planned for Thursday.
"Both what is happening at the UCs and what's happening at Pomona College right now is due to misguided attempts to balance budgets," explained Lucy Lombard, a senior International and Intercultural Studies major at Claremont.
"And attempts to turn the university into more of a corporation, which prioritizes balancing budgets over education, over the university's rightful place in society, which is to create new vision of society, of what society could become," added Christopher Wohlers, a senior Physics and Environmental Studies major.
While President Oxtoby smiled and politely thanked the petitioners as they piled the stacks of documents into his hands, he was unable to dissimulate his true emotions: several students and workers reported viewing his hands tremble as the signed forms mounted. One student organizer commented, "He realized that he's gonna have a fight ahead of him. If he wants to maintain business as usual at the university, he's going to have a difficult time doing it, and I think this morning he realized that he's gonna be a busy man."
Pitzer contingent march
Monday, March 1, 2010
CLAREMONT, California - The student movement made an unexpected move in solidarity with university employees in a large-scale action at Pomona College, a private institution and part of the Claremont consortium of colleges at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. Well over a hundred students joined with numerous employees of the three campus dining commons, other Pomona employees, and a few faculty members to deliver a petition to Pomona President Oxtoby.
The mobilization began in the morning, when students from Pitzer College assembled on their campus, while Pomona students gathered on theirs. At about ten, the two contingents converged behind the banner "Trabajadores Por Justicia", singing the union hymn "No nos moverán."
Students, arm-in-arm with workers, entered the president's office two-by-two to deliver the signed petition demanding a neutral card check process to form a union. This is the process that would be permitted in all workplaces if the much-hyped but now-stalled Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would have become law.
The petition read, in part, "An NLRB-administered election, which permits management to campaign against the Union on work-time and create a climate of fear in the workplace, is not free and fair." It went on to demand employer neutrality in the workers' decision to organize, and recognition of a majority-backed union.
Previous efforts to organize food service workers on the campus have been thwarted by intimidation, collaboration between the administration and upper-level bureaucrats from established unions and bribery-based decertification drives by management.
This time, however, the workers are seeking an independent union to collectively bargain in their interest. Over 90 percent of the food service workers signed the petition.
Forming an independent union is the first step toward justice for the workers, who complain of poor salaries, few opportunities for advancement, abuses such as disallowance of breaks and working off the clock, and underemployment.
"The salaries that we have are miserable," reports Maria R. Garcia, a Pomona food service worker. "I've been working here for ten years already. I started at $8.40, and now it's $10.65 [per hour]. Two years without a raise. The first year, they said I didn't qualify because I was pregnant, and I had an injury. Another thing, we work for seven-and-a-half months of the year. So how do you support a family?" She made it clear that it wasn't an issue of disliking the job. "We like working here; we love working here. But with these conditions, it's hard. They just make it worse every year."
The action, impressive for its size alone, is all the more remarkable in that the student/worker organizers were able to keep all of their plans secret from the Pomona administration, taking President Oxtoby completely by surprise.
Efforts were made to ensure that the message would reach its intended audience. According to one of the planners of the events, "one of our organizers, having been head sponsor of the Sponsor Program, had arranged to have a meeting about the Sponsor Program with President Oxtoby at ten o'clock today to make sure that Oxtoby was at his office."
The Sponsor Program is "a residential program through which all first-year students are housed with approximately 15 other first-years led by two sophomore sponsors," according to the college's website.
While the day's emphasis was definitely on the exploitation of workers, the student movement, which began in opposition to budget cuts and tuition hikes and has since expanded to question the growing privatization of public education, occupy and liberate student spaces, and demand liberatory (rather than neoliberal) education, formed the dramatic backdrop for the action, particularly in light of the multiple actions being planned for Thursday.
"Both what is happening at the UCs and what's happening at Pomona College right now is due to misguided attempts to balance budgets," explained Lucy Lombard, a senior International and Intercultural Studies major at Claremont.
"And attempts to turn the university into more of a corporation, which prioritizes balancing budgets over education, over the university's rightful place in society, which is to create new vision of society, of what society could become," added Christopher Wohlers, a senior Physics and Environmental Studies major.
While President Oxtoby smiled and politely thanked the petitioners as they piled the stacks of documents into his hands, he was unable to dissimulate his true emotions: several students and workers reported viewing his hands tremble as the signed forms mounted. One student organizer commented, "He realized that he's gonna have a fight ahead of him. If he wants to maintain business as usual at the university, he's going to have a difficult time doing it, and I think this morning he realized that he's gonna be a busy man."
Signing petitions
Pitzer contingent march
Thumbs-up from worker
Arm-in-arm
Arm-in-arm
Students and workers unite
Arm-in-arm
Outside the administration building
Arm-in-arm
Arm-in-arm
Outside President's office
A busy man
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