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In the KnowA Living Wage on CampusA new manual provides a blueprint for building campus-based living wage campaigns intended to further higher education’s commitment to social and economic justice. Living wage campaigns––broad-based political action efforts aimed at raising the minimum wage in local areas–– have won decisive victories in a number of the nation’s municipalities over the past five years. Now the living wage movement has found its way onto college campuses. Sparked by evidence showing the nation’s economic boom has left too many Americans behind, living wage campaigns have persuaded cities from Boston to Oakland to enact local ordinances raising minimum wages for many workers to between $8 and $10 an hour. Now comes The Campus Living Wage Manual by Marti Braza and Nicholas Reville of United for a Fair Economy, a national nonprofit organization based in Boston. The manual is a tool for campus activists who want to work for wage fairness close to home. The manual begins by tracing the history of the living wage movement and outlining the surprising extent of current income disparities in the United States. The rest of the manual walks readers through the steps of building a living wage campaign on campus, from initiation to the actual implementation of a living wage plan. One practical and helpful section of the manual, “Samples and Resources,” offers sample materials from some successful campaigns. This section features sample fact sheets, letters, and petitions from living wage campaigns at Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities. Students, faculty, and staff currently organizing living wage campaigns on campus—or those who’d like to begin—will find these models useful as guidelines for producing their own campaign materials. The guide also includes sample advocacy letters to administrators and faculty that current campaigns could easily adapt. The resource section contains, in addition, a script for a “Low Wage Workers Aerobics Class,” a humorous “performance piece that uses aerobics to dramatize the experience of increasingly part-time or temporary low wage work.” “If you’re interested in a living wage campaign on your campus, you'll need two important things: information and people,” note the manual’s authors. “Begin by looking around and talking to everyone you can.”Better yet, begin with The Campus Living Wage Manual from United for Fair Economy, 37 Temple Pl., 2nd floor, Boston, MA 02111. Visit the online version at: www.stw.org. |
