U.Va sit in protests low wages
By Rachana Dixit, news editor
Posted on April 20, 2006

Mirroring the sit-ins that occurred during the Civil Rights and Vietnam War eras, 17 University of Virginia students staged a four-day sit-in protesting living wages for university workers, which ended in their arrests at about 7 p.m. Saturday.

Beginning at 9:30 a.m. on April 12, students entered Madison Hall, where President John Casteen’s office is located. Discussions commenced Saturday morning, with proposals and compromises exchanging between the administration and students.

U.Va. junior Ben Van Dyne, an organizer of the Living Wage Campaign, said, “Most living wage campaigns end with some sort of action like this.”

Ultimately, members of the campaign want university workers’ salaries to be raised to $10.72 per hour from $9.37 per hour and are attempting to persuade Casteen and the Board of Visitors to do so.

According to an April 18 article from the Cavalier Daily, Casteen’s main argument during negotiations with the protestors was to lobby legislators and approach the General Assembly, where students would find more success.

In the article, Casteen said, “An area where we can work together with success ... is to take the case to the General Assembly.”

Casteen also said that he did not have the legal authority to alter wages for the university’s contracted employees.

The Living Wage campaign started in 1998 after U.Va.’s Office of Equal Opportunity Programs released the“Muddy Floor Report,” detailing working conditions and salaries of university workers. U.Va. has about 12,000 classified employees, in addition to contracted employees.

Van Dyne said, “The lowest paid jobs at the university are predominately women and people of color.”

He added that the salary figures were calculated based on reports from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., which outlines different costs of living for U.S. cities.

Van Dyne said that the salary which workers are currently being paid is not enough for them to live in Charlottesville. The average cost of living in the United States has a composite index of 100; Charlottesville earned a 105.3 in 2004.

“A lot of workers already make that much, but a lot of them don’t,” he said.

For classified employees at JMU, which can include workers in housekeeping and facilities management, incomes are comparable to those of U.Va.’s.

According to documents on income for classified employees at JMU, most workers in custodial services and housekeeping workers earn between $17,000 and $18,000 per year. Housekeeping team leaders make around $20,000 per year.

With groundskeeping employees and maintenance personnel such as trade technicians, depending on their level, income varied from $18,000 to about $36,000 per year. 

At JMU’s Office of Student Employment, Job Location Development Coordinator Denise Meadows said the lowest an office or department can pay is minimum wage, which in Virginia is $5.15 per hour. When it comes to raising salaries, this number also has to be considered.

“We haven’t seen an increase in the federal minimum wage,” Meadows said. “They’ve tried on many occasions in the state.”

For the campaign at U.Va., Van Dyne said only the Board of Visitors has the authority to make changes with workers’ wages. After being in jail for over 24 hours, students were released Monday afternoon after a bond hearing.

Van Dyne said Casteen has not been in contact with campaign members since, but they are still hoping to advance in their efforts.

“We want to make sure we make some progress on the issue,” Van Dyne said. “This issue isn’t simply going to go away.”