And as a result of the agreement with which the student protesters exited Mass. Hall, SEIU? contract will be reopened a year early?nd the contract that is eventually negotiated will be retroactive to May 1 of this year.
This could prove to be one important piece of the sit-in? legacy, as a strengthened bargaining position for unions can result in higher wages for unionized workers, even those who already make a living wage.
But Price says she thinks that, without PSLM, the recently negotiated Local 26 contract would have been identical.
She says the authorization to strike was merely part of the theater of union negotiations.
?t? a theatrical event,?she says. ?he unions wanted very much for the students to feel they had helped them. If I were a member of a union, Id want to get help wherever I could get it.?But Price says the ongoing campaign for a living wage has done little to effect union negotiations?nd if union negotiators call for a living wage they do so only ?n jest.?
?e [the University] knew we had to increase salaries because we had fallen behind in terms of the market,?Price continues. ?e put the salaries at what we feel is the market rate. In some cases that? above the living wage and in some cases that? not.?
The Committee And Its Report
When Childs and his fellow disparate committee members meet again in the Faculty Club this fall, they are charged with weighing the economic and ideological principles surrounding the subjective definition of a living wage.
There is little economic research to guide the committee in its discussion and ultimate decision. The studies that have been conducted only examine the affects of a living wage on employees of a municipality?he wage floor itself is a ?rade-off?between the benefits of a higher wage for some and increased levels of unemployment for others, Neumark says.
No research has been done on the economic implications of a mandatory wage floor on employees of private firms like Harvard.
The living wage figure remains ambiguous. The wage level changes according to a range of variables?ncluding family size, where the family lives and how many earners there are in the household.
The concept of the living wage is not so much about an absolute base level of wages, but rather is a commitment that society? lowest paid workers should earn more.
Cambridge? adjustment of the living wage figure from $10.25 to $10.68 this past March did not seem to make any difference to the PSLM members campaigning for the mandatory wage floor?hey lobbied all spring and throughout the sit-in for a living wage of $10.25.
With little research to help them reach a decision, and a subjective wage figure the goal of union representatives and student activists, the committee? recommendation will be an ideological compromise between the economic interests and moral stance of labor unions, student activists and faculty members alike.