Campus Workers' Voices

Living wage campaigns need to begin with workers, and the campaign must be shaped around the concerns and demands of the workers. On this page, you can find out what workers said to students when they began talking on various campuses.

Help Out! Please please, workers and students, send us testimonials, interviews from your own campus!! Worker testimonial projects are ideal for getting workers' voices out in the press or in campaign literature. Be absolutely sure to get permission from workers to publicize their testimonial and change any information that may give away their identities.

Notre Dame: A Notre Dame housekeeper "tells it like it is" to a member of the Campus Labor Action Project.

» Notre Dame Dorm Housekeeper - her words, as told to a CLAP member

Harvard University: The folks from Harvard's living wage campaign have posted a huge collection of workers' stories online. See:

» "Workers' Words" - testimony from Harvard workers
» the old Harvard Living Wage Campaign website (from the era of the famed sit-in)

Georgetown University: Just a few years before the national media noticed Georgetown students hunger striking in solidarity with campus workers demanding living wages, workers and students began building the relationships that eventually led to a strong worker-student alliance. Read a few of the workers' stories:

» Georgetown Worker Testimonials

Miami University of Ohio: Students at Miami U of Ohio are working with campus workers and the union on campus to demand a living wage for all workers. The group, MU Students for Staff has really great relationships with some of the clerical workers (who are not unionized) and have compiled several of their testimonials on their website:

» Miami U of Ohio Worker Testimonials

Washington University in St. Louis: Students at WashU compiled workers' grievances with contracted companies on campus which document anything from unjust and unfair firings to poverty wages to lack of respect. Read more here:

» WashU Worker Testimonials

University of Miami: These stories and quotes come from UNICCO janitors at Miami who are currently in a struggle to form a union in order to secure better wages and benefits. Many of these workers are now on strike demanding that their union be recognized and one worker has even been fired for her pro-union work. Meet some of these Miami workers here:

» U Miami Worker Testimonials
» From the UNICCO employees on hunger strike at UM: A UMiami worker speaks out during UNICCO janitors' strike and hunger strike