Open Letter to Abusive Managers!

Dear supporters, workers in solidarity, and students,

Last Spring, workers came out in full force to protest shift changes, unfair treatment by management, team cleaning, and overall speed-ups and abuse justified by the state-wide budget cuts (see video here). Since then, Democracy Insurgent has been working closely with a number of custodians at UW campus. Workers have been organizing against abuse, and also organized a memorial that many of you attended for In Soo Chun, a Korean co-worker who self-immolated on campus. Workers spoke out against the abuse that he faced in the work place, and that they face as well.

Now, workers are being abused and retaliated against to a frightening degree, and suffer a large number of workplace injuries. This is also taking an emotional toll on workers, who are increasingly suffering from depression and anxiety. Management has used a variety of tactics of control, even using the police; workers are told to look a certain way, and act a certain way. Because of this abuse, Democracy Insurgent, with the UW National Lawyers Guild, sent the following letters to three of the most abusive managers on UW campus, as an act of solidarity. If our demands are not met by January 4th, we will have actions the beginning of the quarter to continue to pressure management.

Below, please see the letter to Andre Vasquez, custodial manager for the swing shift. We have forwarded his letter to the Board of Regents as well. Please publicize widely. Attached are letters to the two other managers, Allegra Reynolds, and Yang-Sook Choe.

----------------------------------------------

17 December 2009

This is an open letter to Andre Vasquez:

As such, you should be aware that copies of this are being distributed widely.

We, members of the campus organization Democracy Insurgent and the UW National Lawyers Guild, are in regular contact with custodians on the day and swing shifts. It has come to our attention that you have been particularly abusive to the workers who you manage on your shift. You disregard doctors’ notes by workers with disabilities seeking simple accommodations; you endanger people’s health and safety by neglecting safety standards and refusing to provide the required safety equipment; you harass and retaliate against workers for organizing; you humiliate immigrant workers in public and you pile on inhuman amounts of work. There has been a rash of workplace injuries and illnesses as a result of these abuses. This has gone on too long.

Your actions are not only a clear violation of university workplace protocol, they are also a violation of the American Disabilities Act, and Labor and Industries standards. We are aware that many custodians have filed complaints against your department with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well. You know, as we do, that you have a long and dirty record.

You may think that you have intimidated enough workers into silence so that they cannot organize collective workplace resistance to your abuses. But keep in mind that students and community members at the University of Washington will no longer stand by while you oppress workers like this. We will speak out against your abuses and air your dirty laundry. You are not our managers and you cannot threaten us or fire us. We are not union officials so you can’t use our actions as an excuse to bust the union. We are exercising our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and you cannot stop us. We will not stay silent and passive when you exploit our friends. Just as workers have been in solidarity with us when our tuition was raised and programs cut. In California, we saw the power of such solidarity. An injury to one is an injury to all.

We demand the following:

1) End Special Project Crews
a. The workers on project crews are exposed to unsafe amounts of chemicals, such as Bravo, without the proper safety equipment. They are forced to do the most difficult and physically exhausting tasks over and over until their bodies break down.
2) On swing shift, end extended runs
a. These extended runs have, in some cases, doubled custodians’ workloads, forcing them to work at an extremely fast pace that increases the risk of accidents and injuries.
3) End all harassment and retaliation
a. Workers have been singled out for extra work or managerial abuse because they meet with each other during their break times.
b. Workers are treated with disrespect, including during verbal exchanges.
c. For example, one swing shift worker informed us that ever since being placed on project crew, after the extended runs began three weeks ago, you, Andre, have refused to give her her own closet to change in and place her items. Instead you offered the custodian your office in which to store her belongings and make her change in the bathroom. This is wholly inappropriate. With extra custodian closets available, there is no reason that she should store her personal belongings in YOUR office or change in the bathroom. This is clearly a form of harassment. Additionally, she has a doctor’s note that explains that she is unable to do certain kinds of work. You have blatantly ignored her doctor’s medical instructions. This is a practice of yours that has happened far too often with custodians who have medical conditions. Furthermore, as a result of this harassment, this custodian is under extreme emotional duress and unable to sleep.
4) End Team Cleaning immediately
a. Workers know how to best clean their areas, and they are almost unanimously opposed to team cleaning. While the title sounds nice, we recognize that team cleaning is really a method to force workers to speed up.

If these demands are not met by January 4, 2010, students will protest you and your abusive practices during the first week of classes. We will make full use of our right to free speech and our freedom of assembly. Your shameful violation of workers' rights will be made known and we will demand a public response from you explaining your actions. You cannot hide behind job titles and arbitrary rules.

Do not think that you can single out and retaliate against custodians while we are away on break. Our organization is not going away. We are in regular conversation with workers.

Custodial Services, we, the students, workers, and community are watching you. We look forward to positive changes in your treatment of immigrant workers.




Signed,


Democracy Insurgent
d.insurg@gmail.com

UW National Lawyers Guild

Their Privatization, Our Exploitation!

Please see the below communiqué put out by Democracy Insurgent, responding to President Emmert's letter to the student body about increased privatization.  

Also, a new coalition is forming in opposition to this privatization.  Come check out our last meeting of the quarter on Thursday 12/17 at 6 PM, Parnassus CAFE, UW! This is an open meeting.  Parnassus is located in the basement of the art building.

Their Privatization, Our Exploitation 

A response to UW President Mark Emmert’s  

 “ Addressing the Latest State Revenue Shortfall” 

 

On Thursday, November 19th  2009, the University of Washington 

community received an email from University of Washington President Mark 

Emmert, concerning continuing budget cuts from Olympia.  His email was titled 

“Addressing the Latest State Revenue Shortfall,” but it could just as well have 

been titled: “Justification for the Long Term Privatization at the University of 

Washington.”  In the letter, President Emmert acknowledged that the 26% cut in 

the University’s operating budget, as well as the 28% tuition increase over 2 

years, were “trends” that were “very likely to continue.”  Given that the revenue 

generated from our tuition contributes more to the operation of our university 

than state investment, President Emmert offered sage advice to help the 

university acclimate to long-term privatization. 

 

His advice, laden with bureaucratic language to mystify and distract 

readers, is meant to be read as a success story of clever budgeting at this “turning 

point” for the University. However, his words are as illuminating as they are 

dishonest.  His claims that the university is “among the most efficient in the 

nation in producing bachelor’s degree graduates despite being among the most 

poorly funded” ignores some ugly realities. Those that ensure this efficiency— 

overstretched TAs, graders, visiting lecturers, and other members of the 

University’s academic support staff—continue to face layoffs, speed up in the 

work place, and pressure to assess students based upon quantity in the class 

rather than quality of work.  Increasingly so, UW’s graduation rate is dependent 

upon the work of its graduate student labor, much of which goes 

unpaid/underpaid. Graduate student workers are expected to undertake 

unrealistic workloads, turning us into overworked, underpaid cogs in a factory 

that chugs out future laborers, who pay more for less of an education.  Yet, this 

exploitation is disguised in euphemisms, what Emmert calls “efficiency” and 

“expedience.”  

 His advice also ignores the serious burden that increased tuition is causing 

for those of us who work our way through school as first generation college 

students.  Especially for many students of color, higher tuition means we will have 

even less access to higher education which means we will have even less of a 

chance at getting living wage jobs in this cutthroat economy.  After all, we are 

often the last ones hired and the first ones fired.   But these cuts affect anyone 

who didn’t have our education handed to us on a silver platter: if Emmert has his 

way many of us will become LAST generation college students.  If we do slog our 

way through an increasingly expensive UW education we will be strapped for the 

rest of our lives with subprime student loans. 

  Privatization means that over the long haul “unprofitable” programs like 

ethnic studies, gender studies, and disabilities studies could face further cuts.  Our 

peoples fought hard and occupied buildings to demand these programs at UW 

and we won’t sit by idly if taking them away ends up to be part of Emmert’s 

definition of efficiency.  We will not sit idly by as UW becomes even more elite, 

even more whitewashed, and even more cut off from our communities and 

neighborhoods.  

Further, Emmert seeks “greater management and business process 

flexibility:” He writes that, “there are numerous examples of millions of dollars 

that can be saved in operating our University if we had more flexibility over 

business processes and had to spend less money complying with a number of 

regulations in the way we operate basic management systems and processes.”  

This erosion of “basic management systems,” which in turn decreases levels of 

accountability the University is mandated to adhere to, has also fed into the 

continuing oppression of workers at the university within their workplaces. 

Privatization of labor and union busting have been features of the University of 

Washington workplace, taking the form of layoffs, shift elimination, speed up and 

site reassignment.  This is visible in the Facilities department of UW. Since last 

year, members of UW’s custodial and trades staff, many of whom are immigrants 

and people of color, have faced discrimination and retaliation in the workplace for 

attempting to organize around issues of workplace safety and job security.  These 

racist attacks on workers go unhindered at the hands of Facilities management 

and unnoticed under the auspices of the University administration.  It comes as 

no surprise, then, that Emmert seeks greater flexibility in turning the school into a 

private corporation and further oppresses UW’s labor in an effort to streamline 

this operation. 

While some may read Emmert’s email as prudent advice for bleak 

recessionary times, we read it as justification for the privatization of the 

university, and continued exploitation of students and workers. The injustice of 

these decisions are made more blatant when we realize that none of the top 

administrators have taken pay cuts. While President Emmert enjoys his million 

dollar paycheck, and mansion that is paid for by the UW community, those who 

are most lowly paid, such as custodians, are laid off and forced to take on extra 

work. It is unbelievable that these drastic decisions are made by the President, 

along with the Board of Regents, neither of whom are elected by the UW 

community or the people of Washington.  We have long called for UW to be a 

truly public and democratic institution—a resource and gathering center for the 

entire city and state, an educational and intellectual community run by and for 

those who have built this university through our labor, where members of this 

community democratically decide the policies of the University.  We refuse to let 

individuals who cannot afford the criminal cost of education, including students of 

color and immigrants, be denied entry into our institution, even as their parents 

and siblings continue to slave as workers in its halls. We see Emmert’s latest 

communication as a blueprint for preplanned and sustained privatization, and it 

sickens us. 

 

But we have not faced these injustices without a fight. Students, workers 

and community members have directly combated privatization at UW. On May 

28th and June 11th 2009, we rallied to ensure that swing shift positions slated for 

elimination were retained for custodial staff facing layoffs and speed up. On 

October 30, 2009, custodians and students successfully held a memorial for 

former custodian In Soo Chun.  His self-immolation in front of Emmert’s office last 

year was likely politically motivated but the university administration and media 

dismissed it as simply a product of mental illness.  TAs and other graduate student 

labor have been organizing within our ranks, finding other graduate workers who 

have tired of the isolation and low pay that menial intellectual labor prescribes.  

Meanwhile, we have begun to link up with the larger Seattle community to 

demand jobs for unemployed youth of color in the working class neighborhoods 

where some of us live, work, or search in vain for work.  

 

We are not alone.  On September 24 and November 18, students, faculty 

and staff at University of California campuses went on strike against a proposed 

32% tuition hike. Images of students being arrested and beaten by police as they 

spoke out against tuition hikes and educational budget cuts horrified the public, 

yet inspired other fighters on similarly affected campuses. TAs at the University of 

Illinois in Urbana Champaign followed the next day, occupying buildings and 

holding massive rallies in a two-day strike fighting for tuition waivers that their 

administration tried to eliminate. On October 22, students at the University of 

Vienna occupied their university, calling for an end to state disinvestment in 

public education and later rallying at the US Embassy in solidarity with the 

California students.   The reality of the situation is that the struggle against 

privatization is both national and global, and the UW must join the fight. 

 

We need to collectively build a movement that brings together student and 

workers struggles. Democracy Insurgent continues to organize in multiple labor 

sectors on campus, learning from struggles taking place around the world today. 

We are inspired by University of California, as we are by the Third World student 

strikes and anti-war movement of the past. We are growing larger, stronger, and 

smarter each coming day. Yet, we cannot do it alone. As the year continues, it is 

necessary that other members of the community stand up against these budget 

cuts, against union busting, and against the privatization of public education. We 

must all come together to demand a truly public university.  

 

 

Democracy Insurgent is a majority people of color activist group animated by principles of 

democracy, anti-racism, anti-imperialism, queer liberation, Third World Feminism, and workers' 

power. We are based in the University of Washington. 

Find out more about our actions against budget cuts at: 

www.nobudgetcutsuw.blogspot.com, , www.democracyinsurgent.org 

Contact us at d.insurg@gmail.com 

PUBLIC MEETING Thursday 6 PM 12/10--Suzzalo

Dear all, please come to another meeting this Thursday at 6 PM to follow up from last week! Also, folks involved in the meetings will be having another round of Red Square Displays Wednesday Dec. 9 from 10AM-1PM! Hope to see you all there! Meeting is called by DI, but this is not a DI meeting; but rather a public meeting on the budget cuts! E-mail d.insurg@gmail.com for more information.

Public Meeting on upcoming Budget cuts at UW

Dec 10th Thurs

Suzzallo Cafe

6pm

The Governor just announced that there is currently a $2.6 billion revenue shortfall. More cuts are coming our way when we return from the break.

This economic crisis has served as an excuse for restructuring and privatizing the university. But who's crisis is it? The same story goes: the most oppressed are affected, while those at the top continue to make big fat paychecks. This means lay offs, speed up and extra work for workers, and tuition hikes and reduced support services for students.

How to build a movement at UW, in Seattle that brings together student, workers and community struggles?

How to combine struggles against racism, heterosexism, patriarchy and ablism in our organizing? No divide and conquer!

This is a broad base meeting involving other groups and individuals.

**We know its nearing finals period, so it will be a short meeting!

Check out our zine on budget cuts at www.democracyinsurgent.org

For updates on our actions: www.nobudgetcutsuw.blogspot.com

Pamphlet: WHOSE BUDGET CUTS?

Pamphlet with facts and figure on the budget cuts--who they affect and who they don't! See a full display tomorrow from 10 AM-2PM on Red Square with more details...