Tufts must practice what it preaches: fair labor

Tufts administrators came to an agreement with Tufts part-time faculty yesterday. The part-time faculty, as part of Adjunct Action, a greater Boston adjunct organization supported by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), have been negotiating with the administration since the spring. Part-time lecturers earn significantly less than other professors but there is no difference in the quality of their classes. Students earn the same credit for a class taught by a part-time professor as by full-time professors. Some part-time professors have to work at multiple universities to make enough money to pay bills. A life of low pay, weak job security and a lack of benefits can be combated on college campuses if students are willing to join faculty in challenging the university to do more.

Students have a great deal of power in determining the university’s priorities. As major sources of revenue for the university and as the largest segment of the community, students can affect the final outcome. Members of the Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC) have been advocating for workers on campus for multiple semesters, and they deserve credit and support for providing an example of the pressure students can apply on the university. We commend students for rallying last Friday before negotiations between part-time faculty and the university, and applaud the tentatively positive negotiations results. 

Although these negotiations have ended, we hope that the student body will show equal, if not more, support to Tufts' janitors in the coming weeks. The custodial provider, DTZ, has previously been accused of breaching their contracts with their workers by not giving them enough hours, which put them in a precarious position in terms of pay and benefits. Now, however, the university is forcing DTZ to make significant staffing cuts in a money-saving effort. As it is, janitors work every day to keep the university running and are not treated the way they deserve, often spending long hours for little pay. If the university cuts the number of janitors it employs through DTZ, janitors will be far more overworked and underpaid. This proposed move, while benefiting Tufts, comes at the human cost of these highly vulnerable Tufts employees. The Tufts community should stand up to this unfair move.

Tufts students are lucky to have a community of professors and workers who provide us with the space and education to help us get where we want to be. While we’re here, however, we must stand in solidarity with them. We must make an effort to show that we, the Tufts community, support those without whom the university could not subsist. Tufts must practice, not just preach, social justice.