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If you’re a student who works for Colorado State University in any way, you need to read this.
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On Thursday, Oct. 28, the American Association of University Professors at CSU hosted a panel of speakers who discussed unionization and why it’s important for CSU’s campus.
The panel focused on the public workers collective bargaining bill, which has not been introduced to the state legislature yet but would extend collective bargaining rights to all public employees in Colorado, including anyone employed by CSU.
If the bill were to pass, any CSU worker would gain the explicit right “to form and join a union,” and the bill would “require employers to bargain with that union over wages, workloads, health insurance, safety protocols, sick leave, training and other benefits,” according to literature distributed by the AAUP.
President (Joyce) McConnell earns over half a million dollars a year while campus workers, on average, earn less than a living wage. This disparity is inexcusable.”
This bill is a crucial piece of legislation that needs to become law, but we don’t have to wait for it to pass to start organizing. Every CSU worker can and should organize and agitate for the right to a living wage and the ability to bargain with their bosses.
In case you haven’t noticed, the rich minority continues to take most of the money for themselves. Income and wage inequality statistics are chronic reminders that our economic systems aren’t built to benefit workers or even the majority of people at all.
The Economic Policy Institute argues that the “unceasing growth of wage inequality that undercuts wage growth for the bottom 90% reaffirms the need to place generating robust wage growth for the vast majority and worker power at the center of economic policymaking.”
Every CSU employee should understand that they have the power to run campus, not their employers. Workers are the force that drives everything.”
CSU is no exception to this. Campus employment, on average, pays $13.62 per hour. That is lower than the lowest estimated living wage for Fort Collins, which is $15.93 per hour. Meanwhile, the CSU Board of Governors gave President Joyce McConnell a salary raise earlier this semester, bringing her compensation to $566,500.
I repeat: McConnell earns over half a million dollars a year while campus workers, on average, earn less than a living wage. This disparity is inexcusable. Unionizing allows workers who are not paid a fair wage to challenge this disparity.
The basic logic of collective organizing is strength in numbers — it can be as easy as forming a group chat. Hypothetically, CSU employees working for organizations could share stories and agree on where they’re being mistreated — whether it’s unfair compensation, indifference from their employers or unbearable working conditions — and then approach the University with enough collective power to make the University listen.
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Every CSU employee should understand that they have the power to run campus, not their employers. Workers are the force that drives everything. To echo CSU’s own grassroots cooperative @Unionize_CSU, “There is no CSU without these people!”
“Ultimately, this is a democratic issue,” said Alex Pelissero, a Ph.D. student in the anthropology and geography department and a member of the Graduate Workers Organizing Cooperative.
Power relationships in a wage-based economy are inherently unequal. They always have been, and they always will be until workers organize and leverage their collective power.
“We should have a voice in how the University is run and the conditions that we are in,” Pelissero said.
A unionized campus workforce would benefit everyone.
“The conditions of our students are based on the conditions of our workers,” said Alex Wolf-Root, an adjunct lecturer in philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder and a founding member of United Campus Workers Colorado.
After saying he only earns about 5-10% of the tuition dollars students pay to take his classes, Wolf-Root said that “the conditions of our students are harmed when these workers like myself have to focus on, ‘Hey, can I work here next year? Can I find some other way to pay the bills?’”
CSU employees can’t provide a healthy climate for students if they’re worried about basic financial necessities, whether it be janitorial staff, groundskeeping crews or all the other workers who make up CSU.
“Things get done because people show up and demand that they be done,” said Andrew Boesenecker, a Colorado representative from District 53. “Step up into this space as much as you can, as much as is comfortable or safe for you to do, and tell your story.”
Every worker possesses the power that makes their job function. Unionizing allows you to realize that power and exercise it in ways that equalize the balance between you and your employer.
No meaningful and permanent change will occur until workers unite.
Reach Cody Cooke at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @CodyCooke17.
