Author: Administrator

Area Media Cover Event

Local 965 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees launched its University of Arkansas Living Wage Campaign with a rally April 7, 2018.

News reports included:

• Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — “Union Rallies to Push for Raise for Workers, Assistants at UA” and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Little Rock edition — “Union Rallies to Push for Raise for Workers, Assistants at UA.” Articles are behind a subscription pay wall and may require a login, short survey or fee to open.
• “National Union Calls on UA System, Officials to Raise Minimum Wage” — Arkansas Traveler campus newspaper
• “AFSCME Local 965 Calls For Higher Wages at UA” — KNWA-TV/KFTA-TV
• “Employee Union Rallies for Living Wages at U of A” — KHBS-TV/KHOG-TV
• “Union Launches Living Wage Campaign” — KUAF-FM public radio

The noon rally, held in unseasonable 29-degree weather following an overnight light snow, attracted some 40 people to the Fayetteville Town Center plaza, adjacent to the city’s Farmer’s Market.

Signatures were gathered for a petition to present to Chancellor Joe Steinmetz, UA System President Don Bobbitt and the system’s Board of Trustees. An online version of the petition can be signed at change.org, which will help advance the cause greatly.

Steve Boss, UA professor of geosciences and incoming 965 secretary-treasurer, introduced the rally’s speakers:

• Arley Ward, president of the University of Arkansas Graduate Student Congress
• D’Andre Jones of the Northwest Arkansas MLK Council and chair of the Fayetteville Civil Rights Commission
• Walter Hinojosa, president of Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council, AFL-CIO
• Denise Garner of Feed Fayetteville, a Democratic candidate for Arkansas House District 84
• Mike Lee, Democratic candidate for Arkansas attorney general

Citing statistics analyzed by incoming AFSCME 965 Vice President Mike Pierce, an associate professor of history, Boss explained how the lowest paid full-time UA staff members have financial trouble, to the extent a significant segment use the campus’s Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry. Boss emphasized that graduate student research and teaching assistants have a harder time, working on a 50 percent basis, that is 20 hours a week with no benefits. Specifically, a minimum wage for $14.42 an hour is sought.

Ward used his own experiences as a grad assistant in the History Department to explain hardships while studying to earn higher degrees.

Jones examined the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and how the civil rights leader toward the end of his short life came to emphasize the importance of workers’ rights along with civil rights. King was assassinated 50 years and three days earlier helping Memphis municipal employees who were striking for better conditions and wages.

Hinojosa interplayed the history of the labor movement with current economic conditions at the university and across the country. He cited experiences from his organizing career in Arkansas and earlier in Texas.

Garner related what she has learned from many years of working in area nonprofits along with political realities of living during the Trump administration.

Lee presented a policy-oriented legal viewpoint of the state executive, legislative and judicial branches, which have been run conservatively in recent years. He is “a Little Rock attorney and a former compliance officer for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission,” according to The Associated Press.

Starling Ledbetter opened and closed the program with songs, accompanying herself on guitar.

A gallery can be viewed at Photos of the 2018 U of A Living Wage Rally.

University of Arkansas Living Wage Campaign Fact Sheets

Full-time Employees

According to a massive empirical study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economic geographer Amy Glasmeier, for an Arkansas family with two working adults and two children to live independently with adequate food and housing, each of the working adults needs to earn $14.12 per hour or $29,369.60 per year. (Source: livingwage.mit.edu/states/05.)

• 

  618 of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s 1,320 full-time classified employees (clerical, grounds, maintenance, janitorial, etc.) earn less than $29,369.60 per year. In other words, 47 percent of these full-time employees make less than what is needed to support a typical family. (Source: Excel spreadsheet provided by the University of Arkansas’s Office of University Relations, March 30, 2018.)

• The median pay for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s 1,320 full-time classified employees is $30,016—just barely over the minimum needed to support a typical family. (Source: Excel spreadsheet, March 30, 2018.)
• 26 of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s 1,320 full-time classified employees earn less than $20,000. 361 earn less than $25,000. (Source: Excel spreadsheet, March 30, 2018.)
• The University of Arkansas’s Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry reports that 51 percent of its clients in the most recent period identified themselves as “Staff” or “Hourly Workers.” Moreover, “Staff” were more likely than undergraduates or graduate students to visit the pantry on a recurring basis. (Source: email dated February 23, 2018.)
• Walmart now pays its starting employees $11.00 per hour. 280 full-time classified employees earn less than that on an hourly basis. (Source: www.cnbc.com/2018/01/11/walmart-to-boost-starting-wage-give-employees-bonus-after-tax-bill.html; Excel spreadsheet, March 30, 2018.)
• Amendment 33 to the Arkansas Constitution provides the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees the authority to set wages on its campuses.

Graduate Assistants

According to a massive empirical study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economic geographer Amy Glasmeier, the Living Wage for a single adult in the State of Arkansas is $21,597 before taxes. That is the amount of income needed for a single adult to live independently with adequate food and housing. (Source: livingwage.mit.edu/states/05.)

• 1,334 of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s 1,375 Graduate Assistants on 50 percent appointments earn less than $21.597. In other words, 97 percent of these Graduate Assistants make less than what a single adult needs to maintain adequate food and housing. (Source: Excel spreadsheet provided by the University of Arkansas’s Office of University Relations, March 30, 2018.)
• The median pay for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s 1,375 Graduate Assistants on 50 percent appointments is $13,733. (Source: Excel spreadsheet, March 30, 2018.)
• 60 of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s 1,375 Graduate Assistants on 50 percent appointments earn less than $10,000. 159 earn less than $12,000. 857 earn less than $15,000. (Source: Excel spreadsheet, March 30, 2018.)
• 48 percent of all University of Arkansas, Fayetteville graduate students reported being Food Insecure—that is not knowing where the next meal will be coming from—at some point during the last twelve month period for which date is available. (Source: service.uark.edu/foodprograms.)
• Graduate Assistants are vital to the core teaching and research mission of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Of the 697 colleges and universities in the U.S. News and World Reports annual survey, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ranks 9th in the percentage of classes taught by Graduate Assistants. 18 percent of University of Arkansas, Fayetteville classes were taught by Graduate Assistants in the most recent year for which data is available. (www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2017-02-21/10-universities-where-tas-teach-the-most-classes.)

At its March 26, 2018, meeting, a quorum of Local 965, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, chose Bret Schulte as president, succeeding Betty Martin.

Other officers elected, unanimously as a slate, were Mike Pierce as vice president, Steve Boss as secretary-treasurer and Kelly Hammond as recording secretary.

Board positions are being filled by George Martin, Cyndi Nance and Bruce McNully, who had been secretary-treasurer.

Incoming trustees are Martin, Ted Swedenburg and Ben Pollock, who also will serve as communication director.

Schulte on Monday was chosen to immediately succeed Dan Sims as vice president as an interim position. Schulte will assume the presidency later in the spring.

Local 965 is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and its members are public employees in Northwest Arkansas or work in the University of Arkansas System.