Alan Hughes (left) chews the fat May 31, 2018, with Hershey Garner at the Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council annual barbecue, at Martin Law Firm in Fayetteville. Hughes is president of Arkansas AFL-CIO. Garner is the husband of Denise Garner, Democratic nominee for District 84 of the Arkansas House of Representatives.
Clint Morris (from left), Donald McKinney, Bruce Appel, Alan Hughes and Hershey Garner pose May 31, 2018, at the annual barbecue of the Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council, held at Martin Law Firm in Fayetteville. Hughes is president of Arkansas AFL-CIO. McKinney is the Democrat nominee for District 81 of the Arkansas House of Representatives. Dr. Garner is the husband of Denise Garner, Democratic nominee for state House District 84.
Nicole Clowney speaks May 31, 2018, at the Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council annual barbecue, held at Martin Law Firm in Fayetteville. Clowney, a Democrat, is presumptive representative (no opposition in November) for District 86 of the Arkansas House of Representatives.
Walter Hinojosa and Denise Garner picnic May 31, 2018, at the annual Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council barbecue, held at Martin Law Firm in Fayetteville. Hinojosa is president of the area labor council. Garner is the Democratic nominee for District 84 of the Arkansas House of Representatives.
Walter Hinojosa (from left) Betty Martin and her son Aaron Martin enjoy the Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council annual barbecue, at Martin Law Firm in Fayetteville, May 31, 2018. Hinojosa is president of the Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council. Betty Martin is a trustee and past president of Local 965 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Aaron Martin, an attorney, is a member of the Office and Professional Employees International Union.
The Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council hosted its annual Memorial Day barbecue May 31, 2018, at Martin Law Firm in Fayetteville. Members of several union locals as well as political candidates endorsed by the council picnicked and politicked.
Candidates attending included Donald McKinney, Democratic nominee for District 81 of the Arkansas House of Representatives, Denise Garner, Democratic nominee for state House District 84 and Democrat Nicole Clowney, presumptive representative (no opposition in November) for District 86.
Walter Hinojosa, president/secretary-treasurer of the area council, served as host.
Clowney, who teaches at the University of Arkansas, is a member of Local 965, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
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:
Walter Hinojosa listens as D’Andre Jones speaks April 7, 2018, at the University of Arkansas Living Wage Rally at the Fayetteville Town Center Plaza. Hinojosa is president of the Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Jones is a member of the Northwest Arkansas MLK Council, chair of the Fayetteville Civil Rights Commission. Photo Bret Schulte
Click image for PDF of petition supporting the University of Arkansas Living Wage Campaign.
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.
Interested people can sign a petition for a minimum living wage to be set for University of Arkansas employees either by printing a PDF petition or open an online version of the petition to sign digitally at change.org.
Starling Ledbetter performs April 7, 2018, at the U of A Living Wage Rally. Photo Bret Schulte
The U of A Living Wage Rally on April 7, 2018, had a compact but sturdy audience at the Fayetteville Town Center plaza. It was 29 degrees and had snowed earlier in the morning. Photo Bret Schulte
ACSME Local 965 member Steve Boss emcees the U of A Living Wage Rally on April 7, 2018, on the Fayetteville Town Center plaza. Photo Bret Schulte
Arley Ward, president of the University of Arkansas Graduate Student Congress, used his own life to explain hardships facing research assistants and teaching assistants. He spoke April 7, 2018, at the U of A Living Wage Rally Photo Ben Pollock
D’Andre Jones, chair of the Fayetteville Civil Rights Commission, discusses the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the U of A Living Wage Rally on April 7, 2018, on the Fayetteville Town Center plaza. Jones focused on the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Photo Ben Pollock
Walter Hinojosa, president of Northwest Arkansas Joint Labor Council, AFL-CIO, focuses on the history of fair wages at the U of A Living Wage Rally on April 7, 2018, on the Fayetteville Town Center plaza. Photo Ben Pollock
Denise Garner addresses the U of A Living Wage Rally on April 7, 2018, on the Fayetteville Town Center plaza. Garner, a longtime leader of Feed Fayetteville, is a Democratic candidate for Arkansas House District 84. Photo Bret Schulte
Mike Lee of Little Rock speaks on state policies and laws at the U of A Living Wage Rally on April 7, 2018, on the Fayetteville Town Center plaza. Lee is the Democratic candidate for Arkansas attorney general. Photo Ben Pollock
Cherry tree in front of Old Main, University of Arkansas
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.)
Click image to sign online. Also available is a PDF of the print petition that includes a summary of the U of A Living Wage Campaign.
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.)
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.
