While thousands of members of the public converged on campus yesterday for Community Day, a small group of campus workers, their families and students came together to honor the campus labor force in the third annual gathering sponsored by the Stanford Labor Action Coalition (SLAC).

This year’s gathering only attracted a few dozen people and started late because there are no major contracts up for negotiation in the near future. In contrast, last year’s protest attracted around 250 protesters.

“This program is more to celebrate and thank the workers for everything,” said freshman Francisco Preciado. “We’ve got a small program. We’ve got hamburgers and hot dogs, and we’re just going to eat and relax.”

According to junior Anna Mumford, a SLAC representative, the event’s purpose this year was “to create a sense of community between workers and students and to create a space for low-wage workers.”

Senior Sofia Lee, the current SLAC co-coordinator, added that the event’s purpose is also to raise awareness of issues regarding workers’ rights.

As well as a free barbeque, the event consisted of a presentation in both English and Spanish led by SLAC members. In the presentation, sophomore Joseles De La Cruz explained the background of one of SLAC’s most pressing issues, a code of conduct

at Stanford.

“A code of conduct would apply to all workers on campus but focuses on low-wage workers to ensure basic labor standards at Stanford,” De La Cruz said.

De La Cruz said that a code of conduct would have four tenets.

“First and foremost, a code of conduct demands living wages and affordable health care benefits for everyone who works at Stanford,” Delacruz said. “Second, as an institution of higher learning, Stanford must extend its academic resources to all community members by providing educational opportunities for its workforce.

“Third, a code of conduct demands equal wages for equal work to ensure no person’s job is threatened by the exploitation of cheaper labor, and lastly, a code of conduct demands that Stanford respect working peoples’ rights to form a union,” De La Cruz said.

De La Cruz explained that in May 2003, students fasted for seven days to make the University adopt a code of conduct. After seven days of fasting, President John Hennessy agreed to create a committee to review Stanford’s labor practices and make recommendations for change in Spring 2004.

At the close of the presentation, Susan Englander, assistant editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, spoke about the importance of the American labor movement to Dr. King’s work.

Englander played an audio recording of a speech delivered by Dr. King in 1962, which called for a “greater social consciousness” and for concern about “the gulf between superfluous wealth and abject, deadening poverty.”

Zev Kvitky, president of United Stanford Workers, explained that Stanford workers, who hold a variety of jobs and fall into a variety of categories, have been unionized for 31 years.

“Community Day is a time when everyone turns out to show that the workers are definitely part of the community,” said Mitch Bousson, chief steward for the United Stanford Workers.

“Stanford is a world-class institution,” he said. “We want to get Stanford to the place where it’s a world-class employer.”