Hennessy’s response to PAC is insufficient

Last Thursday, University President John Hennessy told a group of frosh in Branner House that he was “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s” of his response to the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Workplace Policies (PAC). We are disappointed to find that his response, released this Tuesday, appears to contain little more than those dots and crosses.

The Stanford Labor Action Coalition (SLAC) has long advocated the adoption of a comprehensive labor Code of Conduct. Among this code’s provisions are guarantees for (1) worker education programs, (2) wage parity for temporary, part-time and sub-contracted workers, (3) the right to organize, and (4) a living wage policy based on California Budget Project (CBP) standards.

The University was inattentive toward the campaign until a week-long fast by six students in spring 2003 compelled the formation of the PAC. Though the recommendations of the committee’s June 2004 report fell short of the vision of the Code of Conduct, SLAC hoped that Hennessy’s final decisions would represent a substantial implementation of the PAC’s proposals.

What we have, in Hennessy’s response, is but a shadow of his committee’s recommendations and a mere ghost of the Code of Conduct. Among its major shortcomings, Hennessy’s response fails to provide universal wage parity. Contrary to the Daily article “Hennessy OKs Labor Reforms” (Feb. 10) and contrary to the recommendations of the PAC, wage parity is extended only to laborers who work more than 20 hours per week. Further, Hennessy does not expand to new workers his

“living wage,” which itself falls short of CBP measures and is already drastically under-implemented on campus.

Finally, Hennessy’s response mandates that a “follow-up report” be issued to the public on Dec 31, 2006. This casual evaluation looms a yawning 23 months away. That will be 29 months from the appearance of the PAC report, 33 months from the formation of the committee and 42 months from the student fast that got it all started. 42 months of many more that workers on our campus have gone without basic assurances of labor justice.

Forty-two months, by the way, equals three-and-a-half years. By then, nearly every student who can remember the fast will have graduated. Hennessy’s final decisions are not just slow, they are grossly insufficient given the pressing needs of campus laborers. Workers deserve better, and they deserve it now.

Matt Seriff-Cullick

Student Labor Action Coaolition