Georgetown University student activists in the Living Wage Coalition who participated in an eight-day hunger strike on their campus ended their fast March 23 when university President John DeGioia accepted their proposal for a wage increase for contracted workers on the school's campus.
The "Just Employment Policy" will raise the minimum wage of contract workers from $11.33 to $13 per hour at the beginning of the university's fiscal year on July 1, and again to $14 per hour on July 1, 2007, according to the Georgetown Hoya. The new policy also grants contract workers the same privileges offered to workers hired directly by the university.
The Living Wage Coalition was founded in fall 2001 by Georgetown students several months after a similar organization at Harvard succeeded in raising the minimum wage for its campus employees. For the last three years the group has advocated a "living wage," a salary that can support living in and around the District, for all university workers.
"People were afraid that a sit-in might just be dismissed and that it wouldn't be taken seriously. ... Doing this tactic allowed people to be much more visible," said Liam Stack, a Georgetown senior and member of the Living Wage Coalition. "Our primary aspect was to break out of the stereotype of what activist kids do and to illustrate the urgency of the situation."
The Coalition outlined its demands in a proposal presented to the university's Advisory Committee on Business Practices on March 14. When the committee refused to vote on the proposal, 26 students began a hunger strike, committing themselves to consuming only water and juice until some agreement was made with the administration.
The protesters set up tents on campus and held rallies and vigils every day of the strike. Collectively, they lost a total of 270 pounds. Two students were hospitalized for vision problems and dizziness. Both recovered quickly.
The hunger strike coincided with Holy Week, which marks the end of Lent, the Christian season of sacrifice before Easter.
"The living wages issue is a moral issue, and it's [Georgetown], a Catholic university and in Holy Week, people are thinking about sacrifice," said Janessa Landeck, a Georgetown student.
On March 22, the seventh day of the strike, the Advisory Committee turned down the living wage proposal for a second time, provoking the Living Wage Coalition to initiate a call-in campaign to the office of DeGioia. The next day, Spiros Demolitsas, the chairman of the Advisory Committee and university vice president, sent a copy of the proposal to DeGioia, who announced his approval in an e-mail to the university community sent out on the evening of March 23. The students celebrated by dancing and breaking their fast.
Demolitsas addressed university officials in a letter, according to The Washington Post. "Two days ago, in his State of the City speech, Mayor Anthony Williams proposed a Washington, D.C., 'living wage' ordinance of $9.50 per hour with health benefits and $10.50 without. Clearly, the approach we have developed ... significantly exceeds regional norms and practice, and is consistent with our Catholic and Jesuit identity."
"I think the students did a really good job," said Ted Reilly, a freshman at Georgetown. "From a passive aspect, I support the living wage."
Paul Casas, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said that protesting is something that is only moral when it doesn't become selfish. "Those people [Georgetown students] had families - families who love them and had to see them go to the hospital for a cause they would have had, as students, minimal pull on," Casas said.
Kyle Butts, a freshman in AU's School of Communication, said he believes that protesting should remain a right protected by the First Amendment. "However, I do think people cross the line sometimes and take protesting too far," Butts added.
In relation to the Georgetown protests, Butts said he felt that students had the right to go on a hunger strike. "Although, I think there are much better, more intelligent ways of arguing a point than not eating," Butts said.
Today, members of the Living Wage Coalition will be honored by the organization American Rights at Work at the first annual Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award ceremony, along with students from across the country who organized labor-rights campaigns in 2004 and 2005.
The purpose of the ceremony is to honor the accomplishments of activists who help others understand the importance of workers' rights as the center of human rights and social justice, according to a press release from America Rights at Work, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
