In last week’s News article on the Chartwells workers poor-treatment petition, a student was quoted saying, “I hope that the Northeastern University administration will do the right thing and affirm that the workers on our campus have the right to organize unions if they so choose without intimidation and harassment by their employer.”
An honest, fair and humanly decent opinion. With Chartwells workers voicing concerns like a lack of compensation for time spent injured, sexual harassment and not being able to drink water on the clock, it’s apparent that there’s a section of the Northeastern community – that buzz word the administration loves to throw around – that is potentially being seriously mistreated.
Well, this is the university’s official statement on the matter: “It is a core value at Northeastern University that everyone in our community be treated with respect and dignity. This is reflected in the university’s Professional Standards and Business Conduct policy, which is publicly available. We expect all of our vendors to uphold this core value with their employees. We respect the right of Chartwells and its employees to engage in constructive dialogue regarding unionization, and we expect the two parties to resolve this matter independently.”
Readers not used to dissecting official university statements can disregard the first two sentences. They’re hollow. The meat here is in the fact that Northeastern expects two factions of our “community,” one of which holds a considerable amount of power over the other, to resolve their differences independent of official university help. Although, it is a “core value” that everyone in our “community” gets fair treatment, it’s really not Northeastern’s problem if Anna Sanchez, a dining hall worker who’s been here longer than a seventh-year senior, does not get workers compensation for breaking her back.
It’s important to note that Northeastern cannot technically do anything about this, as Chartwells is a hired vendor and not technically a full part of the university. It’s not like the Chick-fil-A situation earlier this semester, where the administration could play a direct part in deciding whether or not we allow something that hurts some members of the community to continue. Still, they could take a stronger position than “This is for Chartwells to figure out.”
If Northeastern took this kind of indifferent stance with other factions of our “community,” say, off-campus students or Greek life, there’d be more than a few offices that would prove wholly unnecessary. It would behoove the administration to reconsider this stance, and maybe use some of its bureaucratic dead weight to put pressure on Chartwells for this mistreatment. There are, after all, other vendors – just as there are other dishwashers out there ready to fill the place of the one who quits after being sexually harassed.
That said, there has been a warm student response to Chartwells employee concerns. Huskies Organizing With Labor (HOWL) was formed shortly after the Chartwells employees went to the administration with their requests. Since, it has gathered support from over 20 student groups, 200 likes on their Facebook page and planned a speak-in to educate students on the situation tonight.
The Chartwells employees are a part of this campus community. To promote the idea of community and ignore their concerns is hypocritical. Students should take it upon themselves to let the administration know that.
