COLLEGE PARK, MD., September 3 — Workers and students at the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) continue to push their demands to end the abuses against campus facilities workers. The Black Faculty and Staff Association, along with the union and students, held a press conference on August 18th to promote solidarity and expose the Administration’s treatment of workers.
Workers spoke out about supervisors denying them leave to visit dying parents or take care of sick children, prohibiting Latina housekeepers from speaking Spanish on the job, isolating workers who speak out, and refusing to allow computer training to enhance promotions. A worker reported years of sexual abuse and harassment, including physical contact and “flashing” by a student in front of a housekeeper. No supervisor received disciplinary actions. While the Chancellor makes $700,000 a year, the housekeepers earn $27,000. Managers receive pay increases while they furlough workers in all departments.
This struggle is part of a wider movement of workers around the globe. At the same time, 45,000 Verizon workers were striking, students were demonstrating in Chile and Haiti for educational reforms, Washington, D.C. unemployed residents were demanding jobs, and thousands of people in Egypt and Syria were fighting to end dictatorships. They all share a common goal of creating a better life for workers and students. Yet they also share a common mistake.
None of these struggles have the goal to take state power and put the working class in charge. Only a communist system that is run for workers’ needs, without profit and wages, can enable workers to contribute their full intellectual and physical worth. We all need to study how to create a new system as we fight to survive this one.
The UMCP speakers demonstrated the potential power of a united working-class movement. A leader from the Black Faculty and Student Association (BFSA) aptly stated that the fight for justice “brought together people on this campus who are kept isolated by different cultures, so-called races, and backgrounds.” Another leader urged the group to be bold and promised that “we will not relent — never relent — till the University ends its mistreatment of workers.”
A black custodian attacked the Administration for making them invisible, “stripping away our manhood and womanhood.” “We are human, not animals,” said a housekeeper, describing working without air conditioning or water, while another Latina housekeeper reported her boss telling her to “go back to your country to speak Spanish.” “Nowhere have I been treated like this,” she said. “One day my supervisor threw her keys at me and told me to pick them up… They give us more work to do if we speak out.”
A white worker stood up in solidarity to recount his story of being written up for taking too much sick leave and for being disciplined for collecting money for a family of an employee who died, adding, “As bad as it is for me, that’s nothing compared to what happens to the housekeepers.” Another white collar worker called on his co-workers to join with more exploited employees.
Students again turned out to demonstrate their solidarity with words and actions. Already, they have begun to patrol the buildings at 4 AM to support housekeepers. On September 5, they will leaflet the opening football game to notify more students and alums about the situation. Press conferences and flyers can publicize the struggle, but what campus workers and students really need is mass action to shut the university down.
A militant struggle around anti-racist and anti-sexist demands could show workers and students the potential of working-class power and make this fight a fertile ground for communist ideas.