August 14, 2024
The Cornell University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors stands in solidarity with UAW Local 2300 and its fight to improve wages and working conditions for essential University workers. Our AAUP chapter, the union for tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty, adjuncts, librarians, postdocs, and academic staff, urges the administration to agree to a fair contract in line with the workers’ demands. These include a pay increase to fairly compensate Cornell employees for their work, which is essential to running the University; bring wages in line with the cost of living; annual cost of living adjustments so that wage increases do not fall behind the cost of living; and greater allowances for parking and clothing to reduce costs and risks borne by the workers themselves.
Over the last several years, working conditions at Cornell have declined considerably, in line with the University’s broader failure to adequately compensate workers and to pay a fair share to the surrounding communities. Like any corporation, the University’s value is produced by its workers, and its operations generate burdens and costs for the community. For years now, University leadership has shifted costs onto workers through inadequate wages and benefits, just as it has chosen to shift costs onto Ithaca and neighboring communities by refusing to pay its fair share for public services.
Cornell creates employment opportunities in Ithaca and the surrounding region. At the same time, it has made living here increasingly unaffordable. This stems not only from its success in attracting workers and students to the region, but also from its refusal to pay its fair share to the city of Ithaca and neighboring communities through local property taxes or adequate payments in lieu of taxes. Cornell doesn’t pay, so everyone else has to pay more.
As the cost of living increases, Cornell refuses to pay its workers a living wage, let alone a thriving wage. The MIT living wage calculator puts the living wage at $24.64 for a single person with no dependents and higher numbers for other household circumstances: $30.82 for two working parents with two children and $56.85 for a lone parent with two children. By contrast, the lowest entry-level wage in the recently expired contract is $19.17. Cornell’s offer of a 4% pay increase brings this up to $19.93, more than $4 below a living wage. (Cornell administrators have pointed out that this is above the current living wage as calculated by the ILR School’s Buffalo and Ithaca Co-Labs. However, if it were calculated today, it would be close to the MIT number, and when it is next re-calculated in February 2025 it will be even higher.)
One result of wages not keeping up with the cost of living is that more and more workers commute from outside Ithaca and Tompkins County. This means that workers pay the cost of gas, wear and tear on vehicles, uncompensated commuting time, and parking. Along with these costs come risks. Workers who can’t get to work on time are vulnerable to disciplinary action, even if it is due to factors outside their control. Parking at Cornell is expensive and is assigned with little regard to need. Cornell could show respect for workers and reduce the daily stress facing workers by providing free parking near the place of work.
We must not forget that UAW members bore the brunt of Cornell’s response to COVID-19. Many administrators, faculty and staff were able to work remotely, providing them with greater flexibility. Largely excluded were workers represented by the UAW, whose skills are essential to keeping the University’s physical infrastructure operational and who literally keep much of the University community housed and fed. These workers have been treated as a second-class workforce, last in line when benefits are doled out, first in line when cost reductions or new burdens are imposed.
The University touts its public mission but refuses to behave as a good citizen. It privatizes the costs and burdens and claims for itself the successes and benefits. It rolls out the red-carpet for wealthy donors while stonewalling in bargaining and giving short-shrift to the people who make the University work. It is acting with the rapacity of a for-profit corporation sitting on $10 billion in wealth rather than with the public-mindedness and fairness required of a great public institution.
The AAUP does not believe it remotely possible for the University to function if there were a strike. It would be equivalent to March 2020, when all operations had to cease and the University’s educational and research missions had to be put on pause. This would further corrode University life and community after several difficult years. The expertise of the UAW 2300 members cannot be replaced, and University administration knows it.
The responsibility for averting a strike lies entirely with the administration. Faculty across the University know that without the work of UAW 2300 members, our teaching and research will grind to a halt. We will stand in solidarity with workers fighting for a living wage and fair working conditions.
Cornell University Chapter of the AAUP Executive Committee: Risa Lieberwitz (President), David Bateman (Vice-President), Ian Greer (Secretary-Treasurer), Suman Seth (At-Large Executive Committee member), and Darlene Evans (At-Large Executive Committee member).
Cornell Chapter of the AAUP 