Students, Clergy March to Support USC Workers’ Contract Demands

About 70 students and members of the clergy marched onto the USC campus Wednesday in support of unionized food service and housing workers there, claiming that the school’s bargaining posture shows a lack of commitment to surrounding communities.

Organizers focused their protest on the university’s failure to sign a contract with a job-security clause for about 340 workers, most of whom are Latino or black and live near the campus. The administration denied that it lacks dedication to the community.

“We think the university’s issue with the workers is part of a bigger issue,” said the Rev. James Lawson, a pastor at Holman United Methodist Church in the nearby West Adams district and founder of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.

Lawson and other protesters marched onto campus to present President Steven Sample with another community coalition’s report, which criticizes the level of the school’s involvement in the neighborhood. A representative for Sample accepted the report on his behalf.

University officials defended their position in the six-month contract dispute and rejected suggestions that the school has not been a good neighbor.

“To have that charge leveled against us is surprising in the extreme, since the facts are so clearly to the contrary,” said Jane Pisano, vice president of external affairs.

She said USC has spent about $1.2 million since 1985 to improve five area elementary schools that the university “adopted.” USC also created a scholarship program for nearby residents and a graffiti removal project for the neighborhood, Pisano said.

The contract dispute centers on USC’s refusal to sign a contract guaranteeing that the university will not hire subcontractors to replace the food service and housing workers in the future. The subcontracting of union jobs to cheaper, nonunion workers has been a growing issue in labor negotiations nationwide.

The university’s contract with Local 11 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union expired July 1, but the dispute has been raging since April. Workers have staged several protests, including a demonstration during commencement in May.

USC officials say they will not accept a contract that virtually guarantees lifetime job security--a guarantee that they say is offered to none of the other 6,000 full-time employees on campus.

Alejandro Rivera, who has worked at the university 31 years and is a head waiter at one of the cafeterias, said he wants to be assured that he won’t be replaced by a subcontractor who makes less than his $8.05 hourly wage.

“All we are asking for is justice,” he said in Spanish.

The protest coincided with the first day of classes. Last week, the administration sent letters to the parents of many USC students to explain its side in the contract dispute.

During Wednesday’s demonstration, protesters gathered near the bronze statue of Tommy Trojan, the school’s mascot, where they sang “This Little Light of Mine” and recited biblical passages. But the students who shuffled past to attend class and sign up to join fraternities seemed oblivious to the controversy.

“I hadn’t heard anything about it, and I’ve been here since Saturday,” said Carrie O’Connor, a junior who is majoring in business finance.