17 Comments
Casting a glimpse at the sheets hanging on Low Plaza right now may trigger some residual memories of last spring’s SHOCC protests. But at today’s “speak out,” the medium is the message. Jennifer Oki, C’07 says Columbia sends dirty tablecloths from the faculty house and soiled towels from the EC hotel to get washed at New Haven’s New England Linen, a non-unionized company where the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found 23 health code violations.
Most laundry companies in New York are unionized, Oki said. “It won’t be a huge thing to get them to use another company.”
In other news, cute baby to be activist!
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17 Comments
@I think we should fly our tablecloths to india or china. That’s where labor’s really cheap! I second the commentor who said we should fire all of our union labor.
@Damn straight! I like the way you think.
@why why do we send our tableclothes and towels 2 hours up the road to new haven just to get washed? they can’t do that in new york?
@what if its cheaper in New Haven? What do you care if its geographically further away?
@In America it’s labor, not labour, you dirty Thatcherite!
@Americans did not found this great college, colonial!
@crosswords Occupational Saftey and Health Administration, OSHA not OHSA. Sorry, it was bugging me.
@Bwog Thanks. Fixed.
-SV
@uhhh why would columbia want to use a unionized company? what’s in it for the university? (apart from higher tuition.)
@X.J. #6, your implication is incorrect. Faculty house and the EC hotel don’t operate on tuition revenues. The university need not spend money on either– I would imagine that both of them operate at a profit, otherwise they would not exist. Both the F house and EC Hotel could switch to a linen company that follows OSHA regulations, unionized or not, with little or no impact on their bottom line. To the extent that it would cost them more, these institutions could easily raise prices, as people are willing to pay a premium for them.
As to what Columbia gains: as an employer of union labor, it behooves the University to maintain goodwill from the unions, and the PR difference between using a sweatshop linen company and a unionized one is significant.
@Then maybe the solution is for the University to no longer be an employer of union labour..
@what's that baby doing outside? shouldn’t his momma be teaching him to fold my shirts?
@Whatever Unions are gay.
@not according to people who want a ban on gay unions.
@awww This reminds me of the good old days:
http://bwog.net/publicate/index.php?page=post&article_id=294
I think starfish might be the best post bwog has ever done.
@more like cute baby to be EXPLOITED FOR POLITICAL GAIN!!!!!!!!!!!
@this post should also be tagged “cuteness”