"On April 15, 1998, the Labor Action Group launched Charlottesville’s first “living wage” campaign, demanding that UVA raise its base pay to $8 per hour from about $6.37. A year later, City Council raised its base wage to $8 an hour for all full-time employees and soon after included all part-time workers as well.

Rachyl Smith is a leading organizer in the latest living wage effort, which she shies away from calling a campaign. The goal is to raise entry-level wages to $11.42 an hour from $10.14.

In April 2006, student organizers demanded a $10.72 hourly wage, but things got sour fast. After a four-day sit-in in Madison Hall, 17 students were arrested.

Now, three years later, UVA students are organizing to ask for another increase. A couple of weeks ago, a group met with a definite agenda.

“The goal of the meeting was to see who else was out there willing to talk about [a living wage],” says Rachyl Smith, a fourth-year student organizer. “We are acknowledging the fact that there should be a living wage. The University, based on honor, should make a point to treat workers with dignity. But at the same time, we are not pushing, we are not aggressive.”

In fact, the student-run group wants to distance itself from past events.

“I think there is a difference in how we conceptualize it right now,” says fellow student organizer Melissa McCrumb, a senior. “We are not saying that we are trying to sit-in at Madison Hall again, far from it—right now, we are looking at other channels through which we can advocate for a living wage in a sustainable way.”

Currently, UVA pays $10.14 an hour for entry-level positions. With added benefits, the 67 employees who fall under this category get paid $16.20 an hour, according to University calculations. The students, who shy away from calling their efforts a campaign, want UVA to pay its entry-level workers $11.42 an hour, plus benefits. The wage was calculated with figures from the Economic Policy Institute and is based on a family of two working adults with two dependent children.

“It is a number that was discussed based on analysis of what it would take to be able to live in Charlottesville without having to choose between health care or feeding your children or clothing your children or going to the hospital,” says Smith.

UVA spokesperson Carol Wood says that entry-level workers have the opportunity to take a training program to add to their performance portfolios. Upon successful completion of the program, they “immediately” get an annual $600 increase to their base salary.

“I look at our students as brilliant, and certainly, their hearts and interests are in the right place,” says Wood. “I think it’s an opportunity for them to understand how the University operates and how much the University has devoted to addressing entry-level employees’ salaries.”

Susan Fraiman, an English professor who served on the advisory board of the Staff Union at UVA (SUUVA) and was active in the original living wage campaign, says that while she supports the students’ renewed interest in the issue, she sees the natural academic tenure of students as a possible drawback.

“A campaign of this kind takes a sustained effort,” she says. “Undergraduates are around for just four years, and then they move on. So in order to have continuity, to be able to build on the gains of past activists, it’s helpful to have staff involved as well. Staff are, after all, the ones most directly affected by this issue.”

McCrumb says the students are aware of the problem and are trying to build momentum by planning big public events that will not only raise awareness, but also get people motivated to continue the campaign when students are not around.

Living wage activists face another challenge. Days ago, Susan Carkeek, head of the University’s Human Resources, circulated an e-mail detailing its new hiring freeze policy. Because of the economy—a loss of more than $1 billion from the University’s endowment and the reduction of $23 million in state funding in two years —the 121 open positions will only be filled if they can be filled with current employees.

While students acknowledge the difficult times, they are not backing down. “We don’t think that’s a good enough excuse to not think about living wage right now,” says McCrumb.

Fraiman agrees: “If the economy in general is hurting in ways that affect us all, low-wage workers are even more vulnerable than most. Tough times give us more, not less, reason to be concerned about classified staff.”" (Chiara Canzi, C-Ville Weekly, February 24, 2009)