SLAP | Our rights, workers’ rights

When Penn students enter their bookstore, they can expect that the apparel they purchase is not made at a sweatshop. But can they expect that the dollars they entrust to their administration will not be invested in the mistreatment of workers domestically?

We can be confident that our University does not distribute sweatshop-made apparel due to the efforts of a broad coalition of students a decade ago, which included a nine-day-long sit-in at then-President Judith Rodin’s office. The struggle for worker justice continues today, as a similarly broad coalition of students is again holding the University responsible for its financial activities.

Since the fall of 2008, the Student Labor Action Project has been campaigning for Penn to divest from HEI Hotels and Resorts. Penn currently has $14.5 million invested in HEI, a company that has faced a persistent pattern of allegations involving its treatment of workers and interference with their efforts to unionize.

Many of us have met Peter Ho, a lobby porter at the HEI-owned Le Meridien San Fransisco Hotel. He is the father of two college-aged students like us. His soft face shows his tiredness, though he tenaciously believes in and fights for greater justice in his workplace. They cut back to save money,” Ho said of his employer, noting that because of these cuts, he and his colleagues “have to work extra hard, running up and down to get the supplies to the room. There’s never enough time to get it all done.”

In addition to inducing cutbacks in staffing as well as shortages in basic work supplies, HEI is accused of preventing its workers from taking breaks as allotted by wage and hour laws, failing to compensate work-related injuries and engaging in intimidation of workers’ unionization efforts. These allegations have been repeatedly dealt with through settlements made between the company and its workers, as moderated by the National Labor Relations Board. Moreover the Le Meridian where Ho works is the subject of a worker-called boycott and currently under review by the NLRB. The Wharton’s Executive Masters in Business Administration Program, Wharton San Francisco, is incidentally the biggest customer of this hotel.

Students who are activists, dancers, comediennes, scholars, people of faith, fraternity and sorority members and honor society members have formed a coalition calling on Penn to do the right thing. We have used actions intended to attract the University’s attention and consideration to our goal.

In the spring of 2009, SLAP led a march with 150 Penn students and faculty from the Franklin Building, where the Investment Office is located, to Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. A year later, 15 student groups successfully lobbied the University to send a letter to HEI informing its executives of Penn’s awareness of the allegations brought forth against it. This year, we have built a coalition made up of 30 student groups, faculty members and University and Civic Scholars, who together are calling on the University to not reinvest in HEI.

This Friday, four members of SLAP will be meeting with Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli to further discuss this proposal. In it, we are seeking a public statement from Penn to pledge not to reinvest in HEI Hotels and Resorts and clearly assert that its decision is based on a pattern of allegations brought to the administration’s attention by a broad coalition of students. This action has been recently carried out by a fellow Ivy — Brown University — and, more importantly, it aligns our own University with its high standard for community engagement.

Benjamin Franklin asserted that a penny saved is a penny earned, but must the saved penny exploit others in its name? We enter this meeting with incredible hope that Penn will do the right thing.

The Student Labor Action Project at Penn seeks to promote economic justice through workers’ rights. College freshman Penny Jennewein and College senior Nantina Vgontzas, two of its members, can be reached at pennyj@sas.upenn.edu and vgontzas@sas.upenn.edu, respectively.

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