The reason the SCA is dedicated to getting the Code of Conduct adopted by the College is because there are always going to be workers on this campus who aren't protected by a union, especially if the College decides to cost-cut and replace staff with sub-contracted labor.  This Code of Conduct protects everyone who works on campus, including those who are subcontracted workers, such as the men and women working on the new science building.  In a few weeks they are going to start putting the drywall up in the building, and the company that has been subcontracted out by College to do the work really does a poor job of protecting workers.  The company misclassifies the workers as "independent contractors" instead of contingent workers, so they get no workers' compensation if they're hurt on the job, no health coverage, no unemployment benefits, and no Social Security benefits.  The company, Optimum, is able to save a lot of money by doing this, but the workers pay for it, as independent contractors they become responsible for covering all those insurance, health and unemployment costs, right out of their wage.  If one of these workers was to get hurt working on the science building, the workers compensation they pay for as independent contractors wouldn't even cover them, because that compensation is meant to cover a person's employees, not individual who paid for it.  This is a loophole in the law that companies are taking advantage of, but the company paying for the work, in this instance Mount Holyoke, could put a stop to it.  A Code of Conduct that was properly enforced and followed by the College certainly wouldn't allow for workers making sub-standard wages, as these ones are, and would also call for health and safety benefits.

Another important aspect of the Code of Conduct is the ability it gives staff to free association and organizing.  Regardless of how the College feels about unions, it is terribly unfair for the College to use it’s position as employer to try to coerse staff into voting against a union.  Providing information to people is one thing; it is another to use one’s position as an employer to influence what should be a fair and democratic election.  Obviously staff are going to take words of “advice” from the College’s President, or their supervisor, under serious consideration, because that person exercises power over their ability to come to work the next day.  A Code of Conduct would remove the unfair influence that the College can have over decisions that should rightly be made by the staff people themselves, through their own debate, discussion , and fair, democratic vote.
 
Basically, the Code is asking for fair treatment of laborers on this campus, which is something we should all be able to support.  If we want people to do good work, then we have to respect them and give them the proper compensation.  If someone were to get hurt on the job at Mount Holyoke and not be provided with any assistance, I think students would be outraged, and rightly so.  We can at least work to make sure people will be provided with the minimum amount of safeguards, by adopting this Code of Conduct.
 

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posted 1/20/02