President Amy Gutmann has a rich history of compassionate talk. But when it comes to labor relations, she just doesn't walk the walk.
The recent AlliedBarton Security fiasco has made this clear. In August, five AlliedBarton guards working at Penn presented a petition to Gutmann with over 200 signatures from their co-workers in Philadelphia. The petition stated the guards' requests for better wages and benefits from AlliedBarton and asked for Gutmann's support.
Upon learning of the petition, AlliedBarton suspended the five guards and transferred them from Penn to positions the guards deemed "punishment posts" -- positions generally viewed as the security firm's worst. One of the new assignments requires guards to stand all day.
How did Penn respond to the transfers? It didn't -- because it would be inappropriate, considering Penn does not employ the guards but rather subcontracts its security services to AlliedBarton, University spokeswoman Lori Doyle said. So why did the five appeal to Gutmann for support in the first place?
Because obviously they thought her backing could help them in their fight against AlliedBarton, a large national corporation. After all, Gutmann holds the leverage since it is her university that hired AlliedBarton to begin with. As they say, the customer is always right.
Perhaps, though, the guards appealed to Gutmann not just because of her power, but also because of her past. Indeed, the president has made it clear before that she cares about the working class.
Take her April 16, 2001, remarks on PBS' NewsHour: "We have to ask ourselves, do we want to live in a society where people like some of our friends and neighbors and children do not have a safety net ... but they only rely on the charity of other people?"
When Gutmann said that on TV, she was talking about the government's role as a social safety net. But she could just have easily been alluding to the responsibility we all have to foster a society in which everyone can afford basic necessities. And AlliedBarton guards need all the necessities they can get.
While guards working at Penn haven't released information on their incomes (probably in fear of another "punishment post" retaliation), AlliedBarton guards at Georgetown have. They say they officially make $9.77 in salary per hour but ultimately take home about $7 after the salary is cut to pay for life insurance and medical-care benefits.
Here, "people aren't making what they need to live," said Rich Gibson, an organizer for the Service Employees International Union, which hopes to represent the workers.
At least at Georgetown, the administration is doing something. There, President John DeGioia was also handed a petition signed by AlliedBarton guards. But his administration took action this past March, when it enacted the "Just Employment" policy, demanding that all contracted workers make at least $13 an hour in salary and benefits by July. Guards say they're still not making $13 in October, but that's due to AlliedBarton's crookedness, not Georgetown's apathy.
Back at Penn, apathy is the name of the game. And it's disgraceful. Penn's claim that it shouldn't get involved -- since it doesn't employ the guards -- is just veiled indifference. Just because you don't employ someone does not mean you can't advocate for his rights.
In fact, the National Labor Relations Act specifically allows workers (like the guards) to approach the public -- in this case, Gutmann -- to discuss unhappiness with their current employment. Moreover, even a National Labor Relations Board regional director said Penn should have taken action by demanding higher wages, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported.
Still, Gutmann has missed a chance to take action before.
In October 2002, while she was provost at Princeton, a survey found that 30 percent of non-outsourced school workers there held at least one other job and that 23 percent had discontinued basic utilities to their homes because they couldn't pay the bills. Still, Gutmann told The Daily Princetonian that the school's two-year-old worker-remuneration system hadn't been in place long enough to judge its success.
Three years later, AlliedBarton is acting like a thug, and neither Gutmann nor students have spoken out. At Georgetown and Temple, students protested on behalf of the workers. Here, though, the Penn community issues nothing but technical employment rhetoric. Which, come to think of it, puts us in the esteemed oratorical company of AlliedBarton itself.
The security company's Web site also puts rhetoric first: "Wages are only one aspect to AlliedBarton's extensive compensation package. Other items could include: Paid Vacation, Paid Holidays, Free Uniforms and Holiday gifts."
Holiday gifts? Ho, ho, ho. Sounds great to someone making $7 an hour.Gabriel Oppenheim is a College freshman from Scarsdale, N.Y. Opp-Ed appears on Fridays.
