The first tactic of campus conservatives in response to students' success in pressuring the university to stop purchasing from Tyson foods and join the boycott in support of the striking workers is to negate any broader involvement by saying that this is not a student issue. This isolation-based selfishness is used to prevent students from demonstrating how the Tyson strike is case of corporate greed. They don't even want to allow for the discussion. And they say that Madison is surrounded by reality? The following are reasons why this is a student issue.
-It is a student issue because it's how our money is being spent, and why should this not be a factor in our decision making?
-It is a student issue because we're concerned about the quality of scab-produced food being served to us.
-It is a student issue because it's an attack on family-supporting jobs that allow for access to higher education which create the economic environment and opportunity to even consider attending college.
-It is a student issue because working-class jobs like these increasingly represent the tax base at the state and federal level that funds the UW system and financial aid. The Bush administration's regressive taxation and Doyle's tax freeze, $250 million in UW budget cuts and $45 million tax cuts for the top 2 percent of corporations in the state all are very recent examples of shifting the burden of providing access to affordable post-secondary education to the average tax payer.
-It is a student issue because of the Board of Regent's language on socially responsible investment.
-It is a student issue because there are more than 400 students in the UW system from Jefferson County where the strike is taking place.
-It is a student issue because we are reaching out to our friends and neighbors and people in our state. We are not on an island. We do not live in a bubble.
-It is a student issue because conscious students are involving themselves in a struggle that affects us all: democracy vs. plutocracy. People's livelihoods are coming under attack, our friends and neighbors are being marginalized in their own communities and we understand that an injury to one is an injury to all.
This is not just about 470 workers 30 minutes away-it is about every single plant in every single Jefferson, Wis. in the U.S. and beyond.
This is the first plant Tyson is trying to set an example with in terms of what it can force people to accept and these workers are standing up to defend modest standards.
-It is a student issue because students care about economic independence, equality and social justice. In doing so, we are fighting selfishness, apathy and injustice.
If you want to get involved, start by getting on a free bus that will be heading to Jefferson on Sunday for a solidarity rally and to send off the Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride. It leaves at 1 p.m. from the Union and will be back by 5 p.m.
As a student in the line outside the Kohl Center waiting for hockey tickets, I want to thank the staff of the Kohl Center for being supportive of our efforts.??Without them, we wouldn't be able to support UW teams to our fullest.??Spirit is not something brought to a game and left there; it's something that carries you through 12 nights outside, and it's something that the Kohl Center staff has shown by allowing us to show ours.
I support low wage workers, and therefore do support a raise in minimum wage. However, there is one big concern that I have about such a large raise in minimum wage.
Raising the minimum wage 50 percent would cause a possibly large number of minimum wage workers to be laid off. It is already almost impossible to live off of $5.15 an hour. Now some workers may have to live off of nothing.
The best way to support our workers would be to have a slightly smaller increase in wages so workers will not have the fear of losing their jobs to earn more.
I am a disappointed your opinion piece on the minimum wage did not present the facts on the other side of the debate.??
The purchasing power of the minimum wage has gone down about 12 percent since 1968. If you think back to when you were in middle school and the minimum wage was still $5.15...how much did a movie cost? Probably about $5.50. Now it costs $8.50 and the minimum wage is still at $5.15. You can't buy the same amount of stuff as you used to.??
The movie example isn't that important, but rent and health care have also risen and become harder to afford.??Minimum wage needs to be tied to inflation.??Going to $7.75 in one chunk is ambitious, but it would just be making up for the raises that should have been happening and have not .
