Despite Arrests, U-Va. Students Devoted to Bettering Workers
Source: By Carol Morello and Susan Kinzie, Washington Post, Wednesday, April 19, 2006
….. Stephen Lerner, who directs the Service Employees International Union's Justice for Janitors campaign, said students are often the ones calling the union, not the other way around. ….. When the union noticed contractors paying low wages without benefits, he said, it launched a national campaign to pressure institutions to take responsibility for workers' conditions. ….. That's because some are not direct employees of the university. Instead, contractors employ them as food servers, janitors and groundskeepers. Casteen has said that under an advisory opinion from Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R), he does not have the legal authority to raise wages for employees of contractors.