"Present a 'substantive argument,' not 'generalized attacks'"

I'd like to respond to Katie Beczak's article on Friday ("Protesting the protesters, April 7). It seems that the first people to speak out against the justice for janitors campaign are the same that have failed entirely to listen to and understand what we're saying. But it is possible that we haven't been clear enough; so let me explain exactly why we protested on Tuesday.

In a meeting with administration one week before our rally, we were told that the university was planning some changes to custodial work, but that students and, more importantly, janitors are not stakeholders in that discussion and therefore aren't in a position to be told anything about the changes. On Friday we heard of the plan to phase all janitors into union positions over three years. So, we continued on with our rally for two reasons.

First, (the university) hadn't responded to our immediate demands at all. Many janitors would still be paid poverty wages for as long as three years without any benefits at all. A living wage should be paid to those janitors immediately, and the switch can continue. Second, we were given no assurances that the university would rehire the same people into those new union positions. There is still the potential that the university will lay off all subcontracted janitors and replace them with new janitors to fill those union spots. If you had listened to our rally in the slightest, you would have heard us repeat that we are very happy with the new plan but that we still see a need to push ahead with our campaign. We were never demanding that janitors be paid more than they would in the union jobs.

Also, in regard to your attack on BSU, I would ask you to look at the racial make-up of our campus janitors. Who is being paid a living wage and part of a union, and who is not? If you still come to the conclusion that there is no racism on campus, you are blind.

I would encourage anyone with a substantive argument about our campaign to argue it. So far, we have only heard from people making generalized attacks on an activist stereotype and not attacking the basic demands of the campaign. Twice now I have heard the argument that janitors would rather have us clean up after ourselves than take part in this movement. When I talked to janitors about that yesterday, they laughed at that ignorant statement. Maybe you should try actually talking to them.