Over the last couple of weeks, Cornell University experienced the longest employee strike in the institution’s history. The strike lasted 15 days, with Cornell workers picketing around Ithaca. Workers were striking because the school, despite its steady financial growth, has been paying its workers low wages with incredibly small raises each year. The cost of living has been on a relentless climb in the past few years and many Cornell employees, some of whom have worked at the institution for two or three decades, were struggling to survive.
It is confounding to think that a school so large and with such influence has been able to treat their employees this way for so long without any pushback. The reality of our current economy, however, puts workers in a tough position. When someone is making just enough money to support themselves and their family, finding a higher-paying job can be nearly impossible. This is because it requires both time and resources to search and interview for a new position. In this way, many employees get stuck in jobs that are not paying them fairly because it is their only way to make ends meet.
There is another fundamental rule of society at play when it comes to maintenance workers being underpaid and undervalued. Invisible work is a term used for any labor, mental or physical, that is not immediately noticeable by others. It is generally used in the context of homemaking and family life. A partner who cleans the house, does the dishes and cares for the children often does not receive ample credit for their contributions. This comes from stereotypical and outdated suburban American ideals. Because this kind of work was often done by women, it was seen as less important. Additionally, if you come home and the dishes are always clean and dinner is always made, you might start to expect those things, rather than being grateful for the labor that went into them.
The connection between this concept and university maintenance workers might not be immediately clear. When students attend a university and live there, the campus becomes their home. Students need three meals a day, a clean place to live and a multitude of other resources. These are all things provided by maintenance workers and other employees of the university. However, this work is often not fully appreciated by students or, more importantly, by administration. Maintenance workers do a vast amount of labor on campuses to create a safe and pleasant environment for students. In articles discussing the Cornell strike, many workers are quoted as saying that they love their jobs and were sad that they could not welcome new students at the beginning of the fall semester.
All of this is why unions like the United Auto Workers, which led the recent strike, are so important. The UAW provided money to workers on strike so that they could afford to demand change. It is a failure of our country’s systems and ideals that has caused these workers to be put in such a tough position. As I drove through Ithaca and saw Cornell workers picketing, I felt so proud of them. It reminded me that things can change and that it is possible to push back against decades of mistreatment if we can listen to each other and sacrifice comfort for improvement.
