From: Aaron Kreider (Aaron.Kreider.1@nd.edu)
Date: Sun Apr 07 2002 - 17:34:16 EDT
Here is a response to a recent letter where we requested that our president
make a statement that the University respected the dignity of workers and
would remain neutral in response to any organizing efforts.
The good thing was that we got a response by the day we requested it (April
4). The bad news is that our University has a history of anti-union
activity - including illegal activity (for which it has even been caught).
We don't have any unions. And yet the letter comes across saying that our
President wants to keep the option of being either pro or anti-union. Yeah
right! Like our university would ever engage in pro-union activity, ha!
-Aaron-
Notre Dame Progressive Student Alliance
http://www.nd.edu/~psa/
Brigitte Gynther and Paul Graham
Progressive Student Alliance
Dear Brigitte and Paul:
I've been asked to thank you for your recent communications and to
reply to your request for a public statement by the University.
You rightly point out the University's commitment to the right to
organize in our code of conduct for licensees and vendors. As you also
know, the Catholic social tradition is a focus of teaching and research
at Notre Dame in many individual courses and in the work of many
individual faculty members, as well as, more specifically, in the
Program on Catholic Social Teaching in the Theology department and in
the Higgins Labor Research Center. You also may recall that at
Commencement last year we awarded the Laetare Medal to Monsignor George
Higgins, for whom the labor research center is named.
All this is to say that the University does recognize the dignity of
each of its employees and does respect the right of employees to
organize and form unions. As to the statement you've requested,
however, I'm afraid we don't entirely agree: If the University were to
believe that organizing was in the best interests of a group of
workers, why would we not seek to help in that? On the other hand, if
we did not believe that such a move was in the workers' interests, why
would we not say so, consistent with the law? To state an opinion on
the matter would not be in any way inconsistent with the right to
organize; debate and choice are recognized elements of the process.
Thank you again for your correspondence, Brigitte and Paul, and for
sharing your thoughts on this issue.
All the best,
Dennis Moore
Dennis K. Moore
<dennis.k.moore.12@nd.edu>
Director, Public Relations and Information
University of Notre Dame
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Stock for $4
and no minimums.
FREE Money 2002.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/k6cvND/n97DAA/ySSFAA/xYTolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Campus Living Wage Resources and Updates:
www.campuslivingwage.org
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
slwc-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Mon Oct 28 2002 - 02:52:32 EST