Since June, the University’s librarians and their union, Service Employees International Union 888, have been negotiating for a new contract. The administration is not budging, they never do. The Brandeis administration and Human Resources department are notorious for not cooperating with on-campus unions, and often try to reduce benefits and pay, while covering it up from the students. The administration and their lawyers are banking on the students not paying attention to the negotiations and the idea that students don’t care about the workers on campus. Brandeis Labor Coalition is here to change that!  

This past Friday, students, librarians and union representatives handed out fliers at the opening event of Family Weekend. As family members and students signed in and got their swag bags, they also received leaflets about how amazing our librarians are and how important it is that they receive a fair contract as soon as possible. Now here we are, reiterating how amazing our librarians are and how important it is that they receive a fair contract as soon as possible. 

Our librarians have been the driving force in the fight toward students feeling safe, comfortable and inspired to be themselves on our campus. Our campus library has an all-gender restroom, a lactation room, an almost 24-hour schedule, immense research resources and important history exhibitions; right now some incredible Ford Hall materials are on exhibit. Starting recently, the library has stopped charging daily fines and implemented a system to pay off overdue fines with a donation to the food pantry. This program exists because of a fight from the librarians union. The union and the library staff at large — actually, all workers on campus — are brilliant people who care about us. They demonstrate this on a daily basis, and in their larger union campaigns to fight for what they feel will help us learn, grow and feel comfortable. These reforms go unnoticed by most students. Additionally, it must be noted that the Brandeis administration is not instating these resources and demanding the librarians abide —  It is the opposite. The library staff is attentive to our needs and limitations and has worked tirelessly to help us, while the University can barely be bothered to provide funds to actualize these projects. 

Librarians are human beings, and the employment of human beings should automatically result in union contracts that are just and dignified. Human beings, regardless of their evaluation by employers, deserve wages that do not create a painful choice between health insurance, child care, sick days or rent. We can go a step farther with our librarians. Our librarians are not only human beings deserving of dignity and respect in their benefits and wages, but they are, in fact, incredible human beings. They are incredible at their jobs, and they deserve to be compensated and rewarded as such. They fight for us. They deserve more than what the University is currently offering them. 

It must be noted that, as I am writing this, I am thinking of an email in my inbox from earlier today. It is from Univ. President Ron Liebowitz, about the September Trustees meeting. In this email, Liebowitz notes,“This past fiscal year (FY18) ended with a financial statement operating surplus of $2.9M … This was the fourth year of positive operating results.” 

Every union on campus has either negotiated a new contract with the University within the last year, or will in the upcoming year. In each of the previous fights, the University has always claimed money to be the limiting factor in providing dignified wages and benefits to its workers. Maybe we are continuing to make such a positive profit each year because the University short-changes our workers? Maybe we could actually prioritize the people who make this campus run, instead of using the profit surplus to pay exuberant fees, and administrators? 

Take 2016 for example: We spent 11.9 million dollars in office expenses, 7 million dollars on travel expenses, had 1.4 billion dollars in total assets, high returns on interest thanks to the improving economy, paid $576,000 to Davis Bunis — our Chief Legal Council — paid interim President Lisa Lynch (now Provost) $457,000 and Frederick Lawrence, our president until 2015, $850,000 in the same year. We can use the money, which none of these high price tags demand, on the workers who do deserve,even crumbs of, that profit. I urge you to make a guidestar.org account and look through the 990 tax forms Brandeis is required to publish each year. We have the money to pay our workers a dignified wage. We have the workers who deserve not only a dignified, but a superb wage. What we do not have, is an administration willing to redistribute the wealth of our university, to benefit our workers. 

This article is not meant to be antagonistic to the University, or our administration. This is only meant to cast a light on the very reasonable demands our librarians are presenting, to which the University is not compromising. The bargaining process is important, and we believe that the University will do the right thing. They have, after all, done the right thing many times in their past union bargaining. We believe the librarians’ union is asking for reasonable and fair readjustments. They are not asking for the moon. We, as students of Brandeis University, and lovers of both our University and our library, ask that the administration meet the librarians union halfway in the fight for a fair contract.