April 2004 Washington Unversity students, workers and community allies rally at the beginnning of the Living Wage Campaign at Washington University.

  Jobs with Justice is a coalition of progressive labor unions, community, student, and religious organizations committed to fighting together for economic justice.

Thousands of members of these organizations, as well as individuals from the community-at-large have taken the Jobs with Justice Pledge to "Be there five times a year for someone else's fight as well as my own".  You can join them by taking the pledge on-line.

To support this important work financially, visit our secure online donation center.

To find out more about Jobs with Justice including a list of our 70 member organizations, visit www.stl-jwj.org .

Yes, I'll Be There
No, I can't make it this time

This rally is part of a week-long "Student Labor Week of Action" that runs from Cesar Chavez's birthday (March 31) to the anniversary of Martin Luther King's Assasination (April 4).  Check the JwJ Website for a full schedule of the week's activities at Washington University.

History....
The struggle for a Living Wage at Washington University began quite uniquely in the fall of 2003, when a group of three dozen Nicaraguan lawn care workers here on seasonal H2B visas were asked to sign away their contractual rights and leave the country in two days.  A group of five students who maintained close friendships with these workers committed to investigating this situation, working to bring their friends back from Nicaragua if possible, and find out if mistreatment by subcontractors and the administration was characteristic of employer-employee relationships on campus. 

In this way the Student Worker Alliance was formed in November of 2003.  The decision to launch a Living Wage campaign followed shortly thereafter when students discovered the working conditions for most campus workers sufferedunbearable poverty wages, with few benefits if any, feeling threatened and pressured by upper management.