Pomona, escucha /
estamos en la lucha…

On Wednesday, April 28th, visitors to Frank or Frary dining halls at Pomona would have been greeted with chants like this one — “Listen, Pomona, we are fighting!” — and a picket line. A boycott had been arranged by Workers for Justice (WfJ) and its companion student organization, Students in Solidarity with Workers for Justice.

Workers for Justice and Students in Solidarity picket outside Frary

The Workers for Justice organization, which claims to be organized entirely by and for Pomona’s dining hall workers, called the boycott to add pressure in their campaign to have Pomona President David Oxtoby submit to a ‘card check’ union recognition process rather than a National Labor Review Board-supervised secret ballot process. [For more on the card check process, see Sara Kendall, POM '10's popular article over at the Claremont Progressive.] The organization seeks recognition as the workers’ “independent collective bargaining unit” — essentially an independent union at Pomona unaffiliated with Unite Here!, the AFL-CIO, the SEIU or other large union organizations.

Workers have complained of being forced to work unpaid breaks, of injuries, and other issues. For more on their claims, visit Workers for Justice’s website.

The boycott seemed generally successful. It was publicized via Facebook and via the WfJ website. The picketers had food for students who arrived to the dining halls, so they would not cross the picket lines. The picketers stood in front of the dining hall doors and encouraged students not to enter; they did not physically obstruct the doors or prevent anyone from entering. I spoke with Ed Zaki, CMC ‘11 who was walking away from Frary and the demonstration.

Zaki, who described himself as “conservative,” said he didn’t know much about the situation and didn’t support or oppose the workers’ unionization push.. He said he didn’t know about the boycott, but was happy to not cross the picket lines because he received the free food. He described the situation as “gridlock,” saying that if Oxtoby and WfJ sat down together, they could come to a reasonable conclusion.

Pomona's Frary dining hall, completely empty but for a single table of students. (Apologies for the blurriness)

It did not appear that Zaki was the only student who, unaware of the boycott, left without entering Frary. It appeared, at about 6:30pm, that Frary was almost empty, with a single table of students who had crossed the picket line. The Student Life’s Ashvin Ghandi, who was one of those students, describes his experience at the TSL.

Back at the rally, the Port Side spoke with Christian Torres, who has worked as a cook at Frary for five years. A Pomona student named Katie served as an interpreter; the interview was conducted partially in English, partially in Spanish, with some translation. (Christian speaks some English and I speak some Spanish, so only some of the interview was conducted via interpreter; so, some of the quotes have been translated from Spanish by either Katie or myself.)

Torres reports that the workers are seeking a union to remedy “a lot of injustice” being rendered against them, including workers being fired without cause and poor salaries below the prevailing wage. Torres described the union as “backup” that could maintain contacts with President Oxtoby and with the Pomona administration on behalf of workers.

The Students in Solidarity with Workers for Justice (SSWfJ) organization describes their mission in a Facebook message as “to support the actions and decisions of Workers for Justice and to help create spaces for workers to be heard.” However, SSWfJ has been criticized for a lack of transparency and the appearance of vanguardism (that is, of pressuring the workers to unionize based on the students’ ideological goals.) In particular, the presence of students affiliated with SSWfJ at all campus media interviews with workers has caused some observers to be concerned that these students are supervising the workers to ensure that they do not stray from the “party line.”

Workers and SSWfJ members march in a picket line.

The Port Side’s interview did not bear out these accusations. Torres described the WfJ as supported by “almost everyone” on the dining hall staff. He described WfJ as having no true leader, but two “representatives” who spoke on behalf of the group. He reported that about “8 or 9 percent” of the staff did not support WfJ, because they were “ill-informed and scared.” He described the SSWfJ organization as “helping.” Katie, the student interpreter present during the interview, did not seem to be watching to ensure Torres was echoing the correct sentiments; in fact, she did not seem to be paying much attention, re-entering the conversation primarily when the Port Side didn’t know the Spanish word “respalda.”

Though the accusations leveled against SSWfJ do not appear to be borne out, in the greater scheme of things, the SSWfJ organization might better serve their cause of increasing support for workers by clarifying their role relative to the workers themselves and providing clearer arguments for card check (over the NLRB secret ballot process, which Oxtoby has promised not to interfere with) instead of mere catchphrases like “labor peace.” That said, the picket line’s chants, as I walked away, were rather catchy:

El pueblo unido /
jamás será vencido

The people united /
will never be defeated