 So, I'm here today on the UVM campus to visit with the students who are working in solidarity to raise awareness of the UVM staff contract negotiations with the UVM administration. I've stood with the staff for years, both in their organizing efforts to form a union as well as now supporting them in their efforts to get a fair contract and get some raises because they haven't had raises many of them in years. We're all experiencing increased costs, whether it's gasoline, food, other basic needs as we see inflation, but even before this inflation hit, they hadn't had seen raises in a long time and many people are struggling to live in Chittenden County on the kinds of wages that they're paid. Well, a lot of times when you see rallies, sometimes they're called protests, they could be called either. It's to show that there's public support, that, you know, someone like me, I used to be in elected office in the legislature and then as lieutenant governor of Vermont and I often encourage people to come out and show their support, whether it's for policy in Montpelier or whether it's for workers in negotiation for their pay and benefits and rights. And oftentimes, when negotiations like this happen and nobody shows up, nobody really knows what's going on and the folks at the top tend to have more of the power. When the public or supporters come out, it helps bring into focus and into visibility for people who are just sort of getting through their day that there's something going on and whether it's around workers' rights and pay or benefits, whether it's around environmental issues, climate issues, water quality, whether it's about criminal justice reform as a formerly elected official. I can tell you that when the public gets more involved and shows what they generally think then and where they support, then that makes most elected people consider that perspective more. Because you know when people are paying attention, they're also going to remember what's going on when it comes election time. And that's not necessarily taken as a threat in any way, at least never was by me. To me, what it was about saying, great, now I have a better sense of what people are interested in and when you're a public servant and you're supposed to represent people, it helps to have an idea not just from who you see at your coffee shop or at the grocery store that you frequent but also people that you don't always see because you're supposed to represent everybody. I don't really. I just showed up about 20 minutes ago to visit with the folks that are camping out. I hear there was an update but some of it is being kept, I guess, close to the vest. That's kind of what I'm hearing right now. I've heard mostly that the negotiations have maybe not moved very far, which is unfortunate. So there's a couple of things that unions offer. Most everyday people are just trying to do their job. And once in a while, in a smaller workplace, I've sometimes negotiated with a boss for a little bit of pay here or there or they talk to their boss every year but usually in larger workplaces, they almost never see the top dog. And in negotiations where you've got something like this situation with the university, with lawyers and people that have dealt with sort of every situation under the stars, and then you've got the everyday worker who's just showing up to work, trying to do their job every day, go home and juggle all the things they've got to juggle at home, they're at an incredible disadvantage. And so what unions do is they can help with some of those knowledge sets for negotiations. They can help with knowledge sets of how to get people supportive and how to change the dialogue that's happening inside by what's happening outside, whether it's this or the rally last week and the rally the week before and the rally next week. So unions have roles both as an advisor and as a strategic set of thinking individuals as well as helping the negotiators because typically the negotiators are not actually the union staff, the negotiators are the stewards of the union, the workers who have risen to the top as leaders and so they can help advise them as well. Well I have often come out to stand with working people who are struggling for modest increases to make ends meet. I've stood with teachers when they've been organizing and occasionally going on strike. I've stood with electric line workers and folks with the communication workers of America with Fairpoint a number of years ago and here it's the same thing. The people that are doing a lot of the behind scenes work, the staff who in some cases do a lot of the paperwork of processing student forms and getting students enrolled or entering data. They're usually less visible and less well compensated than professors or administrators and there's also a professorial union here as well and it's often about negotiations between what's the pay scale difference from the very top to the bottom. And I've heard about this through social media, I pay attention to what's going on, a lot of good union organizing and environmental activism and civil rights and criminal justice reform are doing a lot of organizing online and I pay attention so I can come out and stand in solidarity. Yeah so we are out here to express our solidarity with UVM staff united and their ongoing contract negotiations with UVM administration. We feel as though the student experience is diminished when staff don't have what they need to survive and thrive on a regular basis and that what a UVM administration is currently doing to staff in terms of not paying them a livable wage and not giving them the cost of life increases that they need in order to continue living in Burlington is insane and inhumane at the richest university in the state of Vermont. And so there's no reason why 30% of UVM staff should be using food pantries on a regular basis, there's no reason why staff members should be having their electricity shut off, there's no reason why staff should be kicked out of their home, we're losing a lot of really great staff members every year because they keep leaving because UVM is not paying them a competitive wage and they can no longer afford to stay in a Burlington real estate market that continues to get more outrageously overpriced for everybody with the working class people who support this university feel that pain the most and so you know we are out here to express our solidarity with those staff to let the administration know that you know we stand with them and that they can't divide us and that you know you know the student body is like with the staff in their fight and that it can't just go away easily the way the administration wants it to yeah so there's like I have been personally with like a lot of my comrades you know involved in several of the struggles for working people at UVM over the years you know I was deeply involved in the anti-cast cuts campaign and so you know solidarity is crucial and you know they really can't be compared to each other because each you know group each union has its own fight its own struggle you know but you know it hurts the same you know when like any piece of our community is missing when any piece of our community is left out you know we're left with an incomplete puzzle you know and so it feels the same way I feel the same sort of sense of urgency about you know majors being cut professors being laid off you know I like I got to talk very in depth with several of the professors who got laid off in the last round of cast cuts and you know the grief that they feel is the same grief that staff members feel here having to leave their jobs not because they're fired but because if they don't they won't be able to feed their families anymore and you know that's the same sense of human suffering of greed of administrative corruption anywhere yeah so thank you Sophie yeah so the benefits are like a couple things you know so first of all UVM is having a really hard time staffing all of the positions that it needs to and so the workers that are left over here are forced to work more and more and take on more responsibilities for the same level of pay and so when you have a workforce that's well-paid that's doing the job that only it's supposed to be doing that increases the quality of work that they're able to put in and you know from a student perspective we can easily see you know the quality of the services that we have been receiving over the last several years decline across the board and that's because you know there aren't enough staff to do these jobs and people aren't coming to work here because it's not an attractive place to work you know and we're having a really hard time recruiting and maintaining qualified candidates for these positions people who you know really want to dedicate their lives to you know helping students and so you know if we were to get a fair contract if staff were able to get a fair shake not only would it be able to take an immense burden off the staff that we have but allow us to continue to recruit continue to diversify you know there's a really big problem with staff of color leaving UVM because they're not feeling supported enough and that in turn affects the way that students of color on campus are able to experience their day-to-day lives and so you know a win for staff in this a greater you know focus on working-class people on campus you know we'll just have all around benefits that you could feel from every corner from students from staff from faculty everything works better when people are being treated with the respect that they deserve you know UVM staff united is a new union you know I think I came around about a year ago you know and winning that vote was really tough because for decades for years you know UVM staff have been trying to form a union you know there was large protests back in 2007 back in 2012 and so this is a long time coming and you know it's the culmination of decades of work by you know numerous activists some of whom have been fired for their role in union organizing and so you know the union has been such an incredible force on campus you know the community support and the level of sort of engagement that the staff union has given to you know student concerns and to you know build bridges with us is phenomenal you know and I feel that like the staff union has done a really good job of you know building cross-community connections and strengthening the UVM community as a whole and obviously they're leading the fight in the bargaining negotiations and you know even the right to collectively bargain for a contract you know which is what they're doing right now is you know fraud and earned by the people who form that union and so you know we're really thankful to them and you know hopefully we can get that second wind because you know forming the unions only the first piece of the puzzle and then when in that fair contract is the second piece and so you know we just got to get those two together yeah I mean there's a long history at UVM of campus activism and campus activism in favor of working class people on campus and a long history of you know constructing tent cities or shanty towns and so you know we're really drawing back to like a long history at UVM that's really cultivated by people you know like the apartheid divestment protests the minority protests of the early 90s and you know we want to thank those forerunners for you know building that culture giving us that history to learn and work off of and to tell you know UVM administration that you know we're not going to take it anymore you know this is a make or break moment you know if you fail if UVM administration fails to you know deliver staff a good contract then you know we're going to see a mass exodus of talent from the university and we're going to see significant problems in running the university next fall as we're facing significant problems now but they're only going to multiply and so you know I beg you VM I beg you you know I don't I don't say you know I say this very very like strongly you know like I beg UVM to you know deliver on these benefits and to you know bargain in good faith because if they don't you know there will be strong repercussions across the community and I love you VM you know I've spent years of my life here you know fighting trying to make this a good equitable place for everybody and you know it just needs to happen you know like there needs to be a change like it just we can't keep going on like this you know I'm here because just how they treat the staff is fucking awful they are paying them basically pennies just so Suresh can take home a fat paycheck and his other ghouls in the adamant and just higher ups in general while the staff has to work multiple jobs I was just in so I was in a lot of the groups who had people who were planning it and they're just reminding us about it and I was super excited to like be out and doing something like have have something meaningful to do instead of just talking about making a change actually like doing something that might be fighting for it personally I want the staff to be afraid I want them to know I don't know if I'm staying at this school a lot of the reasons is because of the school admins shitty policies that are not friendly towards students not friendly towards staff not friendly towards people in my major people in other majors so I hope they know that there's the there's more on the line than they think there's a lot of people who don't want to stay here because of what they've been doing have they've actively been ruining the experience for us so I hope they're afraid as for like everybody else's I think it's just also to show solidarity show that people are here to support the staff that it's not this issue that people have been making it where it's like the staff against the students because of the staff get a livable wage and the students will have to pay more like no there's a million places we can get that money from they are they keep saying we're poor they keep saying that we're going over budget that we don't have the money we have the money they're fucking liars well really they could gain a staff who's able to put their full energy into the work they do here they can gain people who are really passionate about this really energized to come here to be able to you know work with students do their job because they don't have to worry about taking up a second job filling up their time with that like having all their energy sapped from them by the fact they're having to do 80 hour work weeks that like just human rights in general are a gain no matter who it is human rights are always at the top of that and that includes people being able to just have the necessities necessities for survival food water shelter and schools not in the schools not paying enough for a lot of people to afford that I think the role of the Union is to make sure there's an organized force that is willing to stand up against us can't stand up against the school against the higher ups that are willing to say that we're here as a collective bargaining unit we're here to make sure that nobody in the nobody in the staff is getting left out that we're all that essentially all the workers here are here to fight for each other okay to UVM Suresh your rat fucker I hope you resign you piece of shit I and just pay your employees you fucking bastard I'm just hanging out here sleeping overnight waking up in the morning I mean I think the staff deserve to be paid a livable wage I'm friends with a lot of staff and you know here to support my friends in the community on campus yeah I'd like the administration to feel some pressure on them because I mean staff are definitely feeling the pressure of you know I'm sure you've heard the statistics in the past few interviews but like a third of staff food insecure 500 staff being paid below a livable wage and that's a livable wage is only accounts for if you don't have kids so you need above a livable wage if you want to support your children with that job and also rent crisis in Burlington at large been going up steadily so it's practically impossible to live here I know a lot of plenty of faculty and staff have to live outside of Burlington and its ridiculous commute gas prices are going up and I'm gonna say right now that's not cuz of Ukraine is cuz the oil companies know they can milk us out of as much cast as possible so generally things are getting harder and harder to live and people already weren't able to live off the you know salaries that they were being paid before also staff are working overtime without pay and the pandemics made things a lot harder there's a bunch of different like maintenance has about 20 open positions right now housekeeping has 26 open positions because no one wants to take those jobs because it's ridiculous hours for terrible pay you know so anything the thing I like to get out of this protest is all the staff get a little wage and to see some real change on campus think about it okay I need the union are the ones negotiating if I'm correct what do you mean the role I'm kind of confused by that question I think the role of the union is to represent the interests of all the staff and make sure that every single member that staff leaves with a fair fucking contract and you know if there's no union it's pretty much like the university was trying to take advantage of staff because they knew they didn't have a union that I think they got the union last year and the university was putting a lot of shit in place while they didn't have a union because they knew that without a union there was no way for them to fight for benefits as a group so I know some specific people were going and like fighting their own individual fights but can't fight a collective fight without uniting you know you finished thinking about your question that you have before okay well I've been here a couple days but what brought me to the to this encampment oh I mean just hearing stories from the staff I mean the staff been doing a push for this for a minute now not for this encampment but to get fair contracts and I've been hearing about it all semester and you know hearing their stories and realizing that you know as students we have the capability to make change everyone always says you know the youth are the ones who have the most power because people listen to what we have to say because once you're an adult you're just another voter I'm technically just another voter right now but you know I think as youth and as students we make up probably the majority of the population of this campus and our voices should hold more weight on campus and I wanted to show my solidarity with staff so I'm out here you got I'm what's your question Avery to UVM the administration um am I looking to the camera so pay the staff a fair contract you have the money to do so you're corrupt you run this campus like a business um you lie consistently we know that you lie um you're going to be held accountable whether you like it or not and don't forget that your people just like us and it goes both way you come out here try to humanize yourselves to us but it doesn't seem like you're acting to humans acting like humans to the majority of the people you employ so you know shape up or you know prepare to face consequences