[Wamvan] SFU Students occupying offices of SFSS Board of Directors

[Harsha W.]

Update:
>From 1pm today SFU students in solidarity with the SFSS staff have been
protesting the lockout by staging a sit-in at the SFSS board office. The
sit-in plans to be here for 12 hours - an hour for every week of the
lockout.

We need your support! The office closes at 4.30pm and the protesters might
be forced out. Please show up and support the sit-in and SFSS staff.



>
>
>
>
>  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
> 		SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
> ##########
>
> SFU STUDENTS CURRENTLY OCCUPYING OFFICES OF
> STUDENT SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS
> Students
> vow to remain in sit-in for twelve hours to represent the twelve
> weeks that Society�s Board has locked out its unionized staff,
> stage non-violent civil disobedience action to demand end to lock-out
>
> [Burnaby,
> BC] - At approximately 1pm, a group of eight students entered the
> office of the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) Board of Directors
> and launched a peaceful occupation. Outside the office, the hallway
> is filled with student and campus supporters. Students organized the
> non-violent act of civil disobedience independently to show their
> dissent against the Board�s decision to lock-out its unionized
> workers, members of CUPE 3338-5.
>
>
>
>
> Twelve weeks ago,
> after having put forth an unacceptable offer that would have
> introduced a two-tier wage structure, rolled back hard-fought
> benefits, and virtually eliminated job security, the Board resorted
> to one of the most extreme anti-worker tactics -- a lock-out. The
> students inside have vowed to occupy the office for twelve hours, one
> hour for each week that SFSS services have been cut back due to the
> lock-out.
>
> Women,
> queer, and trans campus community members are among the most
> detrimentally affected by the lock-out. The Women�s Centre and Out
> On Campus, both necessary safe-spaces at SFU for marginalized
> students, have been closed for the past three months due to the
> lock-out. �I am supporting this student occupation because my
> fellow queer, trans and women students need those services and
> spaces. Services like those are exactly why we need a student
> society,� said undergraduate student
> Neem
> Maness.
>
> The
> volunteer Board members voted to double their own honoraria for the
> lock-out�s duration, supposedly covering their overtime incurred
> from the workers being barred from doing their jobs. That brings the
> Executive Board members' honoraria up to $3500 per month.
>
>
>
> �It means that
> each of the directors have a high personal financial stake in
> preventing these services from resuming,� stated Chelsea MacKay,
> one of the student participants in the occupation. �We elected the
> Board to run the Student Society, but now they've turned around to
> dismantle it. It�s time the Board stops avoiding its
> responsibilities and returns to bargaining�.
>
>
> Students
> participating in the action see the lock-out as an ideological
> attempt by the employer to break a union under the rhetoric of
> cost-cutting. The Board refuses to budge on wage cuts, including
> those that would slash student workers� current living wage down to
> a poverty-level wage.
>
>
>
> �The Board�s
> primary justification for the lockout is that they don�t have the
> money to pay the workers their due wages. Meanwhile they have just
> spent tens of thousands of dollars on yet another pub renovation and
> gifted themselves a shameful raise,� said student participant Maria
> Persdotter. �All these locked out workers provide vital services
> that only student societies can. It takes incredible gall and malice
> to argue that new booths and cheaper beer are somehow more important
> than providing real services to students, and paying these workers
> fair, living wages.�
>
>
>
> Students
> occupying the SFSS Board office have promised future actions if the
> Board continues to shirk its responsibility to its members through
> its mismanagement, and calls on the Board to immediately end the
> lock-out and return to the bargaining table in good faith.
>
> For
> further information and to arrange interviews, contact:
> Maria
> Persdotter, SFSS member and SFU undergraduate student
> 778-384-8638,
> persdotter.maria at gmail.com
>
> Chelsea
> Mackay,
> SFSS member and SFU
> undergraduate student
> 778-899-4432,
> chelsano at hotmail.com
>
>
>
> For background on
> the lock-out, see: sfulockout.blogspot.com


-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group


-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group