Labor leaders speak to students

Gabe Kramer spent his Tuesday night showing students the meaning of French fries, T-shirts, briefcases and hard hats.

While the smattering of items might not say anything deep to some people, to Kramer, they represent the roots of a movement.

On Tuesday night, Kramer, a union organizer from Service Employees International Union Health Care, spoke to Pitt students about the fight for a national $15 minimum wage. Students of Pitt’s Americans for Informed Democracy hosted the 15 Now and Labor Movement panel at 7 p.m. in the Kurtzman Room of the William Pitt Union, with Kramer as the featured speaker.

Kramer showed students a photo from a rally with people brandishing fast food, clothing and headwear on posters, which he said symbolizes how the fight for a $15 minimum wage touches all industries and all workers.

Kramer spoke alongside other union organizers to form the panel, including Randa Ruge, an organizer from United Steelworkers, and Max Lyons, a cook at Conflict Kitchen. There were about 20 people at the event, which called on employers and lawmakers to enact a $15 minimum wage and allow workers to unionize.

Alyssa Lieberman, president of AID, said the group hosted the event to raise awareness about the Fight for 15 movement, and added that she felt it was important to provide a history of unions here in Pittsburgh.

“The Fight for 15 has deep roots in labor history and union history, and Pittsburgh is a union town,” Lieberman, a junior political science and philosophy major, said.

Attendees listened attentively as Kramer kicked off the panel with a discussion of the history of unions and organized labor in the United States. Although the Fight for 15 movement is only three years old, Kramer said its roots lie with share crop plantations, slavery and secret societies, each acting as their own type of union through violent resistance or quiet escape.

For junior Brent Yingling, the presentation moved him to reconsider his thoughts on minimum wage.

“Questioning history is what is really important about it,” Yingling, a studio arts major, said.

Yingling has done work with the Fight for 15 campaign before but said this was the first time he heard firsthand from workers affected by the minimum wage.

“It doesn’t seem like Americans in the middle class can make a decent living [on minimum wage], and we’re starting to see a strike back,” Yingling said. “I’m definitely going to go to the organizing meeting.”

After Kramer’s speech, Ruge took the podium with Lyons, who spoke about Conflict Kitchen and their unionization of all employees on Aug. 28.

“Any [business or organization] that is economically healthy should also have employees that are economically healthy,” Ruge said.

Lyons introduced in August the idea of a labor union and increased minimum wage among his co-workers after hearing about the recent rallies in New York. To his surprise, the majority of his co-workers had also been hearing about the Fight for 15 movement and were on board for both. Carnegie Mellon University, which owns Conflict Kitchen, quickly granted them union status, and the Conflict Kitchen union plans to hold its first negotiation meeting concerning the minimum wage Oct. 15.

Ruge said supporting Conflict Kitchen could have a trickle-down effect, eventually putting pressure on Pitt to increase the minimum wage and offer more benefits for cafeteria, food cart and security guard workers.

“Historically, students have been crucial to many civil rights movements and occupy so much power,” Ruge said. “Students can influence regulation and make schools better for everybody.”

Kramer also encouraged students to take an active role in the fight in which they showed interest.

“The next chapter of working history is being written now. We know the story’s not over, but we can’t say for sure what’s next,” Kramer said. “That part’s up to us.”