Group lobbies for living wage

With mixed feelings about the University’s decision to raise the minimum wage for Duke-hired workers, leaders of the Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods community group extended Duke administrators an “official invitation” at a meeting Friday to enter in a dialogue on living wages.

The group has spent the past seven months lobbying for a seven-point plan that would, among other things, raise “the livable wage floor” for Duke-hired employees to 10 percent above the federal poverty line for a family of four; fight inflation by indexing wages against the federal poverty level as it changes through the years; include health care benefits; and apply the policies to contract workers.

“The University should ensure that the people making Duke a beacon of academic excellence should not have to live in the shadow of poverty,” said P.J. Brendese, a doctoral student in political science and Durham CAN member.

Many present at the meeting, which took place in the Durham County Courthouse, felt Duke’s upcoming base pay raise offered a promising first step but was not enough. Others said they worried the University would simply exploit a financial loophole by outsourcing more labor to contract workers—whom the new raise does not affect.

Ann Stock, head of the Durham CAN jobs team, said her group’s research has found that $9 an hour is the minimum livable wage for Triangle-area residents. The city of Durham agreed to index its minimum wage to remain 5 percent above this level, she said; Duke has not.

Unhappy Duke employees may fear they will lose their jobs if they speak out about unfair working conditions, said LaMonica Coleman, a member of the jobs team.

Others were more optimistic. Romand Coles, associate professor of political science and Durham CAN member, pointed to the Johns Hopkins University and hospital system as a peer institution’s success story. Grassroots political activism at the Baltimore university led to an enhanced pay rate and benefits for workers in 1999.

About 30 people huddled in a conference room for the meeting after an attempt to hold the gathering in the lobby of the Durham Social Services building failed.