CORE Crew on Strike
Special to The Echo | November 20, 2023
The Community Oriented Regeneration Efforts (CORE) Crew announced they were going on strike on Nov. 20, 2023. Their memorandum is below:
WHY?
CORE has been without a supervisor for 8 weeks, this has left student workers to run a crew of 27 students and largely fulfill the sustainability goal of campus without extra compensation for stepping up into the supervisor role.
Little to no communication and support from Paul Bobbit, Dave Ellum, and the administration.
Specifically, we have been told for weeks that our supervisor is coming back “next week” only to find that our supervisor has not returned for multiple weeks in a row.
When we try to advocate for ourselves we are told that we cannot attend meetings, cannot set up our own meetings, and have been continually told to wait it out.
Being told that Bobbit or Ellum will attend crew meetings weekly until our supervisor returns but that has only happened once.
Historically CORE students have had to run the crew with the same challenges we are facing. During the 2021-2022 school year, a student ran the crew with inadequate compensation and struggled with the challenges from the lack of communication and support.
The school is not paying Waste Pro, the company that hauls trash to the dump. WWC owes $20,000 and trash has not been picked up in weeks. These dumpsters are where we work and we have to see and smell them every day. Despite the dumpsters already being overflowing, people keep adding more trash as there is nowhere else to put it.
OUR DEMANDS
Communication- We want to know what is going on with our crew. We want to be in the loop in making decisions that affect our jobs and waste management on campus. We need clearly outlined responsibilities for our crew leaders.
Compensation. Compensation for crew leaders either in the form of redistribution of supervisor salary or PEG 3 hours.
Support. We need a definitive return date for a supervisor or a plan for moving forward. We need support beyond promises that we will have a supervisor next week just to find that we don't have a supervisor, week after week. CORE student leaders have been exploited for years, we need a support system that ends the cycle of students leading the crew with no compensation.
WHAT DOES A CORE STRIKE LOOK LIKE?
Effective immediately (11/20) CORE Crew will not be picking up food waste from Gladfelter, Cowpie, Owl’s Nest and academic buildings until further notice. With all of the dumpsters on campus being full this presents a difficult challenge. What will be done with the hundreds of pounds of food waste created by campus every day? This also makes it difficult to live up to the sustainability promises that the school and Sodexo pride themselves on. This will continue and escalate until our demands are met.
For now, we will continue to pick up food waste from dorms and Verner as our grievances are not with the students or Verner.
STAND WITH US
Contact Ellum and Bobbitt and tell them you stand with CORE student workers and our demands.
Sign our petition at tabling in Glad, posted outside CORE headquarters or find crew members on campus