Aaron Bartley

Aaron Bartley describes the summer of 1996 as a profoundly transformative experience in his young life.He was 20 years old and a student at Swarthmore College when he left the campus that summer for a stint as an assistant union organizer in Denver.There, Bartley and other students helped the Service Employees International Union and a group of low-wage janitors fight for a contract with higher pay.

It was, he says, a feeling not unlike the social fervor that gripped the thousands of college students who went to the South 36 years ago to work on the voting rights campaign.Back then, however, spilled blood and this nation's shame played as big a role as protest in spurring change.

Now 25, Bartley graduates this spring from Harvard Law School and is, by all accounts, a founder of the campus living-wage movement that led to a sit-in at Harvard this month.The students demanded just over $10 per hour for campus security guards and janitors - an amount backed by the City of Cambridge and university faculty.The sit-in ended just over a week ago after lengthy negotiations produced an agreement between the two sides. ...

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,met,/dailyglobe2/278/metro/Janitors issues keep union worker on move+.shtml,/dailyglobe2/278/metro/Janitors issues keep union worker on move-.shtml,,It was 7:10 a.m. when union organizer Aaron Bartley, staked out with striking janitors in front of the Northeastern University campus, confronted the first replacement worker of the day.,1,,,B,Janitors' issues keep union worker on move,10/5/2002,By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff,>," name=HideFromBrowserForVerity>
...
t was 7:10 a.m. when union organizer Aaron Bartley, staked out with striking janitors in front of the Northeastern University campus, confronted the first replacement worker of the day.

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Bartley stopped the timid woman in bright red lipstick, quickly launching into philosophical arguments in his shaky Spanish and beckoning a dozen strikers to close in around her.

"In the struggle for justice, people need to be united," Bartley lectured, gently touching her arm."Do you want to make these workers more fearful of losing their jobs, or do you want to join them?"

The woman edged forward, then backward, mostly silent.The standoff lasted for several minutes, until she gave in. "I know, I know," was all she said before retreating to the Green Line train.

Turning back a "scab" gave a nice jolt to the sluggish morning, but it was followed by a long day of struggles.
...
That's the culture," said Bartley."It's a war."

For this kind of work, and for photocopying hundreds of fliers, for running to Marshall's to buy a shivering striker a fleece jacket, for cajoling janitors to join the picket instead of watching from a nearby stoop, Bartley spent three years at Harvard Law School.

A leader of the living wage sit-in at Harvard in the spring of 2001, he is part of a small group of young, educated organizers who have turned a sleepy union local into the vanguard of the American labor movement.

Bartley, 27, grew up middle class in Buffalo, the son of a florist and a computer programmer.At Swarthmore College in suburban Philadelphia, he studied political theory, poring over ancient Greek philosophers, "stuff that's almost entirely irrelevant to me now."

After graduation he took an internship in Denver as an organizer with the AFL-CIO.The program, Union Summer, was a 1990s innovation designed to draw bright students into union leadership, infusing energy into a movement that by many accounts had lost its way decades ago.

In Bartley's case, it worked.He stayed active in labor issues at Harvard, where his tenure was ultimately defined by his final weeks on campus: 21 days spent occupying Harvard's main administrative building, calling for a "living wage" for janitors.The sit-in attracted national attention and, ultimately, a raise for the university's cleaners.

...
Bartley got slapped with a reprimand on his transcript - the perfect credential for union work.Even though he barely spoke Spanish, the national Justice for Janitors campaign hired him to help with their new organizing push in Boston.The old Local 254 was passive, critics say, virtually ignoring its growing immigrant Latino membership and failing to negotiate respectable contracts.SEIU ultimately booted the local leadership after the business manager got caught driving a union car after his license had been revoked for drunken driving.

Bartley picked up his Spanish on the job.Getting to know janitors at Northeastern and nearby Wentworth Institute of Technology "was like spending 10 hours a day in El Salvador," he said.It's an endeavor still in process."How do you say `truck'?"he shouted to his girlfriend, a volunteer from Harvard, as he explained to a group of Northeastern janitors that two truck drivers had refused to cross the picket line to make deliveries, in solidarity with strikers.

Despite the cultural and language differences, workers seem to relate to the young guy with scruffy hair, cargo pants, and hooded sweatshirt.

...
Along with Bartley, SEIU has brought in Latino leaders like Rocio Saenz, a former maid and veteran of the Los Angeles janitors strike two years ago.
...
As annoying as the paycheck process was, Bartley realized that it was crucial to maintaining credibility with the janitors.He also needed to keep the pickets going as much as possible.

That's why Bartley, who had gotten up at 4:55 a.m. and took a five-minute shower before starting a picket at Northeastern, found himself marching in front of the Prudential Center at 10:45 p.m.

"These guys never stop!"said one passer-by, who high-fived Bartley and several janitors.

Bartley's response: "That's exactly what we want to hear."

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 10/5/2002.© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

[ Send this story to a friend | Easy-print version | Search archives ]

,met,/dailyglobe2/278/metro/Janitors issues keep union worker on move+.shtml,/dailyglobe2/278/metro/Janitors issues keep union worker on move-.shtml,,It was 7:10 a.m. when union organizer Aaron Bartley, staked out with striking janitors in front of the Northeastern University campus, confronted the first replacement worker of the day.,1,,,B,Janitors' issues keep union worker on move,10/5/2002,By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff,>," name=HideFromBrowserForVerity> >
...
t was 7:10 a.m. when union organizer Aaron Bartley, staked out with striking janitors in front of the Northeastern University campus, confronted the first replacement worker of the day.

>

Bartley stopped the timid woman in bright red lipstick, quickly launching into philosophical arguments in his shaky Spanish and beckoning a dozen strikers to close in around her.

"In the struggle for justice, people need to be united," Bartley lectured, gently touching her arm."Do you want to make these workers more fearful of losing their jobs, or do you want to join them?"

The woman edged forward, then backward, mostly silent.The standoff lasted for several minutes, until she gave in. "I know, I know," was all she said before retreating to the Green Line train.

Turning back a "scab" gave a nice jolt to the sluggish morning, but it was followed by a long day of struggles.
...
That's the culture," said Bartley."It's a war."

For this kind of work, and for photocopying hundreds of fliers, for running to Marshall's to buy a shivering striker a fleece jacket, for cajoling janitors to join the picket instead of watching from a nearby stoop, Bartley spent three years at Harvard Law School.

A leader of the living wage sit-in at Harvard in the spring of 2001, he is part of a small group of young, educated organizers who have turned a sleepy union local into the vanguard of the American labor movement.

Bartley, 27, grew up middle class in Buffalo, the son of a florist and a computer programmer.At Swarthmore College in suburban Philadelphia, he studied political theory, poring over ancient Greek philosophers, "stuff that's almost entirely irrelevant to me now."

After graduation he took an internship in Denver as an organizer with the AFL-CIO.The program, Union Summer, was a 1990s innovation designed to draw bright students into union leadership, infusing energy into a movement that by many accounts had lost its way decades ago.

In Bartley's case, it worked.He stayed active in labor issues at Harvard, where his tenure was ultimately defined by his final weeks on campus: 21 days spent occupying Harvard's main administrative building, calling for a "living wage" for janitors.The sit-in attracted national attention and, ultimately, a raise for the university's cleaners.

...
Bartley got slapped with a reprimand on his transcript - the perfect credential for union work.Even though he barely spoke Spanish, the national Justice for Janitors campaign hired him to help with their new organizing push in Boston.The old Local 254 was passive, critics say, virtually ignoring its growing immigrant Latino membership and failing to negotiate respectable contracts.SEIU ultimately booted the local leadership after the business manager got caught driving a union car after his license had been revoked for drunken driving.

Bartley picked up his Spanish on the job.Getting to know janitors at Northeastern and nearby Wentworth Institute of Technology "was like spending 10 hours a day in El Salvador," he said.It's an endeavor still in process."How do you say `truck'?"he shouted to his girlfriend, a volunteer from Harvard, as he explained to a group of Northeastern janitors that two truck drivers had refused to cross the picket line to make deliveries, in solidarity with strikers.

Despite the cultural and language differences, workers seem to relate to the young guy with scruffy hair, cargo pants, and hooded sweatshirt.

...
Along with Bartley, SEIU has brought in Latino leaders like Rocio Saenz, a former maid and veteran of the Los Angeles janitors strike two years ago.
...
As annoying as the paycheck process was, Bartley realized that it was crucial to maintaining credibility with the janitors.He also needed to keep the pickets going as much as possible.

That's why Bartley, who had gotten up at 4:55 a.m. and took a five-minute shower before starting a picket at Northeastern, found himself marching in front of the Prudential Center at 10:45 p.m.

"These guys never stop!"said one passer-by, who high-fived Bartley and several janitors.

Bartley's response: "That's exactly what we want to hear."

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 10/5/2002.© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

[ Send this story to a friend | Easy-print version | Search archives ]

Aaron Bartley describes the summer of 1996 as a profoundly transformative experience in his young life.

He was 20 years old and a student at Swarthmore College when he left the campus that summer for a stint as an assistant union organizer in Denver.There , Bartley and other students helped the Service Employees International Union and a group of low-wage janitors fight for a contract with higher pay.

It was , he says , a feeling not unlike the social fervor that gripped the thousands of college students who went to the South 36 years ago to work on the voting rights campaign.Back then , however , spilled blood and this nation's shame played as big a role as protest in spurring change.

Now 25 , Bartley graduates this spring from Harvard Law School and is , by all accounts , a founder of the campus living-wage movement that led to a sit-in at Harvard this month.The students demanded just over $10 per hour for campus security guards and janitors - an amount backed by the City of Cambridge and university faculty.The sit-in ended just over a week ago after lengthy negotiations produced an agreement between the two sides.

Bartley credits Union Summer with giving him the opportunity to get involved in a grass-roots union campaign.

He is one of more than 2 , 000 college students who have participated in Union Summer since the AFL-CIO launched the program in 1996.
...
Many , like Bartley , returned to their campuses , sparking such movements as Students Against Sweatshops and the living-wage efforts.

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Bartley isn't sure what he will do after graduation but says : Whatever I do will have to involve the union movement in some way..

He isn't alone.

Contact : Aaron Bartley , ( 617 ) 495-4871Maddy Elfenbein , ( 617 ) 493-3726
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When it comes to low wages for janitors at Harvard , we feel it's important to go directly to the source of the problem-the autocratic Corporation members , said Aaron Bartley , a student at Harvard Law School.The extremely wealthy and prominent members of the Corporation should feel ashamed that service workers at Harvard often work 90 hour weeks just to pay the rent in Cambridge , continued Bartley.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615 organizer Aaron Bartley, one of the three people submitting the applications, said that hiring more full-time employees would alleviate the long commutes and abnormal hours faced by workers who currently hold two or three part-time jobs at once.

"From the standpoint of our membership, it's a high priority to normalize...daily routines," Bartley said.

From Holyoke Center, the protesters proceeded to 1280 Mass. Ave., where they accused the University of renting space from a building cleaned by underpaid janitors.

Bartley said that the building-which houses Harvard University Library offices-is cleaned by Commercial Cleaning, whose workers make as little as $8 an hour, as opposed to the $12.50 that Harvard's unionized janitors earn.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday, protesters carried a banner reading, "Commercial Cleaning: You Can Keep Your Pot O' Gold, Just Give Us Enough To Eat."

Bartley said yesterday that Harvard contractors are not meeting their obligation to ensure that 60 percent of custodial jobs are full-time positions.

Martinez, a UNICCO janitor who works at the Harvard Business School, said that he works 37-and-a-half hours each week, but needs to reach the 40-hour mark in order to save for the future.
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Bartley said, however, that some of the part-time positions have been added at the expense of full-time positions.

"Within the last month they've hired part-time workers on regular part-time shifts that are contiguous with current workers' shifts," he said.

Bartley said that the University should have instead combined the two shifts so a janitor could work for eight hours without traveling between different jobs.

"The building manager [of the library] is in close touch with the contractor," said Aaron Bartley, an organizer for Harvard's janitors' union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 254."It's not as if the contractor's off on its own without any oversight by Harvard."
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During the rally, Bartley accused Harvard of failing to hold its subcontractors to the labor principles that it embraced in the wake of the Spring 2001 living wage sit-in.

"I think both students and the union are fed up with treatment such as Marlene received in a University setting which has adopted a statement of principles which explicitly states that each and every individual on the campus deserves respect and fair treatment," he said.

Bartley told the crowd that they would not stop protesting until Soprani's issues are resolved.

"We're going to tell the library management that they have to deal with this problem and if not, next time we're going to go to [University President Lawrence H.] Summers and tell him he has to deal with this problem," Bartley said.

Soprani-who spoke to the crowd in Spanish through a translator-said she originally worked a day shift when she started at Harvard about two years ago.But ACME/Pioneer's management forced her to take a night shift last September to keep her job, she said.
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The standard practice would have been to give Soprani the job because of her seniority, according to Bartley.