Meghan Holden

Journal & Courier

"Hey, Mitch, step off it! Put people over profit!" chants came from a small but lively group of students at Purdue University on Thursday.

About a dozen students holding signs rallied outside the Class of 1950 Lecture Hall for an array of campus issues on the national "Fight for $15" campaign day.

Although the national campaign pushes to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the Purdue students took the day as an opportunity express their grievances about graduate student employee working conditions, the potential outsourcing of the dining courts and the university's contract with Nike.

Purdue grad students push to unionize

The Coalition of Graduate Employees at Purdue University announced its drive to unionize students late last month. The group says organizing will give graduate employees a spot at the table to negotiate benefits and wages with the administration.

Students at Indiana University in Bloomington took the coalition's lead and announced their own plans to unionize last week.

"Save Purdue dining" signs reignited the conversation about the university's consideration of outsourcing its dining operations to an private company.

An outside consultant is currently conducting a study of Purdue's dining operations to help guide the on-campus future of food services. Outsourcing is one of the options the university is weighing that would include financial incentives as the school prepares to meet the needs of an expanding pool of students living on campus.

Dining workers, students and other members of the Purdue community are concerned that an outside company could threaten the jobs of longtime dining court employees, reduce wages and diminish the quality of food.

The rally's third battle cry, "Nike, Nike, you can't hide. We can see your greedy side," was aimed at Purdue's contract with the athletic company.

Students part of the national group United Students Against Sweatshops are asking President Mitch Daniels to put the school's contract with Nike on hold until the company changes its policy on independent monitoring of its overseas factories.

Nike isn't allowing the Workers Rights Consortium, an independent monitor affiliated with U.S. universities, including Purdue, to inspect the factories where its products are created.

Last fall, USAS worked with Purdue to cut ties with JanSport, whose parent company, VF Corp., was part of a worker safety crisis in Bangladesh's garment industry.

"I actually didn't know a lot about Nike and JanSport in terms of sweatshop labor," said English graduate student Heather Murton, an onlooker of the rally who said she supports a graduate employee union. "These are things that help me know more about what's going on."