If RPI would like to prevent the employees of this campus from joining a union, it should provide them with the benefits they deserve—adequate wages to support a family, not minimum wage. For my undergraduate research project, I make approximately the same per hour that most environmental employees at this campus make. If I cannot support myself on this wage, how does one expect to support a family—let alone pay for the high premiums of proper medical insurance? The unionization would be moot if these hard workers were given a small amount of what top executives here made each year. But, it is foolish to blame the administration here at Rensselaer—their peers in corporate America treat their employees with the same lack of respect. For example, CEO X earns $25 million per year and rather than he or she reducing their salary to $24 million per year to ensure that employees have adequate salaries and medical benefits, they would rather keep it to buy a new Porsche Boxster for their 16-year-old’s birthday.

The moral of this story is to keep your working class happy, or else you might have to actually empty the trash yourself.

Craig Cummins