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At the start of United Syracuse’s meeting, dozens of Syracuse University staff, faculty and graduate students picked up a Post-it note. Each attendee wrote down one workplace concern and one parking concern they had and stuck them on the wall of the auditorium.

After everyone had sat down, the walls were covered with yellow squares.

The exercise, speaker Hayden Courtney said, was a way for attendees to visualize all the different concerns workers were currently dealing with and the connections between these issues.

“Most of it was like, ‘parking is way too damn high,’” said Courtney, a teaching assistant in the Sociology department and bargaining committee member with the Syracuse Graduate Employees United. “It’s expensive, and it takes a big chunk out of your paycheck.”

United Syracuse, a coalition of SU labor organizations and staff, students and faculty workers advocating for improved working and learning conditions, gathered early Wednesday afternoon in Link Hall to discuss concerns about parking rates, transportation and wages.

There are currently four labor unions associated with the coalition: SGEU; Syracuse University Facilities, Food Service and Library Workers; Adjuncts United at Syracuse University and the Syracuse University Chapter of the Association of American University Professors.

The coalition organized Wednesday’s meeting following the distribution of their fair parking petition at the beginning of the semester, which called upon Chancellor Kent Syverud and Parking Director Joseph Carfi to address parking rates. The petition also takes issue with a lack of consistent and timely shuttle service and a lack of transparency as to how parking prices are decided.

The petition seeks to rescind the 2023-24 parking fee for staff and faculty, increase shuttle service and create a new parking committee composed of student, faculty and staff representatives. After the meeting on Wednesday, SU’s Graduate Student Organization voted to support the petition.

The meeting featured eight different speakers representing the four SU worker organizations and unions, along with other unaffiliated staff on campus who were involved with the parking petition.

Aside from parking and transportation, SU Adjuncts United President Laurel Morton said the coalition sought to identify additional labor issues members were facing across campus and build solidarity.

Since its August release, the petition has gathered about 1,300 signatures, Morton said. She said the coalition tabled and held virtual discussions to distribute the petition.

“Building solidarity takes time,” Morton said.

With about 100 in-person and 50 virtual attendees, the meeting had the largest turnout since she joined the coalition, Morton said.

Trenton Hickey, an environmental health assistant and SUNY ESF graduate student paid hourly, said he liked the roadmap United Syracuse laid out for those with parking and transportation concerns. He wants to be more involved with the coalition and said he didn’t know he would have to pay a parking fee until after being hired.

Though Hickey has received a raise since he started his position just over a year ago, with the added parking costs — which for parking garages are nearly $1,000 for the full academic year — he said his pay is not enough to cover his living expenses. Hickey called the parking rates as a staff member “ridiculous.”

Morton, who is also a part-time instructor in SU’s School of Visual and Performing Arts and a staff member at the Shaw Center for Public and Community Service, said part-time workers at SU are required to pay the full-time parking pass even if they only teach enough classes to be on campus once a week.

One staff member at the meeting, who has been at SU for over 20 years, said he thinks SU will be stronger because of the coalition and its advocacy efforts.

“The staff is the core of the university,” said the staff member, who wished to remain anonymous due to job safety concerns. “We love the university and want to make it better.”

When low wages cloud the tuition benefits that SU touts to bring in employees, the staff member said, workers no longer have a reason to maintain their position — a sentiment Hickey echoed.

“There’s a lot of disillusionment around campus, a lot of conflict,” Morton said. “People are dealing with what to do, (asking), ‘What should I do?’ ‘Can I improve myself here?’ They have no choice but to either leave the university or apply for a different position across the university.”

Published on November 2, 2023 at 12:16 am