United Campus Workers of Virginia—a union of faculty, staff, and student workers—is proud to announce the formation of an organizing committee focused on issues of campus-wide health and safety. Our committee is made up of VCU workers who have experienced a pattern of neglect of our work and living spaces.
We know that many of our buildings are unsafe. We work in buildings where water seeps from the walls, where mold is evident in our ventilations systems, where our colleagues and students face chronic health conditions exacerbated by their living and working spaces. We know these concerns have been communicated and have gone unaddressed.
Years of continuous austerity and budget cuts have resulted in decaying buildings that are a risk to the health of our workers and students. All the while executive salaries and performance bonuses have risen continuously. With a new round of budget cuts signaled from administration, we are no longer willing to rely on the executive administration to address the issues we face. We are fighting for best practices that go beyond the legal minimum standards, which too often are set by legislators working in concert with our appointed governing bodies. These people will never set foot in our buildings or send their children to live in our dorms.
Join us in ensuring VCU upholds our rights to safe and healthy learning, working, and living environments. This survey will help us gather data on facilities observations and quality of life concerns. Your responses are an essential part of the process of bringing these issues to light and resolving them. While all participants have the ability to complete this form anonymously, we encourage any worker and/or student who wishes to join us to include their contact information below so we can be in touch. If you would like to share images of conditions on campus that put our collective health and safety at risk, you can do so here.
Our union is fully committed to fighting to ensure the dignity and safety of all workers on our campus and all students in our classrooms. Safe and dignity-affirming living and working conditions are a human right.
Contact us at ucw.vcu@gmail.com
