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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUniversity of Virginia Football Player Goes On Hunger Strike To Get Living Wage For University...
EmployeesJoseph Williams moved more than 30 times as a child, living in homeless shelters, church basements, and the homes of family friends. Now Williams, a junior safety on the University of Virginia football team, is taking up a cause supporting the contract workers who are barely making enough to get by.
Williams is one of 18 Virginia students participating in a hunger strike now more than a week long to protest the poor wages paid to many of the universitys contracted service employees. The strike, organized by the schools Living Wage Campaign, began on February 17 with the goal of getting a living wage for underpaid employees. I know first-hand what the economic struggle is like for many of these underpaid workers, Williams wrote in an essay explaining his participation:
In failing to implement a living wage for its lowest paid employees, the University of Virginia has also failed to uphold the moral standards to which it holds its students. We are engaging in this hunger strike to call attention to the administrations moral hypocrisy and to finally produce results in the form of a Living Wage. Although I am exhausted, hungry, dry-mouthed, and emotionally taxed, I believe it is my responsibility as a member of the University community, and even more as a member of the human race, to stand up and speak for those whose voices have been silenced and whose livelihoods are marginalized by the policies of the current University administration.
*snip*
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/02/27/432847/virginia-football-hunger-strike-living-wage/
I'm so proud of the courage and conviction that so many of our young people show. These kids rock.
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University of Virginia Football Player Goes On Hunger Strike To Get Living Wage For University... (Original Post)
one_voice
Feb 2012
OP
one_voice
(20,043 posts)1. Kick...
it's a good story.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,514 posts)2. K & R. nt
Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)3. Clearly a victim of liberal higher education.
Rick was right!
jwirr
(39,215 posts)4. Good for these athletes who care. They are the hope of our nation.