The Progressive Student Alliance is holding a speak-out and workshop Thursday to help share the stories of campus workers who feel they have been mistreated and to help inform students and community members about their rights in the workplace.
The event will consist of two sections, the Worker Speak Out and the Know Your Rights Workshop.
The speak-out will be held from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. in front of the University Center in the Alumni Mall and the workshop will be held from 12:45 p.m. until 1:30 p.m. UC in the Beale Room.
"We're going to have campus workers, former and current, come speak about their experiences-tell their stories," Vanlyn Turner-Ramsay, student and PSA member, said. "We're going to draw the connections between the importance of living wages within our communities and how it affects us, directly and indirectly."
The PSA has held several speak-outs, protests and campaigns over the past few years, most notably their living wage campaign which is meant to inform students that campus workers are paid under the Memphis living wage, the hourly wage needed to live without government assistance.
Currently the University pays campus workers minimum wage, which according to the PSA is a poverty wage.
"We have a living wage campaign on campus that says in order to be a comfortable adult in Memphis-single and no children-you have to make $12.50 an hour," Ramsay said.
The PSA is a campus organization that advocates racial and gender equality and fights economic injustice. They are also affiliated and stand beside the United Campus Workers-Communications Workers of America, the College Democrats, African Students Association and the Workers Interfaith Network.
"We want to actually teach people things and draw direct lines, not just leave things to inference like we have in the past," Ramsay said. "You have to put these things in peoples' faces. They need to know about these things."
PSA member Alex Uhlmann said the U of M has constantly been moving towards a business model, which he believes is the wrong path for a public university.
"What we try to do as the PSA is form a coalition of student organizations and community programs to fight for a living wage for campus workers who currently make poverty wages, which we don't think a public university who promotes knowledge and awareness should continue doing," Uhlmann, a senior political science major, said.
The members of the organization said that they have made progress with their goal by having meetings with administrators about why they believe their Living Wage Campaign is an important issue.
Uhlmann, who joined the organization earlier this semester, said finding the PSA was a very important part of expressing his feelings about these issues, which he had always felt but never had an outlet.
"I was an intern at the State Legislature last summer, which made me want to become more politically active, so ever since then I've been looking for an organization that agreed with my political views. Finding the PSA was an important step for me," Uhlmann said.
Uhlmann noted that students are really busy with school, work and life so they might not have time to find out or do anything about it on their own. Uhlmann said that's where PSA comes in to inform the students so they might feel the need to take a stand.
"We're having this event to inform students about what's going on. It's ridiculous that our university is paying our campus workers poverty wages. These people have to support themselves and their families-they just can't do it with these wages their currently getting," Uhlmann said. "It's important students know that and more students would get involved if they knew that these things were happening."
Along with the Living Wage Campaign, PSA was also responsible for holding a mock vote for the next U of M president earlier this semester. According to Ramsay, the event was a symbolic action to show campus officials that students do care to have say in who will be in charge next.
"We're important because we serve to educate, inform and fight for human rights in our community and on our campus. We're here to make sure students get more out of their college experience than just a degree," Ramsay said. "We hope to promote awareness of what's going on around people and we strive to have a better community."
