Text Box: This past semester I was happy to be able to co-train two workshops with Daria Fisk of the Labor Management Workplace Education Program. The second one we did was on Classism. One of the exercises we did was a simulation developed by a Boston based group called United For A Fair Economy. It is the same exercise depicted in these cartoons. First we lined up 10 chairs and then assigned one person to each chair. Each person represented 10% of the population of the United States. Each chair represented 10% of the wealth of the United states. Wealth is what you own; your car, your house (if they are paid off) your jewelry, any businesses that you own, etc..The above cartoon shows the equal distribution. Each 10% of the population has 10% of the wealth. Not bad. But as we all know, that isn’t the way it really is. So one member was asked to represent the wealthiest 10% of the population. That was Gerry from Grounds. Once Gerry was identified we announced that the wealthiest 10% of the population represented by Gerry controlled about 71% or 7 chairs according to 1998 figures. The remaining 9 people were asked to move to the lowest 3 chairs. If Gerry had laid down as the guy in the cartoon below is doing with his arm covering the top four chairs, he would have represented the fact that one percent of wealthiest people controls Text Box: 40% of the wealth of the United States. The interesting fact about this is that their share of wealth increased from 22% or 2 chairs to 38% or almost 4 chairs during the years of 1979 to 1998. This is the same time that median family incomes declined steadily. The annual economy growth rate from 1990 to 1995 was as bad as the Great Depression. In fact, it was worse than the depression years as the 1930s showed a 17% increase in salary versus a 6% DECREASE in the 1990s! (Sharing the Pie, Brouwer) So then we asked the 6 people who had been displaced to move down to the bottom three chairs… nine people occupying three chairs. We talked a lot about what it felt like to be squished together while Gerry was lounging around with more space than he could even use! We wondered how disadvantaged people, the elderly, disabled, people of color and women would fare in a tight and competitive environment for such scarce resources. The general consensus was that they wouldn’t fare well. Text Box: We also knew that there was a lot of in-fighting between people who were squashed together . As if the person who was sitting on their lap was the reason why they were uncomfortable. In the real world, we blame immigrants for taking “our” jobs, we criticize welfare mothers for taking advantage of the system, we complain that someone else crammed in with us in these three lousy seats is the cause of our problem when all the while these incredibly invisible 10% of the population are the real cause of our problems. CEO of Boeing laid off 25,00 workers and was given $9 Million, a raise of 73%. Chairman of United Technologies dismissed 30,000 employees over 5 years and got $11.2 million Tax rate on American corporation in 1950s was 26.4– 27.3%. In 1990-1995 it was 9.1%- 11.6 % 1981 Ronald Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers who went on strike and hired thousands of new employees at drastically reduced wages. Union busting was underway. They laugh all the way to the bank as we fight among ourselves...blaming each other and so making it impossible to organize and demand our rightful portion “of the pie.” Remember this next time you hear “there’s no money” for schools, for paying a living wage, for healthcare for everyone. When looking for someone to blame for our difficulties...look to the guy lounging on those seven chairs. Scare the hell out of him and organize.

Te Union voice
Text Box: Wealth Inequity in the United States by Aggie Mitchkoski Text Box: UNION VOICE Text Box: February 6, 2007

By the Union, For the Union

University Staff Association
Text Box: Dear USA Members, Happy New Year! As you may know, our current contract expires June 30, 2007, and the negotiating committee has been hard at work going over the issues facing the membership and will soon begin working on proposals based on the results of the survey. At the next membership meeting we will give a presentation of the survey results and hope you all try to attend. Text Box: We have new leadership to work with in the corner office, and I have every reason to believe that bargaining will go much smoother this time. That said, I also believe that Governor Patrick has many issues to deal with in his first days at the State house. As we work together with other unions and student groups, the work that was started at the higher ed. summit can move forward. I am cautiously optimistic that we can make much needed progress for higher ed. as we work with Deval Patrick and his team. However, there is much to be done and we can use your help. If you are interested in helping us move ahead, please contact me. In 2007, in addition to bargaining, we will continue to work on getting the job classification system updated. The problem of classism is yet another issue that is ongoing, and we will continue working on this. Again, we could really use help from those of you reading this. If you are interested in any of these issues, please contact me and let me know how you would like to help. Text Box: USA elections are fast approaching, and if you are interested in joining the team, think about throwing your hat in the ring. The Call for Nominations just went out, and everyone is welcome to participate. There are many different roles available, so if you are interested, go to the USA website and check out the constitution where there are descriptions of the different positions and their duties. If you have any questions, feel free to contact any of the executive board members, and we will be happy to help. Remember the Union begins with U. Watch for updates on the list serve and try to join us at future membership meetings. Have a great semester and always remember that if any problems arise in your workplace, contact your district steward right away. In solidarity, Donna Johnson President of USA Text Box: President’s Corner by Donna Johnson

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Text Box: UNION VOICE Text Box: contact your steward. If you don’t know who your steward is call the U.S.A. office or go to http://www.umass.edu/usa for the list of stewards. Text Box: There may come a time when your supervisor asks (or orders) you to do something you are not comfortable doing, or perhaps something that is not usually in your job description. Should you do it or can you refuse to perform the task? While you may think it’s a matter of pride to stick to your guns and say “no,” unless the task is illegal or unsafe, you are required to do what your supervisor demands, or you can be reported for insubordination, an offense for which the administration can dock your pay or suspend you, or for serious offenses terminate you. You may grumble and you may groan, but you must do it. Text Box: The next thing you should do is contact your steward, especially if you think the request is for out-of-title work, that is, work that is normally done by someone in a higher pay-scale than you. For this you can file a form that will grant you additional pay for the work done out-of-title. If appropriate a grievance can be filed for other offenses having to do with changes in your responsibilities you feel uncomfortable with. Of course if you are asked to do something unsafe or illegal you should contact your supervisor’s supervisor and report it. Rule of thumb: if you have a question about doing something you don’t normally do in your normal workday, Text Box: Insubordination: A Serious Offense By Sylvia Snape Text Box: My sensitivity to working conditions is a lot different from most people’s. One of my first paying jobs was picking shade tobacco when I was 14. Nine hours a day, six days a week for 85 cents an hour. The temperature under the tobacco nets reached about 150 degrees, and I spent much of my time trying to make it through the day without passing out. After that, I went on to work twenty years on construction in both Massachusetts and Georgia, exposing myself to temperatures that ranged from 30 below zero to 145 above. Needless to say, working conditions were not always fun. I actually disliked the cold the worst. And now, twenty years later, here I am a USA chief steward and I have people calling me up to complain about their working conditions. The scenarios vary, but you can pretty much take your pick: it’s too hot or it’s too cold; it’s too dark, or it’s too sunny. Oh, my, I think to myself--life is sooo hard! The reality is that some like it hot and some like it cool, so a lot of times it comes down to the simple fact that you just can’t please everybody. But I have to try. That’s why I get those big bucks for being a steward. And not that I’m patting myself on the back, but so far I have always managed to hold my tongue, even though it frequently takes both hands, and not come out with some smart remark—or stories of breaking bones when it was so cold that I didn’t even know I had broken them. And times when it was so hot that…Okay, let’s not go there. That was then, this is now, and the fact is that you just can’t be totally productive in an office environment when you’re not comfortable. Nonetheless, it’s hard for stewards to resolve office climate situations to everyone’s satisfaction. And it’s sometimes difficult to regulate the temperature in offices themselves. My office is usually okay, but I’ve gone from wearing a T-shirt to wearing heavy sweaters when the heat gets messed up. My Text Box: advice is to keep extra clothes around. And if it gets too unbearable, take a walk. Simple discomfort is one thing, but more serious are matters of safety. As adults, we are all responsible for our own safety. I can’t advise anyone what to do in any given situation, but as for me, if I see chunks of concrete falling from my office ceiling, or smell propane gas, or notice something else that seems very dangerous to me, I will beat a hasty retreat from my workplace and be off like the proverbial prom dress. Nowhere in my job description is listed “sustain serious injury or long-term illness.” My mama might have raised a fool—but not THAT big a fool. I am acutely aware of one thing: the life I save might be my own. Being careful is no accident. file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/dkorowski/DAVE'S%20DOCUMENTS/PICS-MISC/PEOPLE/alcoholresearch.jpgText Box: Being Safe and Comfortable - by Dave Korowski Text Box: $500,000 less for the Museum of African American History, $735,000 less for prevention and treatment of AIDS, $844,668 less for mental health services for children, $1.2 million less for home care services for poor elders, $2.5 million less for a biomedical institute, $5 million less for the University system’s appropriation, $5 million less for Tourism Massachusetts, $6.1 million less for programs to help at-risk youth, $9 million less for funding community and state colleges, $20 million less to pay thousands of UMass and state college employees their final year of retroactive pay raises, $28 million less for human service workers which will among other things stop state psychiatric hospitals from admitting new patients after November 22, and $30 million less for the Group Insurance Commission’s line item for health insurance. The Legislature tried to use $450 million in “rainy day reserves” to balance this budget, Romney vetoed it, but the Legislature did not override his veto, leaving a budget hole. More than 1,000 advocates and community leaders converged at the Statehouse on December 6 to protest the cuts. On November 19 Romney said that if legislators do not vote on an anti-gay marriage amendment question by the time they reconvene in January, he would ask the Supreme Judicial Court to order the secretary of state to place the question on the ballot. The SJC has already ruled such marriages legal as of November 2003, which has allowed more than 8,000 couples to wed in Massachusetts, including 2 dear friends of mine! The campaign director of pro-gay marriage group Mass Equality, Mark Solomon, said, “One of the tenets of the Constitution is that you do not put the rights of a minority up for a popularity contest.” On December 27 the SJC decided against Romney. Vermont and Connecticut have legalized civil unions. The highest court in New Jersey has ordered their legislature to either allow gay marriage or allow civil unions. Arizona defeated an amendment to ban gay marriage. Sadly, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Idaho, and South Dakota passed their gay marriage ban amendments. Interestingly, in his 1994 Senate bid Romney said, “The gay and lesbian community needs more support from the Republican Party.” In his 2002 governor race he was endorsed by the conservative gay group the Log Cabin Republicans. If this is a shift to the more conservative and not flip-flopping, then Romney’s stances on stem cell research, abortion, contraception, and abstinence have also become more conservative since 1994. November 21, more than one month after Romney reactivated the practice of random bag searches on the MBTA, the American Civil Liberties Union has placed 200 billboards informing commuters of their constitutional rights, on Boston area trains. The executive director of the Massachusetts ACLU1, Carol Rose, said, "There is a real danger that this will be a guise for law enforcement to engage in racial and ethnic profiling and to hassle people who are undocumented." To prevent profiling, authorities will either inspect every person, or every third or every eighth. Romney says that illegal immigrants should be arrested, employers who hire them knowingly should be punished, and supports a 700 mile guarded fence on the U.S./Mexico border (Berlin Wall anyone?). Interestingly, Community Lawn Service with a Heart, a lawn service that has worked on the grounds of Romney’s suburban home for a decade, uses illegals according to a Boston Globe interview of employees. Romney said he will investigate this matter. In the first week of December Mitt Romney traveled to Japan, South Korea and China to address American chambers of commerce, meet with local business and government leaders, and visit the DeMilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. One of Romney’s last acts as governor on January 4 was to sign legislation to keep racetrack gambling in business, by extending the expiration date on simulcasting laws by another 2 years, from 12-31-06 to 12-31-08. Text Box: In just the first 9 months of 2006, with Romney as chief campaigner for GOP candidates and chairman of the Republican Governors Association, they together raised $20 million, which smashed the old record of $18 million. From the September 19, 2006 primary to October 23, Romney spent almost 22 of those 34 days traveling outside of Massachusetts on an energetic national campaign including 15 other states (Oregon, New Hampshire, Arkansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas, North Carolina, New York, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Maryland, Florida) and D.C., leaving then-Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey to serve as both acting governor and campaigning herself, and she has signed only one bill into law (sex offenders). In all of 2006, Romney spent more than 212 days out of state. Democratic Party spokeswoman Cyndi Roy asked, “When you have Romney flying around the country and Healey on the campaign trail, who's in charge?" and cited problems with MassPort, the Big Dig, and budget gap. "It's bad enough that Mitt Romney has turned out to be a recreational governor, but he travels the country using Massachusetts as the butt of his political jokes", said Deval Patrick's spokesman Richard Chacon. Here’s one joke that Romney said, “We have two factions of media in Boston. On the one hand, we have the Hillary-loving, Ted Kennedy apologists. And on the other, we have the liberals.” Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh said about Romney, “He was supposed to be traveling the country and bringing us jobs. Instead, he was traveling the country and making jokes about Massachusetts.” After part of the ceiling of the I-90 Seaport connector tunnel in Boston collapsed on July 10, 2006, killing 38 year old Jamaica Plain motorist Milena Del Valle, the Romney administration had been highly critical of Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the top management consultant firm for the Big Dig. Several other firms have also been involved in the work. But on October 26 Romney blamed his transportation secretary John Cogliano for quietly tapping the same controversial firm (at an additional cost of $8 million) to perform daily inspections of the repairs made after the death. Romney said, "I wouldn't have done that. I think it was a mistake" and said that he will not reprimand Cogliano. Cogliano said he would accept ultimate responsibility although the “tapping” was not his decision but that of a midlevel manager that he and Romney have not named. On October 28 Romney had 90 tunnel inspectors pulled off the job to screen their resumes for conflicts of interest. Senator Edward M. Kennedy has called Mitt Romney an underestimated, formidable figure. Kennedy also said that it is appropriate to question Romney’s Mormon faith, as it was right to question his brother’s Catholic faith, former President John F. Kennedy. "(Mormons) can obviously get involved in the campaign as individuals, but if they are using in any way the instruments of the church, then I think that gets into the whole question of the separation of powers and then I think he (Romney) has to be careful," Kennedy said. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, also told Romney to follow JFK’s example, by giving “a major speech that confronts head on the lingering prejudices against his religion.” On November 7, we elected Deval Patrick as our new Governor! He starts on January 5, 2007. Breaking with generations of tradition, Romney was not present on that day (former governors Mike Dukakis, Bill Weld, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift did attend), when his governorship ends at noon, so that he can begin settling into his Presidential Campaign HQ in Boston’s North End. He made his running official on January 3, 2007. Romney made $425 million (about 1.7% of the state’s $25.7 billion budget) of “emergency” budget cuts on November 13, including: $39,940 less for Commonwealth College, $50,000 less for the Barre Historical Society, $50,000 less for the famous Holyoke merry-go-round, $100,000 less for certain cancer screenings, $113,726 less for the Office of Dispute Resolution at UMass Boston, $200,000 less for a Food Science public-private partnership initiative, $244,529 less for a nano-bio manufacturing facility at UMass Lowell, $250,000 less for domestic violence programs, $260,000 less to prevent homelessness, $294,410 less for Springfield Technical Community College, $300,000 less for new sidewalks and benches in Pittsfield, $454,000 less for the state Department of Mental Health,

Eye on Romney

… by Andy Steinberg
Text Box: workshop at the NEA’s Annual Conference which will be the weekend of March 8th this year. If that wasn’t exciting enough, they were also asked to present the workshop at the NEA’s ESP conference on Higher Education that will be held in San Diego, California the weekend before Nashville. Whew! We know two ladies that will be pretty tired come March 12th! Text Box: Sylvia Snape and Aggie Mitchkoski will be taking their Rankism in the Workplace workshop on the road again this year. Last summer they presented it along with Nancy Robbie at the MTA’s Summer Conference in Williamstown, MA. Then they got an invite to give the workshop to a group of ESPs in the Acton school system. Well, good news travels fast and the idea of ESPs training ESPs was so positive that they were asked to present the Text Box: Somebodies and Nobodies ...on the road again….. Text Box:

PHENOM by Aggie Mitchkoski

Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts

Last December a small group of students and faculty began meeting to form a coalition to advance the agenda for a better Higher Education for all.  They were successful in organizing a Higher Ed Summit which then governor-elect Deval Patrick attended along with his transition team. Since then, the group has continued to meet and reach out to other groups here on the UMASS Amherst campus as well as to campuses across the state.

Joining this organization really means you support these principles:

1.  Fund public higher education so it can serve the Commonwealth

 

2. Make higher education affordable

3. Make higher education accessible to all

 

4. Hire more teachers, researchers, and staff

 

5.  Honor and expand democratic institutions of governance for public higher education

 

February 1st  representatives from 10 campuses across the state met at Framingham State. Donna Johnson attended as the representative of the MTA Higher Education Board and Aggie Mitchkoski attended as representatives of the USA Union.  The really exciting

aspect of this coalition is its commitment to all areas of the Higher Ed Organization without  selling one area down the river to help another area.

 

The organization is still very much in its formative stage and open to the thoughts and interests of all areas within the Higher Education framework.

The Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM) now invites you to attend a Lobby Day and Founding Convention for PHENOM, involving students, staff, faculty, and concerned citizens from all of Massachusetts' community colleges, state colleges, and university system on Wednesday, 2/14/07 from approximately 10:30 am – 2:30 pm at Gardner Auditorium, State House) Please RSVP to  massphenom@gmail.com with an approximate list of attendees so we can provide sufficient space and food.  Transportation will be provided.

 

At the Lobby day the aim is to announce the formation of this coalition and to present the Roadmap, a paper outlining the goals and principles of the Coalition. All this is in preparation for more lobbying when the budget is up for consideration later this spring.

 

      At first glance, this list of characters does not appear to be players in the same drama:  Carnegie, Rockefeller, Mellon, Wood, Clarence Darrow, Mother Jones, Enrico Caruso, Calvin Coolidge, Henry Cabot Lodge,  John “Honey Fritz” Fitzgerald, (grandfather of John F Kennedy), Margaret Sanger, (future founder of Planned Parenthood).  So what do these notorieties have in common?  They all had roles in a 1912 drama which unfolded in a snowy textile town.

     Bruce Watson, Lifestyles columnist for the Daily Hampshire Gazette and contributor to the Smithsonian authored Bread & Roses, Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream.  His book chronicles the garment workers strike in Lawrence Mass.  “Fifteen thousand workers stood on picket lines that stretched for blocks, running all away around some of the world’s longest buildings.   Facing them were whole battalions of state militia, their bayonets fixed.”

     Fascinating, isn’t it, how we were forced to fight for our “right to the pursuit of happiness”.  In 1912 the only happiness my great-grandparents earned in their 56 hour work week did not belong to them, but to those who reaped the rewards of their labor.  “In the 1870’s it was the French Canadians’ turn.  Mechanization of dairy farming and widespread soil depletion sent thousands south from Quebec to Lowell and Laurence.”  I remember stories my

grandmother told of her beautiful 18 year old sister dying of tuberculosis.  “…inhaling fibers that floated through dank, humid mill rooms, a third died within a decade on the job.  Malnourished, they succumbed to tuberculosis, pneumonia, or anthrax, known as ‘the wool sorter’s disease.’ My grandmother quit school after fourth grade to go to work.  It broke her mother’s heart.  Her mother had hoped that in America, her daughter would get an education and rise above this drudgery.  What seems like naivety to us was fostered by ad campaigns like the one this Italian worker describes:  “We were urged to come here by posters spread throughout Italy by the American Woolen Company, describing how mill owners will treat us like their own children,  It is a false pretense.  We were treated like dogs.  Our Italy is bad but your country’s textile mills are worse.”

     Memere remembers coming home and crying because her fingers hurt.  She was one of the lucky ones though; her hands were intact and later able to hold her children and grandchildren.  She left her job when she married.  Others were less fortunate.  “They were crushed by machinery, mangled by looms and spinners”.   A workers’ life style did not lend itself to longevity. “Doctor’s and ministers in Lawrence lived on average of 65 years.  Mill bosses could expect to live 58 years.  The typical mill worker died at 39.”  Unbelievably these conditions still

exist today.  The book was dedicated to “the billion people around the world who still survive on a dollar a day.”

       It is worth knowing our history, certainly management has learned to better strategize in their dealings with workers. “During the 1920’s, mills throughout the Northeast had begun moving south to where cotton was king and unions were as weak as peasants.  While textile strikes longer and bloodier than those in Lawrence broke out across the South, mill towns from Maine to Pennsylvania became blighted relics of America’s industrial past.”  The rift between the middle class and the wealthy is growing rapidly.  Will we be enslaved as our forbearers were?  “We are a new people”, one worker said.  “We have hope.  We will never stand again what we stood before.”  I wonder…..

Bruce Watson, Bread & Roses, New York:  Penguin Group, 2005.  Everything in italics is from Bruce Watson’s Bread & Roses.

Text Box: The American Dream by Doris Goodwin Text Box: Jan Valego, Clerk III, Housing Technology Services became a grandma for the second & third time to Jazzmyn Valego on May 12, 2006 & Makena Hodgkins on December 29, 2006. Big brother Justus just loves his new sister & cousin Jazzmyn. Life is very good!

Happy

40th

Birthday

to

Trisha Link!

“As a cost savings measure (so I hear) they have turned the hot water temperature down in the bathrooms in buildings here on campus.  I called environmental health and safety.  They told me to run the hot water for 10 to 15 minutes and it would get up to 112 degrees.  What a waste of water!  “
Joyce Britt in bio

Last month, there was quite the debate about whether or not we should support raising the minimum wage. Some will be happy that the minimum wage was passed and some will be happy that supports were also passed for the small business person in the same bill. But what really concerned me in the back and forth debate was one comment that characterized the wanting to give more money to workers as “picking the pockets” of the business owners. The comment also said something like these people had worked hard for their money and the thought was that then they should be able to keep that money. 

 

It made me think of the Economics class I took a few years ago. The professor talked about where wealth comes from. It’s really simple. There are raw materials. Someone works on the raw materials and produces a product. The product is then sold to someone who wants it.  The money that is paid for the product minus what had to be paid for the raw materials is the worth of the labor. $10 of cloth sewn by a worker for an hour makes a shirt which is sold for $50. The raw materials are $10 and the labor to make the shirt is worth $40. BUT, the proverbial BUT, in order for a third party to get any of that $40 so they can make a profit, they must pay the worker less than what their labor is worth.

 

The majority of profit gained by someone other than the laborer is derived from underpaying the labor of a worker.

 

In the 1870s we changed from an agrarian society to an industrial society and as the capitalists and industrialists 

(remember hearing about the Robber Barons?) began to dominate the American scene. The were ruthless in their opportunities to secure the vast majority of the wealth in their own names. And they also had sufficient power because of their enormous profits (remember labor which was not fully compensated) to buy political power and to set in place mechanisms to ensure their dominance.

 I really love when someone points out to me how much the rich donate to charities. First, it’s stolen money they are giving back to the people they stole it from and secondly, the vast majority of what they donate (tax deductible too don’t forget) goes to elite non-profit institutions — Ivy league universities, museums, symphonies, think-tanks, private hospitals, prep schools and the like...all funding their own interests. Of the $124 billion spent on private philanthropy in 1991, only 10% went for “human service projects that serve the poor. “ And that’s not even all… as they make more money, the donate even less.  For example in 1995 when “corporate profits jumped 30% to over $600 billion, corporate philanthropy went up only 8% accounting for only $7 billion of the $144 billion from all sources.” (Sharing the Pie, Brouwer)

 

The problem in our world today is that we forget that all of these enormously wealthy corporations originally started by making a profit off of some workers’ backs and they continue to reap disproportionate profits on the backs of workers. Its important to remember our worth and to expect to be compensated for what we are truly worth. No one is doing us any favors. We deserve the fairer payment of the worth of our labor, not less of it. 


Today's highly compensated executives face many difficulties, including figuring out how they can possibly spend all of the rich rewards they've earned on the backs of ordinary workers. Imagine the difficulty IBM CEO Sam Palmisano will face spending his $10,000 a day when he retires!  www.ibmemployee.com

We should have his problems….
Text Box: Where does Wealth come from? By Aggie Mitchkoski Text Box: Community Activist Dies Unexpectedly Submitted By friend Andy Steinberg from http://rememberingaaron.org/joo/index.php

Aaron D. Wilson, 35, of South Hadley, MA, died unexpectedly of heart failure in his sleep on December 21, 2006.  The much-beloved son of Maryann Wilson, Aaron was a UMASS graduate, tireless organizer, writer, leader, and activist for civil rights and social justice who devoted his regrettably short life to improving the world.  

Upon his 1989 arrival at  UMASS Amherst, Aaron, along with his good friends Brian Julin and Kai Price, founded the UMass Cannabis Reform Coalition (CRC), now the oldest active student drug policy organization in the nation.  The CRC has garnered major media attention over the years, most recently for protests against overbearing police policy in the dorms, a trend that troubled Aaron deeply.  An effective diplomat, Aaron forged a cooperative and productive relationship with local police in addressing campus drug use, and he continued to advise the CRC until his untimely death.

From 1995-2000, Aaron served as the Director of the Partnership for Responsible Drug Information (PRDI) in New York City, which provided a safe space for local social and political leaders to

discuss alternatives to the War on Drugs.  In addition to organizing and publicizing forums and other major events, he conducted extensive research in order to write and publish The PRDI Guide to Organizing Forums on Drug Issues and The PRDI Drug Policy Resources Directory for the Media, both landmark publications.  While at PRDI, Aaron also helped to set up the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers, an association of lawyers and judges encouraging examination of the consequences of the drug war.

After returning to Western Massachusetts in 1999, Aaron was active in politics both locally in Amherst, including as a member of the Amherst Town Meeting, and at the State House.  He provided support for college students organizing at campuses across the nation and helped organize one of the first national leadership conferences of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.  He served as the Chairman of the Board for the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts (DPFMA), a lobbying group that fought for needle exchange, decriminalization, and access to medical marijuana, bringing experts and patients including his good friend Marcy Duda to testify at Congressional hearings.  He also served on the Board of Directors for the Hampshire County United Way.

Beginning in 2001, Aaron served as Executive Director for the Western Massachusetts Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) in Springfield, where he trained union members in improving health and safety

conditions.  This included helping families of deceased Chapman Valve, Inc. employees get compensation for uranium ore exposure.  He helped broker the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, an collaboration between labor and environmental groups promoting safer alternatives to toxic chemical use.  Aaron also served as a delegate for governor-elect Deval Patrick.  For his service to the community, Aaron received the Micah Award for Springfield Community Activist of the Year and the Unsung Hero Award, among many others.

Aaron loved science fiction and history, excelled at stretching a budget, and he appreciated all of life’s pleasures, especially music.  He was an avid music collector and a passionate concert-goer.  He was a strong believer in the education that comes only from experiences.  Whatever he did, he did with gusto and an often irreverent sense of humor.  But no matter how busy, he always prioritized the needs of family and friends.  Aaron raised the inelegance of being human to an art form, which always brought a sense of ease to those close to him.

Aaron is survived by his beloved mother, Maryann Wilson of Bennington, VT; his father, David Harper; his uncle and friend, Eric C. Wilson of Hudson, MA; his perennial sweetheart, Diana Ditmore of Amherst, MA; several other people who each actively considered Aaron to be their very best friend; many other devoted friends and associates, and two mischievous cats, Neko and Niko.  He will be loved and missed dearly but not forgotten

Just some thoughts...
Text Box: If it’s class warfare, my class is winning. Warren Buffett, billionaire investor Text Box: In the past, Americans smugly assumed that European societies were more stratified than their own, but now it appears that the United States has surpassed all industrial societies in the extent of its family wealth inequity. Lisa Keister Text Box: For many business owners, paying their workers well is common sense. "Trying to save money by shortchanging my employees would be like skimping on ingredients,” said Kirsten Poole, a petition signer and co-owner of Kirsten's Cafe and Dish Caterers in Silver Spring, Md. “I'd lose more than I saved because of declining quality, service, reputation and customer base. You can't build a healthy business or a healthy economy on a miserly minimum wage." submitted by Irene Dzioba Text Box: Wealth comes from direct exploitation of land and people’s labor, from the indirect exploitation of people’s (primarily women’) unpaid reproductive, service and subsistence labor or from speculation, which also contributes to the exploitation of people. Some individuals get richer and most become poorer. Paul Kivel

Who’s picking whose pocket?

Union Voice
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Aggie Mitchkoski at aggie@psych.umass.edu