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I don't care who sees this because i'm not gonna shut up about it till i'm dead: The University of Washington has refused to raise the wages of it's workers more than once. They have laid off thousands of workers since March. They tell us to keep quiet when we speak out. /thread
This is the college I've been wanting to go to since I was in MIDDLE SCHOOL! All I ever did was dream about getting my bachelors in compsci at the UW. It's in Seattle! I finally landed a job as a barista on campus nearly two years ago. My foot was finally in the door... /2
I'm a first gen college student. My mental health declined a while back and I couldn't get a grant to pay for college or find a way to pay rent without work. This was my golden ticket to a better life! I finally had a chance to work my way up AND pay my bills! /3
Now, the first thing I dealt with at my stressful workplace was a coworker who would literally harass me my entire shift. Imagine being harassed for 40 hours a week until i'm crying at work. Imagine having stuff thrown at me on the floor and my managers not taking it seriously/4
That is, until I refused to work alongside them. I told my managers EVERY shift (I don't feel safe) UW even agreed to make this person A TEMP LEAD!!! It's not that this person wasn't a hard worker, they were just harassing me and other people. HR didn't do SHIT! Except.../5
convince this person to quit because if they fired them or if I filed a lawsuit for an unsafe workplace, guess who would win? Considering that it's illegal to keep someone in an unsafe workplace, it wasn't gonna be UW. Whatever. Then, comes my health.../6
due to the extensive amount of work of serving hundreds of people a day, i now have carpal tunnel in BOTH wrists. my back is fucked up. i got sick often because we come in contact with so many people. my asthma would act up at work. i was working hard but suffering /7
now, covid-19 was the icing on top of all this bullshit i decided to let go because I truly believed that UW was better than the management of Housing & Food Services. I love the students, the faculty. I've learned so much just by WORKING there! /8
but nah, a month and a half (so in early March) after we have someone who comes into the cafe, they have tested positive for the coronavirus. so my cafe shuts down, offers us jobs at another HFS restaurant since we went on a nationwide lockdown during that month /9
you know what I do? I refuse. Why? BECAUSE I'M IMMUNOCOMPROMISED! Not only was I struggling to focus on college, now I had to worry about getting sick and possibly dying. UW didn't offer hazard pay and STILL wanted us to serve coffee DURING A PANDEMIC! /10
just an fyi- none of us need coffee. Yeah, it's nice, but it's a socially acceptable addiction, like liquor during the week. plus, who is still buying during this time? the privileged folks. while my coworkers are expected to serve them. you know what UW should've done? /11
@UW you should have sent your workers home with administrative paid leave. you should have put the lives of your students AND workers as top priority. you're even kicking out your own students who lost their jobs and can't pay rent. trust me- we're all pissed!!! /12
academia has a LOT of decolonizing to do and WE need to start holding public institutions RESPONSIBLE for not taking care of their own or the rest of our communities. write to @JayInslee speak up!!! don't let people get away with this. it's time for a revolution /13
yet...you can't pay your workers??? what the fuck!!! why is it that my parents BOTH emailed the UW president begging them to keep us safe, just to ignore their emails? y'all really don't care about us, huh! It fucking shows!!! /15
one more thing before I go- seriously...start holding government, federal, state and local responsible. email them. call them. speak UP! we are suffering while others enrich themselves off our money and deaths. no more! it's time for a change. discuss. organize. REVOLT! /end
