Students should support UAW workers
Tell oil companies: don't drill last great wilderness
Reduce waste: eat on plates at Dascomb
To the Editors:
Students for a Just Contract is a coalition of concerned students who have joined together to support workers in the UAW union on campus. Full-time workers in food service, grounds maintenance, and custodial services at Oberlin are currently engaged in negotiations for a new contract from the College. The fact that the majority of UAW Local 2192 members voted against the College's most recent proposal and that, despite months of bargaining, union members are still working without a contract, raises serious questions about the College's commitment to a fair settlement. This concern is heightened given the College's unfair conduct in previous negotiations with both the UAW and OCOPE (which represents employees in Oberlin's library and administrative offices) unions.
We believe that as students who pay for this institution's operation, we have a right to demand that the College bargain in good faith and reach fair contracts with the unions which represent its employees. Oberlin's professed concern for issues of social justice must extend to its own employees whose services make our education possible each day.
On Tuesday the 15th, we presented petitions with more than 400 signatures of students in support of the UAW members to Nancy Dye and Ruth Spencer and Michelle Gross, negotiators for the College. We are awaiting the results of negotiations, which began on Sept. 16th, and are prepared to organize larger actions among students if Oberlin College fails to provide UAW members with a fair settlement. We hope that more students will join us in ensuring that Oberlin makes a commitment to fair labor practices and respect for its employees.
To the Editors:
In 1988, the Exxon Valdez spill made history as the worst environmental disaster in US history. A decade later, Exxon is back. The same people who brought us dead birds and otters covered in oil want to open up the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
Large populations of caribou, musk oxen, bear, wolves, Dall sheep, snow geese and thousands of migratory birds inhabit the Refuge. It is also home to the Gwich'in people, which means "people of the caribou.
The Gwich'in have lived on and around the Refuge for 20,000 years and are one of America's last subsistence cultures. A Gwich'in elder was actually here on the Oberlin campus last night talking about her tribe and its dependence on the refuge. Her presentation along with a slide show given by famous photographer Lenny Kohm transported the audience to the Arctic Tundra. It is a truly amazing place and should be preserved.
Less than 5 percent of the United States is preserved as wilderness. We've paved and plowed, logged and leveled, damned and drained many beautiful places. Now some of the world's largest oil companies - including British Petroleum, Arco, Chevron and Exxon - want to open up the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to certain devastation.
In 1995 alone, approximately 500 spills occurred along Alaska's North Slope, an oil spill every 18 hours. Oil companies already have access to 95% of Alaska's coastal plain. They spent at least $72 million in 1995 on PAC's and campaign contributions to influence Congress to obtain such privileges. It is time to say enough is enough.
I urge people to write a letter to the four oil companies that want to drill and give them a simple message: Don't drill the refuge. Leave the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge alone!
To the Editors:
We are spending millions of dollars on the "green architecture" for our new Environmental Studies building. People will come from all over the world to see it. It will be a model for the construction of similar buildings in the coming century.
You would think we are a college with a strong concern for the future health of the planet. I think we're just hypocrites. Everyday, bags of paper, plastic and cardboard leave Dascomb as unnecessary waste. I'm not sure why the servers automatically use disposable containers, but as ecologically aware individuals, it is our responsibility to reduce the amount of waste we put out into the world, and the amount of resources we use.
If you are going to eat your meal in the building, request to be served on a plate instead of a box. Use the silverware instead of the plastic utensils. Drink from washable cups instead of paper ones. Recycling is fine, but it is far better to not use the products in the first place. Don't counteract the good this new building is doing.
It is these small, simple things that will add up and make the real difference.
Copyright © 1998, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 3, September 18, 1998
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