Nine Days In March

It took a nine-day hunger strike by students at Georgetown University, but over 450 contract workers at the D.C. school are about to get a living wage. Employees were making as little as $11.33/hr. The new minimum wage will be $13/hr. and will increase to $14 by July 2007, according to the Washington Post. Officials at Georgetown resisted the raise, citing the additional $1.8 million it would cost to comply with the students' demands. Yet, the school recently raised $15 million to build a new boat house and is currently looking to raise $120 million for the business school.

Just as graduate students at three universities are demanding that their administrations recognize their unions, the Georgetown Living Wage Coalition showed yet another example of the youthful revival of the old labor movement.