USC values support improving conditions

As of last school year, USC employs 25,211 workers, making it the largest private-sector employer in all of Los Angeles. An economic powerhouse with a budget of $4.2 billion, USC needs its employees in order to keep up with the 44,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Over the past few years, strikes have forced the question of whether or not USC treats its employees properly. USC certainly helps the Los Angeles economy grow by employing such a large number of locals, but USC also has a responsibility to its employees to provide them with sufficient salaries and benefits. USC needs to provide employee packages that will allow all members of the University’s workforce to not only survive, but also to thrive in Los Angeles. Doing so will support the surrounding community to keep it safe and will help it prosper. Though employees may not have been treated as well as they should have been in the past, USC is certainly making steps in the right direction. However, the University still has a long way to go before it can call itself a model employer.

Allen Pham | Daily Trojan

Of the roughly 25,000 workers employed by USC, many work in the service sector. Hospitality services, including housing security and dining hall staff, as well as custodial workers and other maintenance jobs, provide the foundation on which the school functions. The men and women who work in USC’s service sector are pivotal in providing students and faculty with the essentials they need to function on a daily basis. Because these individuals are so important to the school, they should be treated with respect. In May 2015, after considerable negotiation, USC struck a deal with the USC Hospitality and Auxiliary Services Workers, raising wages from $11 an hour to $11.75. Each worker also received a $400 bonus and a guaranteed 55 cent raise every July. This new agreement also allowed USC employees to access  healthcare for themselves and their families for an out-of-pocket cost of only $50 a month. While it is encouraging to know that USC acted in such a positive way, it must be admitted that these employees had to fight very hard just to get a simple wage increase and basic benefits.

This was not the only time in USC’s recent history when it has become apparent that  employees were not being treated fairly. In February, workers at the USC Keck School of Medicine Hospital planned a strike because of their lackluster wages and benefits. During the strike, contract workers were brought in to ensure proper care for the patients. Keck employees were quoted as saying that they did not want to leave their patients, even for a day, but they felt they had to strike in order to get USC’s attention. Of the 900 workers at the Keck Hospital, one out of every six employees was making under $15 an hour, and they were also not being afforded the tuition assistance benefits that many other University employees enjoyed.

While wages and benefits are necessary, some additional programs have been cut by the University to the detriment of employees. In July, USC decided to cut the public transport subsidy program that allowed many employees to get to work at a lower cost. Los Angeles Metro passes cost $100 a month, and the University formerly provided a subsidy for the roughly 18 percent of 17,000 employees who utilized public transport. In comparison, our cross-town rivals at UCLA offer a 50 percent public transport subsidy for their employees. With wages as low as they are, USC needs to revisit the idea of a public transport subsidy so that their employees can spend their hard earned money on things other than getting to work.

One of the five traits of a Trojan that USC claims to instill in its students is faithfulness — Faithfulness to shared values, to the Trojan family, and to the community. USC should most definitely continue to hire Angelenos and keep the workforce as local as it can in order to give back to the surrounding community, but if we are going to claim to be Trojans, we must be faithful to that community and to the employees by treating them fairly. In terms of employee welfare, USC has recently made steps in the right direction, but there have also been mistakes that need to be corrected. USC needs to recognize the responsibility it has to its students, employees and the community, and the best way to act upon this realization is to ensure that no employee is living below the poverty line or going without healthcare. Trojans must always take care of Trojans, and as valuable members of our community who allow USC to function the way it does, all employees must be treated properly.