Letters to the Editor

Attackers not motivated by anti-consumerism

I would like to point out that in Mike Long's September 14 letter about American consumerism and his inferences that the Americans' wealth was cause of the terrorism in the World Trade Center, that the people being suspected of this atrocity are not the poor, oppressed people under the yoke of Western capitalism, but rather the suspects are well-financed zealots waging war under the banner of a religious Jihad.

I truly doubt that the "oppression of capitalism and Western consumerism" was a motive in this case, and it was more a case of a severe misinterpretation of a religious text. Please save the anti-corporate and anti-capitalist tirades for something where it may have been an actual factor. Chris Karr '02

University still has issues to resolve with labor

Given the chaos of the past few days, it's not surprising that the 'Prince' was unable to report on the response of workers or Workers' Rights Organizing Committee members to the wage increases that were announced by the University on Wednesday. Workers and WROC welcome the news that the University will find more money for wage increases. However, the University's press release and the reporting by the 'Prince' of the same are misleading. Princeton has not shown a "cooperative" spirit in its dealings with the unions.

Workers have voiced serious reservations about the equity of this system by which wages will be increased and particularly the means used by the University to calculate the 'market wage' against which all these increases are being computed. Moreover, President Tilghman's reported statement — that "a system has been put in place that will monitor these things more closely in the future" — is at odds with the current University policy on determining 'market wages.' The University conducts 'salary surveys' in secret and determines the 'market wage' without sharing the information on which this 'market' figure is based. The library assistants' union, PULA, is currently in the midst of a formal grievance procedure because of this — the University, meanwhile, continues to support the secret 'market' surveys and to reject the unions' claims that these surveys undervalue the services of Princeton's staff.

WROC and the unions have argued consistently that the best way to adjust worker salaries is to link them to inflation — with a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that automatically provides increases (in conditions of normal inflation) and takes the politics out of wage negotiations. The University continues to engage with this proposal, in fact ignoring it in the most recent statement. Because of this, WROC will continue with the vital job of securing a fair deal for Princeton's hard-working janitors, library assistants, dining services staff and other workers. Nicholas Guyatt GS Vincent Lloyd '03 Julia Salzman '02