The Campus Workers’ Coalition sent out a petition on Tuesday night asking Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) to provide “adequate coverage” for Wilbur’s residential workers.
“Since October, our building’s residential workers have been overworked,” the petition reads. “Currently there are only five people working the eight buildings in Wilbur.”
The petition notes that while there are usually six full-time employees who work in Wilbur, one worker has been absent for the past two months. Typically, dorms have one full-time employee assigned to each building, but Wilbur does not.
“As a result, our workers feel overworked and in physical pain at the end of the day, and they are not able to do as much for our dorms as they would like,” the petition reads.
David Yosuico ‘20, a member of the Campus Worker’s Coalition and Stanford Coalition for Planning an Equitable 2035, said he was alerted to the overworking issue at a worksite meeting he attended at Wilbur Hall.
“We hope that Stanford will hire more full-time employees and temps to provide adequate coverage, resolve the issue transparently with the full-time employee who has been absent, as well as address the excessive workloads that Wilbur’s residential workers are receiving,” Yosuico said.
As of Wednesday evening, the petition has received more than 600 signatures from students and faculty. Among the signatories is Syd Westley ’21, who lived in Wilbur last year.
“I saw firsthand how hardworking, diligent and kind these people are,” Westley said. “Maribel, the lady who worked in my dorm, was always the first person I saw and who smiled at me in the mornings.”
Westley said she thought it was “atrocious” that five workers are doing an amount of work typically meant for six.
“These folks are already not given enough respect, wages and rights, and many have to commute hours and hours to get to our dorms early in the mornings,” she said. “It is absolutely atrocious that on top of all of this, Stanford is forcing five workers to do the work of six. All my love to the residential workers. Stanford needs to step it up.”
Celine Foster ’21 shared a similar perspective, saying she believes Stanford has no excuse for not providing adequate coverage for Wilbur’s residential workers.
“I think Stanford can do a lot more to support workers,” Foster said. “Having inadequate staffing is a problem for students and for staff, and it just seems like something that should be remedied.”
R&DE has not responded to The Daily’s request for comment.
Contact Adesuwa Agbonile at adesuwaa ‘at’ stanford.edu.
This article has been updated to reflect the Campus Workers Coalition’s request for Stanford to hire both full-time employees and temps.