NOVA JOBS ON THE LINE

Emergency Community Meeting to Defend Working Families
Saturday, October 21
5:00-6:00 p.m.
Emmanuel Haitian Baptiste Church
7321 NE 2nd Ave. Miami
Call Kathy at 786-210-9030 for more information

NOVA JOBS ON THE LINE
CRISIS IN BROWARD COUNTY

The Latino and Haitian community in Broward County are facing a major crisis as 350 Latino and Haitian workers could lose their jobs and their families could be left destitute. These 350 janitors, groundskeepers, maintenance staff, and shuttle bus drivers employed by UNICCO at Nova Southeastern University voted for a union last week.Within hours of learning that UNICCO was moving to recognize the union, Nova President Ferrero, rather than support a responsible contractor, notified faculty and staff that he intended to put the contract out to bid. Nova did not commit to retaining the UNICCO employees.

95% of those affected are from immigrant and minority communities, predominantly Haitian, Colombian, Puerto Rican and African-American.

WHY WERE NOVA WORKERS ORGANIZING?

* Janitors at Nova earn wages as low as $6.50 per hour, while living in a county with a $10.15 per hour
living wage commitment.[1]
* They receive no health insurance.
* Unfair and unsafe working conditions; dozens of Nova's Haitian landscapers work outside with no
sheltered break area and no access to drinking water

WHY WE SHOULD CARE:

Broward County has exhibited excellent values and standards of caring for its citizens, as evidenced by the living wage ordinance and the $120,338,790 budgeted for community services[2]; why shouldn't Nova University, a premier Broward institution, uphold the same standards?

- Nova received over $18.4 million in federal, state, and local government funding in 2004[3]. By 2010, Broward County government will have spent $22 million on capital improvements at the Alvin Sherman Library on Nova's campus alone.[4]
- Since 1990, Broward County's population has grown by 22%[5], but the number of people in poverty has grown by 89%[6].

________________________________

[1] Broward county Office of Professional Standards
[2] Broward County 2007 Budget
[3] IRS Form 990 filed by Nova Southeastern University for year ending July 2004.
[4] Contract agreement between Nova Southeastern University and Broward County for the Alvin Sherman library.
[5] Broward County Planning Services Division 'Population Characteristics' publication. Available online at: http://www.co.broward.fl.us/planningservices/population_characteristics.pdf
[6] The U.S. Censes poverty figure for Broward county in 1989 was 115,581 people and in 2003 was 217,958 people. This represents a growth of 89% over the ten-yr period. Data available online at http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/saipe/saipe.cgi