‘Not your grandmother’s Seder’ blends traditional themes with slick performances see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5
Southern state of mind: Students discuss southern identities at Tufts
Baseball: Jumbos remain No. 1 in Northeast after 3-2-1 week see SPORTS / BACK PAGE
SEE FEATURES / PAGE 3 THE
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 50
tuftsdaily.com
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
Janitors organize around petition asking for better working conditions by Catherine Perloff News Editor
Tufts janitors are organizing for better working conditions, starting with a petition listing demands published on the Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC) Facebook page on April 6 and culminating most recently with a demonstration on Friday during Jumbo Days. The petition calls on Tufts and Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) Services, the company Tufts contracts for its custodial labor, to address five demands: the firing of C&W Assistant Manager Douglas Interiano, the creation of a three-month trial period for newly hired supervisors, a mandated 15-minute break for all parttime employees, a clear explanation for changes in work schedule and workload and an assurance that available hours will be offered to part-timers before temporary workers. The petition has close to 100 signatures from the roughly 115 janitors on the Medford/Somerville campus, according to David Ferrándiz, a senior and member of TLC. Ferrándiz said the petition has received more than 1,000 signatures in total from janitors, students, professors and other community members. Activists and janitors say the demands come as already strenuous working conditions for janitors further deteriorate. “I don’t think it’s an event per se [that set off the organizing], but rather a series
SOFIE HECHT / THE TUFTS DAILY
Tufts Labor Coalition protests worker conditions in front of Ballou Hall on April 22, 2016. of conditions that have grown significantly worse,” Ferrándiz said. “There is a very long history of janitor abuse.” In particular, the treatment of one janitor provided a rallying point for janitors to come together across shifts and orga-
nize. In a testimony published on the TLC’s Facebook page, the janitor described how excessive workload and poor treatment by Interiano pushed her to the point of collapse on March 2. “We all knew he was doing bad things,
but what tipped the water was how he treated her,” one janitor said, who spoke to the Daily on the condition of anonymity due to concerns for her job. “When we found out, see C&W, page 2
Richard Haass proposes strategies for modern U.S. foreign policy dilemmas by Anita Ramaswamy and Joe Walsh
Executive Opinion Editor and Executive News Editor
ANASTASIYA KAZAKOVA / TUFTS UNIVERSITY
President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass shakes hands with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Dean James Stavrides at ‘The World in Disarray.’
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Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a longtime diplomat for the U.S. Department of State, gave his perspective on several critical areas of contemporary American foreign policy in a discussion with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Dean James Stavridis. Sophomore Eva Kahan, a member of the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) Colloquium, introduced the event, which was co-sponsored by The Fletcher School, the Institute for Global Leadership and the International Relations Program. Haass was then presented with the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award.
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Following opening remarks, Haass and Stavridis began by discussing the current state of the federal government. Haass argued that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is knowledgeable about the world due to his former position as Chief Executive Officer of ExxonMobil, but he does not have experience in government and his relationship with President Donald Trump was not particularly close at the beginning of his administration. Likewise, Haass said that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is well-read but not familiar with political processes, and that Trump has almost no direct exposure to government or policy. On the topic of North Korea’s nuclear program and missile testing, Haass
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................5
see HAASS, page 2
COMICS.......................................8 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS............................ BACK