Letter: UMass Must Consult Frontline Workers On New Pavilion Plans

The following letter was sent to UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy on February 1, 2023.

I and other community members are relieved to hear that the plans to erect the pavilion on the old Dakin property have been paused and that the beloved landscape of the meadows and lawns will remain untouched – and the oak tree will not be potentially endangered by increased traffic. Thank you for responding to the concerns raised by all of us. We hope this is a permanent decision. 

While this decision meets one of our primary concerns regarding the protection of the meadow – it leaves the concerns raised about ensuring that service workers themselves are consulted directly as to the honor sought to be bestowed upon them by the donor and the University. As generous the intention behind the donation may be it is still missing a very important voice. 

Every single service worker we have spoken with was fully unaware of this project – and when they read the details from your original article each one has expressed frustration and concern that their actual needs are not understood nor are being met and that this is not seen as a form of honoring their sacrifices – some feel it is an insult and some feel it is just tone deaf to the actual realities of being a service worker at UMass. Most feel either scared to raise their voice against the project or feel it will amount to nothing so won’t bother. 

I am not a service worker. I am not an employee of the University. And it ultimately is the workers themselves who should be advocating for themselves. But as someone who spent over 20 years as a labor and human rights consultant and worker’s rights advocate for millions of workers globally through my position as Senior Program Director for the global NGO Verité® I know it is often the voice of an outside advocate that is necessary to ensure that workers themselves have a voice in the processes and subsequent actions that impact them directly. 

Given this response to an informal survey we encourage the University as you move forward with the project to please actively reach out to and include service workers in the decision making process as to if and where a pavilion could be more appropriately erected or how those funds could best honor workers and their sacrifices during the pandemic.

Robin Jaffin

Robin Jaffin is a resident of Amherst.