After two building seizures over a period of six days members of the Worker Support Committee and President Peter Stanley found common ground large enough to carve out a general agreement on, with hints of more concrete actions in the future.

According to Stanley and committee member Danilo Trisi ’02 a card check/neutrality/non-intimidation agreement will likely be implemented into contract renegotiations with Aramark Corp., or a new food service provider, as early as next year.

Stanley assured students who partially blockaded Alexander Hall on Monday and Tuesday that he would encourage other college presidents to support the agreement.

In an e-mail to Trisi, Stanley said he and the other presidents were "committed to action" after meeting Wednesday to discuss food quality, working conditions at the dining halls and workers’ rights to organize.

Specific options for futures contracts will be discussed after the presidents meet with their treasurers and attorneys in the coming weeks.

Stanley believes Aramark has fallen short in many of its responsibilities to the colleges, particularly with its budget, which the presidents supplemented last year.

"Aramark really sucker-punched us with that," he said.

In the agreement, Stanley recognized the card check agreement as one of the various ways to unionize in a "timely, publicly accountable, and non-intimidating way."

According to Trisi and some Aramark employees, unionization may be imminent.

One Frary employee, communicating through a translator, said a union "will make it better for us, higher salaries, more benefits. A lot of us need health care."

He said that while working conditions are not bad, some workers are afraid to sign the cards selecting the union, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 11, "because they think they will get fired."

He said most of the workers already signed the card, which would mean negotiations between Aramark and the Local 11 could begin anytime.

Trisi said the cards are first counted by a third party, most likely the Office of the Chaplains. On advice from the union, the committee is waiting until they think 65 — 70 percent of the workers have signed the cards before counting them.

"With a card check it is guaranteed that a third party will look at the cards and that Aramark will never know [what the count is]," said Trisi.

Trisi and Amy Wood ’00, along with three faculty mediators, met with Stanley twice during the occupation Tuesday to draft an agreement.

Despite statements by Stanley and Dean of Students Ann Quinley that no discourse was possible while Alexander was blockaded, the faculty members, Jerry Irish, Sydney Lemelle, and Miguel Tinker Salas, persuaded the administration to give an audience to the Cocommittee.

Many students and administrators were inconvenienced by the two day blockade, with seniors unable to receive graduation tickets or communicate with the registrar and the financial aid office, and school employees were locked out from end of the year work.

Many students, if in agreement with the goal, were angered by the tactics of the committee.

The blockade began at 5:45 on Monday morning, when committee members u-locked themselves to seven exterior doors and attached themselves to students sitting beside them with bike locks.

One door , a basement entry on the west side, was left uninhibited, and within the hour Campus Safety began guarding it, and continued to throughout the 34 hour blockade.

Classes were delayed while academic buildings were locked for safety concerns, but reopened at 9:30 am.

During the day WSC members handed out fliers and listened to speakers, one of which was Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers, who told the students, "It’s a moral thing, it’s a just thing, and it is the right thing to do" to blockade Alexander.

Upon her arrival, Dean of Students Ann Quinley explained the consequences for students participating in the action.

"If they don’t leave at the end of the day, there will be some form of punishment," Quinley told reporters outside the building, referring to the student code’s policy on demonstrations.

The code says "any president…is empowered by the Board of Trustees to take appropriate action including summary suspension from the college."

"If it comes to that, we’ll prosecute them," said Quinley, who thought the action was extreme. "Everybody gets a say [at Pomona] and no one gets to dictate."

The students blockaded Alexander after spending last Thursday and Friday locked in Pitzer’s Broad Center, leaving when President Marilyn Chapin Massey said she would "encourage Aramark to support workers’ rights to organize by the method of their choice" and ensure that "all future vendors will be required to recognize the card check method or organizing."

Massey withdrew her statement, which Stanley described as "legally unenforceable" and not likely to sway the other presidents, after two Aramark carts were vandalized over the weekend.

Massey said the vandalism convinced her that the WSC students were acting in bad faith, but later said she did not assume members of the committee were responsible.

John Kilgore PI ’01, a WSC supporter, witnessed one of the acts, said "they weren’t students I have ever seen."

Quinley said Aramark intended to press charges.Campus Safety officer John Teuber said there was as of yet no evidence connecting the acts of vandalism to the WSC, but the Claremont Police Department will investigate because it was an arson.

Massey, Stanley and CMC President Pamela Gann canceled a planned 11:00 am meeting with committee representatives. In statement, Stanley said, "we cannot [have discussion] in the environment of bad faith and duress that protestors have created with their recent actions."

Late Monday evening the committee began planning for day two of the blockade, and one member promised that, "Tomorrow we plan to rock these five colleges in a way they haven’t been rocked."

Billy Grayson CMC ’00 explained to committee supporters the basic of non-violent blockades on Monday, tactics he learned at an "alternative spring break" hosted by the Ruckus Society, a social protest group specializing in direct action like lockdowns and activist art.

By 5:30 am on Tuesday about 200 students had arrived at Alexander to show support, surprising even committee member. Of that group, 180 formed seven different "soft blockades" around the doors. Campus Safety still controlled the basement door, and was using it to get officers in and out of the building.

"At a certain point, people are willing to put themselves on the line," said Stefan Judelman PI ’00 of the new faces blockading the doors, some wearing bandanas to conceal their identities.

Judelman said 30 people had expressed their willingness to be suspended.

Around 7:30, Director of the Campus Center Neil Gerard arrived, and explained Pomona’s position.

"I think we need to get the building back so students can get inside and do the things they need to do the day before finals," said Gerard.

Students, who hours before had set the blockades, began dispersing to classes or sleep, while others milled around.

At 8:45 Quinley arrived to check if any students were still attached to the building, the presumed condition for suspension.

She relayed Stanley’s position, amidst a gaggle of reporters and photographers. "He feels he could not, in good faith, negotiate with people who are not respecting him or the building," she said.

Nevertheless, by 4 pm, after trading proposed agreements, Stanley and the committee drafted a final resolution.