Dear President Diver and Vice President McFarlane:

We, the undersigned, support the demands of the Reed janitorial staff and ask that their contributions towards health care premiums be capped at a maximum of 9.5% of their monthly income.

This is an issue that is extremely important to the Reed community. The janitors are undeniably a part of this community—all students, faculty, and staff benefit every day from the work that they do. As members of this community, we believe that Reed should pursue policies that make it a desirable workplace for all, and if there are glaring inequalities between groups of workers that result in real, lived struggles then this betrays our community norms and is dishonorable. We believe it is more in line with our egalitarian values to use a percentage-of-income based system to determine the amount spent on healthcare premiums; the current uniform monetary contribution required from all employees is an inequality. Furthermore, inequalities exist not only in terms of the percentage that janitors have to pay for health care, but also in their vacation days and their wage increases when compared with higher paid staff. We believe that affordable healthcare should not come at the cost of other benefits, such as wages or vacation days. Dismissing the janitors' demands is akin to leaving certain members of our community behind, which completely goes against what Reed should stand for.

Sincerely,