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SOFTBALL ‘Gender Bending Fashion’ recaps fashion’s history of breaking gender norms Jumbos score 3 wins over Mules see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 3 to secure NESCAC East pennant Men’s lacrosse cements position atop the NESCAC with SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE win on Senior Day see SPORTS / BACK PAGE THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF TUFTS UNIVERSITY EST. 1980 HE UFTS AILY VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 55 T T D MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS. MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2019 tuftsdaily.com Tower Café student workers claim underpayment, Dining Services director pledges investigation by Alexander Thompson Klos greeted the students and listened News Editor as they described their pay issues. She thanked the students for informing her and Disclaimer: Austin Clementi is a news said she would look into the matter. editor for the Tufts Daily. He was not “I appreciate information being brought involved in the writing or editing of this to us, and we will investigate promptly,” article. Klos told the Daily at the time. Five Tower Café student workers have The problems stem from raises Tufts not received the compensation that they student dining workers were supposed to were promised this semester. Several receive at the beginning of this semes- of them confronted their manager, as ter, according to emails from Tufts Dining well as Director of Dining and Business managers that were reviewed by the Daily. Services Patti Klos about the issue last These raises paralleled the rise of the Thursday afternoon. Klos told the stu- Massachusetts minimum wage to $12 in dents that Tufts Dining would take action January of this year. immediately. General workers received a raise from Two students were shorted $24, and $11 an hour to $12, supervisors from $12.50 two more were shorted $30. A fifth claims to $13 and managers from $13.50 to $14. she has not been paid almost $300. These Student workers at Tower Café began claims are supported by a review of emails to notice irregularities in their payment in and pay slips by the Daily. February when Austin Clementi, a sopho- The impacted student workers from more, was promoted from general worker Tower Café led a group of more than a to supervisor but did not receive the corre- dozen student activists and Tufts Dining sponding raise to $13, according to emails workers to bring their complaints to Arthur he provided to the Daily. “Turo” Rigor da Eva, their manager, a full- Gillian Davis, a senior and student time employee of Tufts Dining, shortly after manager at Tower Café, told the Daily she 3 p.m on Thursday. caught the error in early February and During a short conversation in the alerted Rigor da Eva, who then told Davis Commons Marketplace, Rigor da Eva told he filed the papers to correct the mistake. the students to see Klos. However, Clementi’s pay did not change. In After a brief walk, the students and early March, Rigor da Eva referred the issue workers filed into the Tufts Dining offices EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY on Curtis Street. The Tower Café in Tisch Library is pictured on Sept. 1, 2018. see WAGES, page 2 Amazon announces expansion into Medford by Anton Shenk According to the spokesperson, the “[Amazon] will also contribute to the tax However, Victory is optimistic about the Staff Writer facility will hold 200 employees, including base in our community, specifically person- benefit of Amazon’s close proximity to stu- product managers, engineers and busi- al property taxes,” Burke said. “Additionally, dents and the university. Victory explained Retail giant Amazon will continue its ness analysts, all of whom will support our businesses and restaurants in the area that the new office could offer nontradi- investment in the Boston area by opening a Amazon’s Alexa. will prosper because of the additional peo- tional means of taking advantage of the new office space in Medford. Medford Mayor Stephanie Burke says ple that will be utilizing them.” opportunities Amazon offers, including The company announced plans to move she is excited about the contribution Tufts Career Center Executive Director fostering research connections. into a 50,000-square-foot facility near Amazon can bring to the local community. Gregory Victory believes Amazon’s new In the last 10 years, Boston has become Wellington Station on the Orange Line, “Amazon will be bringing 200 additional office will offer positives for the Tufts com- an increasingly attractive region for tech which is roughly two miles east of Tufts jobs to our community. This allows recent grad- munity as well. companies. Amazon has made clear its campus, this spring. uates, vocational students, and those seeking a “It is certainly valuable to have compa- interest in growing more within the Boston An Amazon spokesperson told the Daily career close to home additional opportunities,” nies like Amazon, in Tufts backyard, and area and capitalizing on the region’s skilled that this office space is part of the company’s Burke told the Daily in a statement. the greater Boston area certainly provides workforce. Both Boston and Somerville increased investment in the greater Boston area. However, all 200 staffers in the new that access,” Victory told the Daily in an were contenders for Amazon’s HQ2 second “Amazon has created more than 1,800 office will transfer from the space the email. “Amazon continues to be a major headquarters contest, though they ulti- tech jobs in Boston, from speech scientists company rents in Back Bay, the transi- employer of Tufts graduates and we look mately lost to northern Virginia. helping make Alexa smarter every day to tion will create no new jobs when the forward to establishing a relationship with Amazon hasn’t been the only large corpo- robotics engineers building the latest tech- Medford office opens this spring. Still, this specific team.” ration attracted to expanding into communi- nology for our customer fulfillment net- Burke says Amazon’s presence in the Victory also noted that the new space ties just outside of the Boston area. Sportswear work,” the spokesperson wrote in a state- Medford community is expected to add is in its early stages, so assessing what manufacturing company Puma will also be ment emailed to the Daily. “We are excited economic benefits. With 200 employees, full-time or internship opportunities opening its North American headquarters less to be bringing more jobs to the Boston area Amazon will be one of Medford’s largest might exist for students is difficult at than a mile away from Amazon’s new space, and across Massachusetts.” private employers. this stage. according to a Boston Globe article. For breaking news, our content archive and Please Contact Us NEWS............................................1 recycle this exclusive content, visit OPINION ....................................6 newspaper P.O. Box 53018, ARTS & LIVING ......................3 tuftsdaily.com Medford, MA 02155 SPORTS ........................... BACK Rain [email protected] /thetuftsdaily @tuftsdaily tuftsdaily tuftsdaily FUN & GAMES ........................5 62 / 50 2 THE TUFTS DAILY | NEWS | Monday, April 22, 2019 tuftsdaily.com THE TUFTS DAILY Student workers at Tower Café allege they were shorted ELIE LEVINE Editor in Chief EDITORIAL hundreds in wages David Levitsky Anita Ramaswamy WAGES Wu said she thinks her underpayment Daily that she has still not received back Managing Editors continued from page 1 was a simple error. pay for the semesters of underpayment Luke Allocco Associate Editor to Tom O’Connor, Tufts Dining Services’ “It’s probably a careless mistake and I’m before then. Jessica Blough Executive News Editor manager of staffing and training, according not sure if it is as serious,” Wu said. Davis also pointed to the experience of Austin Clementi News Editors Charlie Driver to the emails. Klos did not respond to additional inqui- one of her co-workers who was underpaid Jenna Fleischer Juliana Furgala O’Connor responded two days later, say- ries about the results of the investigation last semester and caught the error but did Kat Grellman ing that there had been an error and that into the students’ claims by press time. receive back pay. Abbie Gruskin Liza Harris Clementi would be given back pay, which It appears that the issues were con- Davis and Yates said that part of Zachary Hertz Gil Jacobson Clementi says he received. tained to Tower Café. Three other stu- the problem is that only managers are Rachael Meyer Catherine Perloff This episode led other workers at Tower dents employed by Tufts Dining — Samee informed of the wages for each position Seohyun Shim Café to check their own wages, which is Mushtak, a junior who works at Dewick — not the general workers or supervisors Alexander Thompson Hannah Uebele when Davis and two supervisors at Tower MacPhie Dining Center; Mia Lambert, a — which makes catching underpayment Joe Walsh Alejandra Carrillo Assistant News Editors Café, Phoebe Yates and another student senior who works at the central kitchen and difficult. Robert Kaplan worker, discovered they did not get raises bakery; and Andrew Jefferies, a senior who Both Yates and Davis work at Tower Café Noah Richter Jilly Rolnick from the beginning of the semester either. works at Carmichael Dining Center — told as part of the Federal Work-Study program. Grace Yuh Executive Features Editor Yates, a first-year, and the other student the Daily that they have not had similar “I buy my food with this money, I pay Costa Angelakis Features Editors Jenna Fleischer worker continued to be paid $12.50, con- issues and that they were being correctly part of my rent with this money, it’s part of Sean Ong Michael Shames firmed by the Daily’s review of their pay compensated. my financial aid package. This money mat- Fina Short Sidharth Anand Assistant Features Editors slips.