In Their Words: Worker Testimonials

Please take the time to read some worker testimonials. We often get bogged down in hourly pay rates and living wages and forget that all these numbers come from real people, with real lives. We hope that some of these testimonials will remind you that this entire campaign does have a human face.

Safdar Ali

For more than five years, I have protected the greater Harvard University community as an AlliedBarton security officer. The most fulfilling part is the relationship I have with the students and watching them grow into the world’s future leaders.
At first, I felt pride and excitement about working at one of the most prominent and prestigious universities in the world, but now that my family is barely surviving on near-poverty wages, my feelings have changed.

After working 80 hours a week to afford an apartment in Billerica, I made the difficult decision to move my wife and three children to a Cambridge public housing complex. It is hard for me, a proud man, to live in public housing, but at least I have more time to spend with my family because the rent is subsidized.

I am actively involved in the union with my fellow officers at Harvard because I want to have an active voice in creating a better life for my family.

MORE TESTIMONIALS HERE