May Day: Students do the scrubbing
Celebrating International Workers’ Day, university students urge the cleaning crew to hang up their brooms
Aaron Kalman is a former writer and breaking news editor for the Times of Israel
The cleaning ladies who arrived at Tel Aviv University on Tuesday were in for a surprise as students greeted them with coffee and flowers, treating them to a day off in honor of International Workers’ Day, May 1.
Tel Aviv students have marked International Workers’ Day — known as May Day — on campus for the past three years, joining in the worldwide celebration of workers rights on May 1.
Student Union head Ori Reshtik told Maariv the move was a small gesture but also part of a larger campaign to make sure the cleaning crew was directly employed by the university and not subcontracted by manpower companies.
Many of the custodial workers were moved by the gesture, but also couldn’t sit while the students cleaned — so the two groups ended up working side by side.
The student union’s Facebook page was filled with reactions, including students who wanted to know when the next such event would be taking place.
