FYI - I hadn’t been aware of this as an on-campus issue.
Link to the 12/7/18 Inside Higher Ed article:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/12/07/grinnell-administrators-appeal-student-workers-union
Think the college did a good job explaining why expanding the union for more educationally based jobs on campus is problematic and detrimental to these excellent experiential experiences (that just happen to be paid for!) GC is hardly non-union… there was no opposition when Dining Hall employees organized a few years ago. And, I seem to recall reading that the school offered forming a committee of stakeholders to discuss employment issues each year (wage rates, training, safety, scheduling, etc.) so would seem like that would have been worth trying out for a few years. Only half the student employees voted, so I’d hardly call the vote a landslide either. No union buster here (I worked over 25 years designing/building union retirement plans), just think the college is right in this situation.
I’m a GC parent as well, and think there’s a difference between unionizing temp dining hall workers who are working as part of a student financial aid package, as opposed to graduate level TA’s or Asst. and Adjunct professors. I’m pro-union, but unions bring with them a lot of rigid regulations and can add a layer of headaches for management who just need to get a job done. I think the college did a good job explaining it BUT I think they should have met in person with the students to use it as an educational opportunity to understand the realities of having a union. Being in a union involves paying dues, officials getting paid for official time, many meetings to resolve personnel issues, using seniority instead of more relevant criteria for choosing staff for assignments, etc. I could say more but I think Grinnell could have met with students. OTOH, perhaps there are legal reasons why they can’t do that. It’s hard to judge without knowing all the real reasons for the college’s decision.
The article states that the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers is the only independent union of undergraduate student workers in the country. Anyone know why undergraduate student workers at other colleges have not unionized?
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So interesting. Student workers don’t organize for the same reasons other workers in low-wage temporary work don’t. Too busy, worried about losing the job, retaliation, etc. I went to a hyper-progressive undergrad college and the administration was actively anti-union. I find it astonishing that the school was willing to negotiate with the union in the first place. I don’t see why they shouldn’t organize. They are workers, after all.