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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2018)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | April 6, 2018 | PAGE 3 UNION ORGANIZING At Reed College, students are unionizing By Don McIntosh A new union at Reed College may have among the youngest membership of any union in America: On March 22, a group of 52 resident advisors who live and work in the dorms at Reed College voted 34 to 14 to union- ize as Local 1 of a newly formed independent union, the Student Workers Coalition. All are Reed sophomores, juniors, and sen- iors, and few if any are over 22. At Reed, they’re known as Housing Advisers, and they help the college manage student life in the dorms. Each housing ad- viser is responsible for the well- being of about 20 fellow stu- dents and for duties that take up three to 15 hours a week follow- ing a week-long training. They used to perform those services in exchange for free room and board, but for legal reasons, the college reclassified them as em- ployees starting in September 2016. That effectively resulted in a cut to compensation be- cause they now must pay pay- roll tax and income tax with- holding out of their stipend — $13,670 gross for the current ac- ademic year. Union supporter Photo courtesy of Student Workers Coalition It will be one America’s youngest union locals. Supporters of Reed College’s new union of residential advisors: From left, Julia Todhunter, Zoë Gregozek, Arek Rein-Jungswirth, and Chae Park. Zoë Gregozek says that was one factor motivating the student employees to unionize. Reed College has the most liberal student body in America, according to the Princeton Re- view. But the Reed administra- tion didn’t rejoice at the news of a union. Represented by the Barran Liebman law firm, Reed argued to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): first, that the housing advisers were not employees after all, but stu- dents; and second, if they were employees, hundreds more stu- dent employees ought to be in their bargaining unit. The student union supporters had neither money nor lawyers, but they prevailed after a nine- hour hearing attended by four Reed administrators and two lawyers. The NLRB’s Seattle re- gional director Ronald Hooks rejected Reed’s arguments, in accord with NLRB’s current in- terpretation of federal labor law. Reed then appealed to the NLRB to delay the election or impound the ballots, which the agency also rejected. Then, leading up to the vote, college administrators held vol- untary “information sessions” and sent emails to house advis- ers warning that the collective bargaining process might result in their compensation “decreas- ing,” and that having a union could harm their relationships with their supervisors. “Most [housing advisers] have close friendly relationships with their resident directors, so that was a scare tactic,” Gre- gorek said. Administrators also appealed to their altruism, asking them to think about the new crop of housing advisers who will begin in September — who wouldn’t get to have a say about whether to have a union. That’s quite a nervy argument from a college that rejected the housing advi- sors’ request for voluntary recognition last October — ac- companied by signed authoriza- tion cards from more than two- thirds of the group — and insisted on the delay of a secret ballot election, trying to post- pone it still more with legal ma- neuvers. Up to now, except for janitors represented by SEIU Local 49, no other Reed College workers have been union-represented. Student Workers Coalition spokesperson Seth Douglas says the housing advisers campaign is only the first of what is seen as a larger campus-wide effort to unionize student workers. It’s also a response to worsen- ing circumstances. Tuition has risen from about $36,000 a year a decade ago to $54,200 this year. While some of the col- lege’s 1,400 students receive fi- nancial aid, it’s not uncommon for students to graduate heavily in debt. Students who voted to union- ize are hoping to win improved compensation, the security of “just cause” discipline and a contract that the administration can’t unilaterally change, an end to seemingly arbitrary discipli- nary practices, and the basic union right to have a co-worker present during disciplinary meetings. Will Reed accept the union vote result and get busy negoti- ating an agreement? Kevin My- ers, Reed College communica- tions director, said Reed administration will wait for the vote count to be officially certi- fied by the NLRB before mak- ing any comment. CULTURE I am 2018: AFSCME remembers MLK Raymond Thomas Cynthia Newton Melissa Haggerty James Coon Chris Frost Sydney Montanaro Beware of “nurse case managers” in a workers’ compensation claim. You do not have to allow a nurse case manager to accompany you to your doctor’s appointments. 820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200, Portland, OR 97204 Scott Sell Chris Thomas www.tcnf.legal It’s now been 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Ten- nessee, where he’d come to sup- port a strike by 1,300 AFSCME- represented sanitation workers. This spring, to honor King and carry forward his agenda of racial and economic justice, AF- SCME joined with the Church of God in Christ to launch a campaign called I AM 2018. The campaign’s name comes from the iconic “I am a man” placards worn by the strikers as a way to assert their basic dig- nity as human beings. The campaign began with a nationwide moment of silence Feb. 1 to remember the sanita- tion workers whose death in Memphis precipitated the strike. Echol Cole and Robert Walker sought refuge from a storm in the back of their garbage truck. Faulty equipment led to the truck’s compactor kicking in, crushing them to death. The overwhelmingly black workforce struck for two months demanding union recog- nition, drawing support from AFSCME’s national leadership and allies including King, who marched in solidarity. On the evening of April 3 at the historic Mason Temple, the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) Interna- tional Headquarters, Dr. King delivered his famous “Moun- taintop” speech. He was shot the following day, April 4. This year, on April 2 and 3, AFSCME and the Church of God in Christ sponsored a series of events, speakers and perform- ances in Memphis. And on April 4, they marched from the AF- SCME Local 1733 hall to Ma- son Temple where they held a concert and rally for justice. Four Oregon AFSCME leaders were there: executive director Stacy Chamberlain, AFSCME Local 88 president Percy Win- ters, Jr. and vice president Ray- mond De Silva, and Oregon AF- SCME staff representative Micaela Shapiro-Shellaby.
