College Voluntarily Recognizes CAs as a part of UGSDW

On August 1, 2022, Grinnell College voluntarily recognized UGSDW as the legal bargaining representative of Community Advisors (CAs). In May 2022, after months of organizing, CAs presented the College with union cards from a large majority of their coworkers and CAs were finally recognized as student workers who deserve the right to collectively bargain.

Just like other campus workers, CAs are overworked and underpaid, with a pay scheme that disproportionately impacts low-income students. To make matters worse, the College forces CAs to sign a contract that says the job can change at any time for any reason. Even in workplaces without unreliable supervisors and unfair contracts, there’s no structure in place to protect students if the supervisors change or the College restructures the work. Now that all hourly student workers and CAs are unionized — over 800 student workers — we are excited to begin bargaining over a contract later this month that will cover every student worker at Grinnell College.

To the administrations of Kenyon College, Columbia University, and any other institution considering resisting unionization — it’s not worth it. Don’t underestimate the power that student workers have. We urge you to voluntarily recognize residence life worker unions on your campuses — starting with the Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee (K-SWOC) and the Columbia University Resident Advisors (CURA) Collective.

To student workers at other institutions — we stand in solidarity with you. You know what is best for your workplaces, and your institutions cannot function without you. After more than 5 years of union busting by a multi-billion dollar institution, we have finally won a true campus-wide student worker union. And now, with student workers at Kenyon, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Hamilton, and more joining the fight, our movement is stronger than ever. We all deserve fair pay and safe working conditions, and we’re excited to provide you with any resources you need to fight and win.

You can reach UGSDW’s leaders via email (ugsdw.org@gmail.com) or on social media (@ugsdw).

UGSDW is an independent union run by student workers. Consider supporting our organizing at ugsdw.org/donate.