Organizing Resident Assistants

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 04:46:12 GMT
>Sender: cgeu-list at cgeu.org
>From: "James A.W. Shaw" <shaw at soc.umass.edu>
>Subject:  Organizing Resident Assistants
>To: cgeu-list at cgeu.org
>
>Hello,
>
>James Shaw from UMass, Amherst (UAW) here with a little bit of news.
>Yesterday we filed as representation election petition with the
>Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission for our local union to represent
>the Resident Assistants (mostly undergrads) who work and live in the
>dorms. We have a wonderful organizing committee and we are having about
>80% join the union. We are not looking to add the RAs to our bargaining
>unit, but as a separate unit in our local (UAW 2322).
>
>Thought that this might be of interest to some of y'all as a way to
>increase worker power on your campuses. Our press release is below.
>
>Solidarity,
>James
>
>
>
>For immediate release
>Contact: Seth Hemond and Tim Scott, UAW Local 2322, (413) 577-2629
>
>First in the nation, Resident Assistants at University of Massachusetts,
>Amherst form union
>
>AMHERST, Mass. (April 5, 2001)-A majority of the 360 Resident Assistants
>at UMass, Amherst have formed a union, and today filed a union election
>petition with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission. This is the
>first union of RAs in the nation. The RAs have organized with Local 2322
>of the United Auto Workers, which also represents 2,500 graduate student
>employees on campus.
>
>Many RAs (including Community Development Assistants, also in the union)
>have become disillusioned by unfair discipline and arbitrary treatment
>received from Residence Life Management. Also, RAs are paid only $50 per
>week for 20 hours of work. RAs are undergraduate and graduate students who
>live in the campus dorms and counsel residents, develop educational and
>cultural programming, keep peace and order in the dorms, and deal with
>students' crises.
>
>For the past five weeks, RAs and union organizers from the UAW have worked
>many hours to form the union. From a single RA, to a committee of 20, to a
>union consisting of a majority of RAs, the union has come far to make
>history.
>
>"A union is not about legal maneuvering, strikes or winning elections--it
>is about power. It is about workers coming together to gain equal power
>with those who supervise us so that we can negotiate our pay, benefits and
>terms of employment with our employer," said David Synnott, a sophomore
>major in Political Science. "It is about getting the power to secure
>economic and social justice for all RAs."
>
>RAs receive a dorm room with their employment package, but must be
>"on-call" whenever they are home, even in the middle of the night.
>However, charging RAs for their room is like requiring an office worker to
>rent an office in the company building. The value of their room counts
>against their financial aid package, and furthermore, the university last
>gave the RAs a "raise" by increasing the "value" of their rooms.
>(Theoretically, the university could double RAs "pay" by doubling the
>value of the room.)
>
>This union campaign comes in the context of increased organizing among
>academic workers, including graduate student employees in the UAW. The UAW
>already represents Assistant Residence Directors as a part of the Graduate
>Employee Organization, and other campus housing employees are in a union,
>too.
>
>As the cost of college increases faster than the standard of living, more
>and more students are working their way through college meaning that more
>students will be seeking to improve their working conditions through the
>power of unions.
>
>--30--
>
>
>**************************
>James A.W. Shaw
>Graduate Employee Organization
>United Auto Workers Local 2322
>University of Massachusetts, Amherst
>
>(413) 545-0705 (phone)
>(413) 545-1457 (fax)
>jamesawshaw at hotmail.com
>http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~geo
>
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