UMass resident assistants fight union busting
By Bryan G. Pfeifer
In what is shaping up to be an epic battle, resident
assistant undergraduates (RAs) at the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst continue to fight with their bodies
and voices against a belligerent administration intent on
busting their new union.
With the administration fighting them all the way for over
18 months, the RAs voted by a two-thirds majority on March 5 to
join United Auto Workers Local 2322. The 365 RAs, the first
body of undergraduates to unionize in the U.S., are paid to
live in the dormitories to enforce rules, counsel new students,
and organize educational and social events.
The students receive a tuition waiver of up to $5,000
annually and about a $50 stipend per week. Students say they
often work more than 20 hours, are constantly on call, paid a
pittance and are required to stay in their dormitories at times
such as major sporting events when boisterous parties put them
at risk.
A year ago, UMass opposed a student petition for a union
election, claiming that students aren't employees; however, the
Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission voted in January that
students could vote on joining a union.
The commission also certified the RA vote for the Auto
Workers, but in what many see as a clear union-busting move,
the administration arrogantly refused to recognize the union on
March 26.
"The administration is quite adamant on this," said Kay
Scanlan, assistant vice chancellor for communication and
marketing. "They will not bargain on this issue."
In response, the UAW filed an unfair labor practices
complaint with the labor commission, which is pending. The
university has retained the union-busting law firm of Seyfarth
Shaw.
With major support from the UAW and the 3,000-member
Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) at Amherst, the RAs
initiated a series of actions to pressure the university to
recognize the union and gain wider labor and community
support.
On April 29, in the most militant action to date, 35
students and union activists were arrested at Amherst after
staging a protest sit-in and occupation of the Whitmore
Administration Building--office of the vice chancellor
for student affairs. This was the first mass arrest at Amherst
in a decade. Those arrested were charged with disorderly
conduct, resisting arrest and trespassing.
Undergraduates who participated in the April 29 protest were
initially suspended from campus after being arrested; seniors
were told they wouldn't be allowed to graduate, among other
outrageous measures. These measures were later lifted, but
students still face possible loss of this semester's credits.
RAs who were arrested will continue to live in dormitories,
although their employment was suspended. Among other things,
the administration claims the students violated the
university's so-called Picketing Code, enacted after the 1997
Goodell building takeover, which bars picketing and building
occupations on campus.
On May 6 a follow-up demonstration of about 300 was held at
Amherst with the demands: drop the criminal charges, end the
disciplinary action, and obey the law and bargain. Other
actions are planned.
RA supporters include various Massachusetts union locals
affiliated with AFSCME, the Amalgamated Transit Union, the
National Education Association, and the state Service Employees
union, as well as labor support organizations like the Harvard
living-wage campaign, Pioneer Valley Labor Council and Boston
Labor's ANSWER.
The Amherst Town Council has passed a resolution in favor of
the RAs. Amherst Labor Studies Director Tom Juravich and 28
other faculty and elected officials initiated a petition in
support of the RAs that forced Chancellor Marcellete G.
Williams to schedule a meeting with them May 8.
According to the Worcester Telegram, the five-campus UMass
system is struggling with $28.5 million in state budget cuts.
The Amherst campus, which is losing about $17 million, is
cutting seven varsity sports, raising student fees, laying off
95 workers, cutting academic programs by 6 percent and phasing
out jobs. About 400 employees have filed for early retirement,
including about 100 professors.
With the university in this position it might seem odd that
it is spending possibly millions of dollars fighting the RA
union. But Benjamin Balthaser, GEO organizer and English
graduate student, says it makes perfect sense for the
administration and its allies.
"Academic capitalism--this is where the administrators are
going right now and they don't want to be challenged."
With an explosion in GEOs on public universities, from about
five in 1991 to over 40 and growing today, administrations view
a parallel undergraduate union movement as "incredibly
threatening," claims Balthaser, not only because of profit
motives but because student unions build off-campus unity with
labor and community organizations and provide a strong base to
fight issues like university privatization.
The university, besides attacking and trying to intimidate
the RAs and their supporters, is relying on the struggle to
subside as summer break sets in. It is imperative for the
future of the labor movement that the Amherst RAs be supported
at this critical time.
The RAs are asking supporters to fax letters to Amherst
President William Bulger at (617) 287-7044 or call (617)
287-7044 or email Chancellor Marcellette G. Williams at
mwilliams@chancellor.umass.edu, phone: (413) 259-1872; fax:
(413) 545-2328. For more information see www.geouaw.org or www.uaw2322.org.
Reprinted from the May 16, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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