From: Laura McSpedon (lmcspedon@cwa-union.org)
Date: Fri Feb 22 2002 - 15:41:58 EST
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Laura McSpedon
Jobs with Justice
501 3rd St., NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-434-1106
laura@jwj.org
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The New York Times
February 22, 2002
Advisers' Union Drive Is Gaining on Campus
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
MHERST, Mass., Feb. 20 - The next frontier in unionizing just
may be the college residence hall,
where stereos blare and students traipse to the showers clad
only in towels.
The resident advisers, or R.A.'s, at the University of Massachusetts
here are not what one might think of as
downtrodden workers; they mainly listen to freshmen talk about their
problems and tell drunken students to keep
the noise down.
But saying that their work is low- paying, tiring and sometimes
harrowing, the advisers here will vote next month
on whether to unionize in a drive that labor leaders hope will serve
as a model for thousands of resident advisers
nationwide.
The union idea has caught fire among the 365 resident advisers at
UMass's Amherst campus. The university is
fighting the idea, saying that resident advisers are students, not
workers, and should not have the right to
unionize.
Many resident advisers see unionizing as a tool to get the university
to listen to their complaints and to raise their
wages. Advisers at UMass earn a $50 weekly stipend and a free
dormitory room, valued at $3,286 per academic
year.
"A union can help us get an equal playing field with the university,"
said Jennifer Caires, a sophomore resident
adviser who serves as counselor, role model and social director for
the 44 students on the third floor of Wheeler
Hall here. "Having a union will force the administration to listen to us."
As the labor movement struggles to reverse its decades-long decline,
unions have been searching for new types of
workers to organize. Now the United Auto Workers finds itself seeking
to unionize the resident advisers here
after several advisers asked for help because they were impressed by
how the U.A.W. had represented UMass's
graduate teaching and research assistants.
"The labor movement at its best has to follow where the activity is,
and right now there is a lot of activity taking
place at this campus and some other college campuses," said Tom
Juravich, director of the Labor Studies Center
at UMass. "At a time when many union members are nearing retirement,
this is an extremely important effort
because it's connecting the labor movement with young people."
University officials ridicule the notion that undergraduate advisers
should be allowed to unionize, asserting that
being a resident adviser is a privilege, not a job.
"Unionization of undergraduate students is inconsistent with
education at UMass Amherst," the university's
chancellor, Marcellette G. Williams, wrote in a letter to resident
advisers urging them to vote against unionizing.
"Unionization is particularly incompatible with your position as a
student leader and role model in the residence
halls."
The university chooses resident advisers based on their grades and
their leadership and communications skills.
They help patrol the dormitories where 11,000 undergraduates live.
University officials fear that bargaining with undergraduates will
cause bitterness, although UMass need not fear a
strike because state law bars walkouts by public employees. The
university also warns that if it gives resident
advisers a raise it might have to increase housing fees for all students.
"One can make the argument that this is a job, but that's not our
primary point of view," said Michael Gilbert,
director of housing services at the Amherst campus. "We approach this
from a very developmental and
educational perspective. This is different from a student working off
campus pumping gas."
Last April, the United Auto Workers presented a petition in which
three-fourths of the R.A.'s said they wanted
the union to represent them. The university responded that it did not
have to recognize the union because the
advisers, which it calls resident assistants, were not workers. That
left it up to the Massachusetts Labor Relations
Commission to determine whether the resident advisers were workers.
Chris Fierro, a senior who is a resident adviser, said, "It's a
service rendered that I receive payment for - there is
no simpler definition of a job. It's no different than if I work at Pizza Hut."
The commission ruled last month that the resident advisers were
indeed employees and scheduled a unionization
election for March 5. It noted that the R.A.'s had signed an
employment contract, averaged 20 hours' work each
week and received W-2 forms and weekly paychecks.
Ms. Caires, who hopes to major in finance, complained about many
aspects of being a resident adviser: her fears
of telling drunken, 6-foot-2 football players to lower their stereos,
the times she was awakened at 4 a.m. by
students who locked themselves out of their rooms, the university's
order that resident advisers remain in their
dormitories during the Super Bowl this year to help prevent chaos,
especially if the New England Patriots won.
Some R.A.'s have had to deal with students who attempted suicide and
visitors who took guns into a dormitory.
Several said the worst part of the job was being on call all the time.
"I support the union because I like my job and I want to improve it,"
said Cristal Cruz, a resident adviser majoring
in journalism and women's studies.
The resident advisers' system at UMass works on an almost industrial
model with hundreds of advisers taking
orders from a hierarchy of administrators. At Amherst College's more
intimate campus across town, the resident
advisers' system is more collegial, and there is no pressure to unionize.
"We feel needed," said Justin Jagher, a junior at Amherst. "The
college looks out for us. I'd call it more of an
honor than a job."
-- Molly McGrath Development Director Progressive Media Projectwww.progressive.org/mediaproj.htm
pmproj@progressive.org (608) 257-4626 phone (608) 257-3373 fax
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