By Arnie Alpert, Active with the Activists
Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace. Officially retired since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.
HANOVER, NH — The union representing hundreds of Dartmouth College graduate student-workers says it will go on strike Wednesday, May 1 after eight months of bargaining and what the union calls the college administration’s “grossly inadequate” responses to union proposals.
In a statement released after a Monday evening strike vote, the union said, “The administration has continued to reject proposals that would offer graduate workers a living wage, dental coverage, affordable childcare, retirement benefits, and short-term disability leave.”
Members voted to strike by an overwhelming margin, according to the union’s statement.
Dartmouth has consistently said it was negotiating in good faith with GOLD-UE, the union established in 2022 by graduate student employees. In a statement posted April 29, David Kotz, the college provost, said, “Dartmouth has listened to graduate students’ concerns, as expressed by GOLD-UE, and offered solutions that we hoped would reach the widest number of graduate students possible while balancing the needs of our broader community of staff and faculty.”
“Our decision to strike is motivated by consistent delays from Dartmouth throughout the bargaining process. When we waited patiently for returns, Dartmouth reneged on their promised deadlines, canceled bargaining, and dragged their feet,” the union said. “But when we picketed, packed the bargaining room, and walked off the job, we made meaningful advances in our contract fight.”
“In the face of the administration’s continued resistance, we turn to our most powerful tool as the only remaining option for substantial change to the status quo,” the GOLD-UE statement continued. “We will withhold our labor in full force until the moment that Dartmouth meets our demands and we collectively agree that this contract will allow us to live where we work.”
The union said picketing will begin at 9 am on May 1, which is International Workers Day.
GOLD-UE is one of several sponsors of a “Labor for Liberation” rally on the Dartmouth Green scheduled to begin at 5 PM on May 1. Other co-sponsors are the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, Dartmouth Palestine Solidarity Coalition, Jewish Voice for Peace, Upper Valley for Palestine, Upper Valley Democratic Socialists of America, and the VT-NH Tenants Union.