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—Unionized undergraduate workers at Dartmouth College say they are prepared to go on strike if their demands for pay raises, protection of jobs from automation, and protection of their members from federal immigration agents are not met.  Negotiations between the union and management broke down earlier this month when College negotiators failed to show up for a planned May 1 bargaining session and instead told the union that the management would not budge from its most recent proposal, dated April 17.

The union, the Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth (SWCD) won a substantial pay raise for Dartmouth Dining Services (DDS) workers in its first contract, signed in 2023.  Since then, the union has also organized Undergraduate Assistants (UGAs), known as resident advisors at other campuses.  

In a May 14 letter to college negotiators, the union said its members had voted overwhelmingly to reject the college’s final contract offer and to authorize a strike.  “We are left with no other choice but to escalate as you have refused to continue bargaining with us and have not responded to our final offer for UGAs and DDS workers,” the union statement said.

The union and the college have been negotiating for months and had extended the provisions of the initial contract, which expired March 19.  But at the end of April, when the union was preparing for a May 1 bargaining session, management’s representative informed them the college would no longer extend the 2023 contract and that its April 17 proposal was its “last, best, and final offer” for both the dining service workers’ second contract and the UGAs’ first contract.

“While the contract is expired, Dartmouth will continue to adhere to the status quo on provisions such as pay, hours, working conditions, and benefits,” wrote Rachel E. Muñoz, Dartmouth’s Associate General Counsel and Associate Vice President for Labor and Employment.

Prior to joining the college in 2023, Muñoz’s previous employment included a stint at Jackson Lewis, which has been described as a “notorious law firm at the forefront of union busting.”

“Throughout negotiations, Dartmouth has sought fair, responsible, and respectful contracts for both UGAs and student dining workers. While no contract in collective bargaining includes everything either party wants, our goal has been to reach agreements that reflect reasonable compromises on the majority of the issues raised at the bargaining table, and our last, best, and final offer includes such compromises,” Muñoz wrote.

Anticipating a strike, the union has launched a fundraising initiative for a strike fund and reached out to the college’s faculty for support. “For the past seven months, we have bargained with hostile college attorneys — paid hundreds of dollars an hour — while we learn labor law between classes, lunch shifts, and weekends,” SWCD said in a message to the faculty. 

“Dartmouth gave us their so-called ‘last, best, and final offer’ — insulting at best, and outright unlivable at worst. To make matters worse, the college also refused to continue to bargain with us. If the college does not meet us at the bargaining table, we must force their hand, which is why our unit has passed a strike authorization vote by 91%,” the union wrote.

The union says its major demands at this stage of negotiations are protecting dining service workers from being replaced by electronic instruments, raising their base wage to $23/hour and linking it to increases in tuition rather than the rate of inflation, and a stronger commitment by the administration to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents off campus.  The union is distrustful of the college’s new general counsel, Matt Raymer, who previously served as counsel to the Republican National Committee and has publicly backed President Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship. 

SWCD has asked members of the faculty to join them on the picket line if they go on strike.