Update on our worker status, pay, and election path.

To our fellow student workers,

Less than two weeks ago, we filed for our union election with a positive vision for our union and a Berea that works for all of us. In the time since going public, there have been a lot of contradictory messages coming from multiple sources. A lot of this information has been confusing, misleading, and possibly even scary. Because of this, we are writing to you all to clear up some of the issues around our employment, our pay, and the current status of your election petition.

Firstly, President Nixon, in an email this week, stated that the “unionization would likely set up an unprecedented conflict between the NLRB and Department of Education (DOE), which regulates Berea as a Work College.” The reasoning in the email is that the NLRB could define you all as workers while the Department of education defines you as students receiving federal aid grants and scholarships. On this point, it is important to clarify that Work Colleges, and other employers of student labor, while unique in certain ways, are still employers like any other and must follow labor law accordingly. In the last few years alone, undergraduate and graduate workers around the country have organized unions and bargained contracts, including student workers paid through federal work study, tuition and fee waivers, and even room and board. The law is clear that it doesn’t matter the form—work study dollars, tuition waivers, or even a dorm room—doing work for compensation means we are workers under the law, with all the rights that come with it. This includes the democratic right to a union election.

The administration and their lawyers (a firm with a history of union busting) are currently arguing before the NLRB that Berea workers are not employees, and so before our election and our unionization process can continue, their argument has to be resolved or withdrawn. Our lawyers are extremely confident that we will win on any challenge that the College brings to the Labor Board. When this happens, we will all be able to have our election and exercise our democratic rights.

Secondly, much of the discourse around this campaign has focused on wages and how complex the college's funding model is. In truth, our vision is much broader than just a wage increase. Fundamentally, our campaign is about student workers having a seat at the bargaining table and a say in their terms of employment. It is also our position that all student workers deserve the financial resources to afford basic necessities (shampoo, food, medicine) and to not be pushed into periods of temporary homelessness. While it is true that our financial aid amount is determined by the federal government, we are confident that we can reach a solution at the bargaining table that works for everyone. It is time that we have a real voice so that we can work with the administration in finding solutions to these persistent issues. Why wouldn't President Nixon want this?

Lastly, this campaign is not an attack on Berea College, or its mission. The same values that brought us to Berea - seeking a sense of community and wanting to give back to it, ensuring that everyone has a voice, and finding dignity in all labor- are what brought us to take part in this campaign. This College will only be better when we, the student workers of Berea, have a real say in making it better.

We are planning to convene a public gathering next week which will be a great opportunity for everyone to hear stories directly from other Berea student workers and learn more about why we want a union on our campus. Stay on the lookout for more details on this in future announcements from our campaign. In the meantime, if you are eager to get involved in our organizing efforts, you can reach out to us at our email: berea@ucw-cwa.org

On behalf of the United Student Workers of Berea-CWA Organizing Committee,

Maggie Neal, class of 2025, Peer Educator, HEART
Iris Gibson, class of 2025, Apprentice Ceramicist, Ceramics