Statement on our union election petition and what's next

Over the past two years, we have built a powerful campaign to win recognition of our union at Berea College and a seat at the decision-making table. We’ve talked to hundreds of our co-workers, built new relationships, and shared powerful stories about our experiences and issues working at Berea College.

When we started this campaign, many of us believed Berea’s administration would live up to Berea’s values, history, and Great Commitments. We thought there was a real chance they would work with us to address the issues we’ve experienced and make our college even better.  

Instead, Berea’s administration decided to fight our union by avoiding the question of whether we deserve a voice, and instead arguing we are not really workers and should not have the right to unionize. With tens of thousands of student workers already unionized across the country and the absurdity of many of the College’s legal arguments, we fully anticipated the National Labor Relations Board would rule in our favor. The vision of labor law that Berea College’s lawyers promoted could only be accepted by an anti-worker judicial system.

Unfortunately, with the incoming Trump administration certain to install anti-worker leadership to the National Labor Relations Board and hasten the anti-worker movement in the courts with new appointments to the federal bench, we are now uncertain if can prevail before the NLRB, and ultimately on appeal in the federal courts, on the question of whether Berea student workers are “employees” as defined by federal labor law. Therefore, like many other undergraduate and grad student workers fighting for recognition across the country, we have made the difficult decision to withdraw our petition for a union election.

We make this decision in solidarity with the over 50,000 unionized student workers nationwide and all the workers organizing who have made the same difficult choice. If we had kept our petition active, we would have run the risk of Trump’s anti-worker NLRB and hostile federal judges using Berea’s legal arguments to set a legal precedent that could restrict rights for student workers nationwide and make it harder for all of us to organize in the future.

We want all our members and supporters to know that our fight is not over: we are still building our union. In fact, we have an unexpected advantage and an opportunity to push forward that other organizing campaigns have not had. Since the beginning of our campaign, we have worked closely with workers and organizers in United Campus Workers Southeast, whose 4000+ members have decades of experience organizing unions and winning change in states where governments have denied them legal routes to unionize and bargain contracts.

We are in the midst of plans to form a United Campus Workers chapter, and hope to formally announce our plan to make history in the coming weeks. In an increasingly hostile political landscape, it’s all the more important to stand together and remember that our power comes from being workers united. We look forward to continuing to fight to build a Berea College that works for everyone.

Solidarity Forever,

Abraham Garcia-Romero, Student Government Association President

Evy Medley, Multimedia Storyteller, Berea College Student Craft

Rhea Clayton, People Who Care Program Manager, CELTS

Hannah Brown, People Who Care Team Member, CELTS

Carlos Rodriguez-Tyree, Electronics Lab Assistant, ETAD

Jackie Conti, Associate, Forestry Outreach Center

Iris Gibson, Apprentice, Berea College Student Craft

Mar Frey, Facilities Management Assistant

James Stabler, VEPAC, Campus Life

Joshua Kells, Craft Educator Manager, Berea College Student Craft

Caleb Tucker, Freshman Vice President, SGA

Cora House, Community-Based Program Specialist for Grow Appalachia, CELTS

LILIANA North, Publicity Manager, Music Department

Ataleese White, Recycling Advocate, Facilities Management and Sustainability

Tatiana Alba, Peer Health Education Programmer, HEART

Maggie Neal, Peer Health Education Manager, HEART
 

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