The Resident Assistants of the University of Massachusetts made motions on Wednesday, April 4 to become the first undergraduate labor union in any college or university to date.
According to Tim Scott, the organizer for the United Auto Workers, the RAs have organized themselves into the local union #2322 of United Auto Workers, because of a variety of complaints that they feel need to be formally addressed.
"After talking to them, their complaints are consistent," Scott said when asked about what the RAs were further looking for from this union. "They want dignity and respect on the job."
"We aren't appreciated at all," said Ann-Marie Watt, an RA in Southwest. "Pretty much the reason we are forming is to protect our rights."
Scott explained that RAs were making $50 for being on call for the entire day and night and that they felt that it was an unfair practice.
"What they want and should get are better wages and compensation for being on call 24 hours a day," Scott said. "It's like sweat shop labor, but not as harsh."
Watt, who feels that the union would be beneficial, claimed that the RAs get paid for only twenty hours a week of work, despite the fact that many are there for their residents at all times and are therefore working more than those hours.
Watt argued that amount of money taken out for room and board was not an adequate benefit and that RAs needed to see more money allotted in their paychecks.
"We are paid minimum wage but money is taken out for our room," Watt explained. "And what's more, we have no housing security."
Among the list of across the board complaints by RAs was the lack of a fair system for regulating employee behavior. Watt explained that by unionizing RAs hoped to implement a fairer discipline system.
"RAs want a discipline system that is just and fair. The way in which we are reprimanded is very unclear. There is no set process," Watt said. "We don't have the judicial processes that the residents have, if an RA breaks a rule, they are automatically fired."
There is an RA Grievance Committee that currently exists at the University, however many feel that group is not set up fairly.
"The RA grievance committee is a group set up by the management and the University. The RA's don't really have a voice," Scott explained. "If they have a problem, they can go to the committee but management runs it."
He went on to say that if these workers were unionized that these problems may be avoidable.
"In a Union the RA's or workers legally, according to the law, have a voice, and equal role in the disciplinary process," Scott said. "In the committee, they're relying on the benevolence if management."
Watt also felt that the committee did not represent the rights of the RAs at the University in an ethical and fair manner.
"It's not really functional, because the RA council doesn't have as much voice and power as they should," Watt said. "I know RA's that have been fired for the stupidest reasons, and they were some of the best, but the board won't get you back your job."
Another key point is that RAs have a big responsibility to their job and to being good role models. Scott explained that this caused their jobs to be more in-depth and complicated.
"They're the authority figures in the dorms and they're the ones who enforce the rules," he said.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the RAs have to handle school full time, in addition to the 24-hour a day on-call responsibility that they have, causing many RAs to struggle to balance both school work and sometimes multiple jobs.
"There's certainly a significant amount who have second and third jobs," Scott said
Scott explained that the reception to the union has been positive and that many of the RAs on campus have decided to sign on and try to become part of the organization.
"Right now the majority has signed. Now it just has to go through the process of whether or not the University and State can recognize them," he said. "We ask that once we notify the state, which will be soon, that (the University) bargain with us on the conditions of employment."
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