After resident assistants at Ohio University have started the unionization process, graduate students and employees at the call center are trying to unionize as well.
After Ohio University resident assistants started the unionization process in February, other students on campus are now following their lead.
Graduate students and employees of the call center are trying to unionize as well, said David Logan, president of Local 1699 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFSCME.
“They are just like the RAs, they are hoping the university will recognize their worth and will give them an opportunity to negotiate and try to get a living wage and better working conditions,” Logan said.
The RAs want to unionize for three reasons: a fairer disciplinary system, a livable wage and to be united together, Casi Arnold, an RA in Smith House, said in an email.
“In the past year, there have been multiple mass firings, and that's something that hasn't happened in a very long time, entire staffs or large portions of staffs being fired all at once,” Arnold, a junior studying women’s, gender and sexuality studies and playwriting, said in an email. “Both firings were alcohol related and all RAs appealed, saying that the punishment was too severe. The appeals were granted, meaning that the department is aware that the punishment was too severe, and yet it continues.”
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="1a9b9b98-6ef2-11e5-8819-df6d61b1a9dc"}}
A fairer disciplinary system would benefit the RAs, Arnold said in an email.
“The same department that fired the RAs is the one that reviewed their appeals,” Arnold said in an email. “Also, even though the RAs got their jobs back, no one can take back the weeks that they spent wondering whether or not they'd even get to stay at OU. For a lot of RAs, myself included, without free housing, we wouldn't be able to continue our education.”
Jessica Lindner, a former RA in Armbruster, spearheaded the unionization last year, but graduated in the spring. Arnold, a second-year RA, is now leading the effort to unionize.
OU has 276 RAs and 30 assistant residence hall directors this year, Pete Trentacoste, executive director of Housing and Residence Life, said in an email.
RAs on average work 20 hours per week for 16 weeks each semester. This academic year they are paid between $14.71 and $17.91 per hour, depending on their level of experience, Trentacoste said in an email. RAs also receive a stipend between $2,745 and $4,789, depending on their level of experience, and their rooms are completely paid for.
Last academic year, RAs received 90 percent coverage of room fees, according to a previous Post report. In February, Housing and Residence Life decided to increase the amount of coverage to 100 percent and increase the RA stipend by 5 percent.
For the amount of work RAs do, Arnold said in an email, their pay and the free room is not enough.
“Could I do this without a room in the residence hall in which I work? No,” Arnold said in an email.
The most important part of RA unionization, Arnold said in an email, is that the RAs would have collective bargaining rights and could negotiate their contracts.
Last semester, nearly three out of four RAs on campus signed union cards, which are used to gauge who is interested in forming a union, but many of those RAs graduated or left their previous positions, Arnold said in an email.
Those in the RA Union wants the university's administration to recognize the union so that it can conduct an election, Arnold said in an email.
The RAs are trying to unionize with AFSCME, which currently represents all the service workers at OU, with the exception of the administrative assistants.
Logan would like to see between 60 to 70 percent of the RAs sign the union cards before filing for an election with the State Employment Relations Board.
“We’re just hoping that the university would step up and help us make a living wage and better working conditions for their employees,” Logan said.
@megankhenry
