Photo by Ali Meizels '23. Members of the Mount Holyoke Collective present at the vote celebrate their decision to unionize.
By Sophie Soloway ’23
Editor-in-Chief
Residential advisors and fellows gathered in Chapin Auditorium alongside other community members on the evening of Nov. 9 to determine the future of the Mount Holyoke Collective and their union status on campus. Officials from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459 chapter read aloud the individual votes to the hushed room. The silence was broken by applause when it was announced that the student workers had voted unanimously to formalize their union membership.
Of the 78 eligible votes, 65 were cast, containing all ‘yes’ votes and no ‘challenge’ or waived votes. Erin Foley ’24, a residential advisor and member of the Collective, remembered the night of the vote as being “really powerful, and spoke to how … strongly the desire to have us unionized [was].”
As previously reported by Mount Holyoke News, the Collective met with a UFCW representative in May 2021, with the goal of “airing [their] grievances about the current job position and planning next steps,” as they stated in an Instagram post. In the year and a half since, these “next steps” have consisted of regular body meetings that culminated in their filing for unionization on Sept. 28, 2022, according to their Instagram.
According to Foley, the Collective had not always planned to move toward union membership. Throughout her involvement last semester, Foley remembers prioritizing collaboration with administration and working towards pay raises, which were granted for this semester. However, upon arriving on campus for ResLife training, Foley and her coworkers were surprised to find that their duties had shifted from the last semester. In addition to overall changes brought on during the COVID-19 pandemic, Foley shared that their workloads had “nearly doubled” to include heightened requirements regarding Inspiration Conversations. These conversations with residents expanded from one to two conversations with residents per semester to three required conversations alongside paragraph-length write-ups submitted to supervisors.
From there, Foley and other RAs and RFs found unionization to be a possible solution for the instability of their roles. “When our job changed yet again, … we realized … there’s no insurance with this job. … There’s nothing preventing the school from backsliding on the pay that we received. … With all the uncertainties that we’ve seen in the world in the past few years, it’s totally possible that, should something arise in the future, our job could change yet again,” Foley continued. “They could cut back on our pay. All the work that we had done and building ourselves up to this fall could be taken away, and so unionizing is really just a way for us to protect ourselves as student workers and make sure that there is a solid, insured future for the … working conditions for RAs and RFs.”
As part of their union drive, the Collective also engaged the rest of the student body. On Sept. 29, the College’s Mountain Day, the Collective asked the campus community to wear blue to express their support for RA and RF unionization efforts. This practice was repeated on the day prior to the vote, when students were invited to join Residential Life workers for the conclusion of the vote and were asked once again to wear blue in support of the union efforts. In another show of support on Oct. 20, community members joined the Collective at the College campus’ fire pit for its “S’mores for Solidarity” event.
Prior to the election, the College had the chance to formally recognize the Collective’s unionship. However, Foley shared that the College did not follow this route.“When we filed, we just continued campaigning, … and if the school wanted to voluntarily recognize us, they could do that, but [they] didn’t. We were still focused on just continuing the path that we had been building toward.”
Despite not formally recognizing the union, Christian Feuerstein, the College’s director of news and media relations, said in a statement that “Mount Holyoke College appreciates the effort and dedication that our student employees bring to the work they perform on campus while pursuing their academic careers. For more than 185 years, we have respected each student’s ability to advocate for themselves, and we continue to support — and are proud of — their thoughtful and purposeful engagement with the world.”
Now that they have elected to unionize, the RA and RF union will wait for its official certification, which, according to a UFCW official proctoring the vote, should arrive within a week of the vote. Recalling the election, Foley stated, “I think it was a moment of celebration, for sure. And then very quickly, it [turned] to ‘Okay, back to work.’” Foley continued that, as the union awaits its official certification, “The organizing never stops — you’re still organizing, you’re still continuing conversations [and] building those relationships. And we’re doing that in preparation for a meeting with the school at the negotiating table to make sure that we’re representing as many voices and needs as possible.”
Feuerstein stated, “We are committed to actively participating in good-faith negotiations with UFCW Local 1459 to help strengthen our student employees’ experiences and leadership opportunities on campus.”