You can donate to UGSDW's strike fund HERE.
The Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW), a wall-to-wall independent labor union at Iowa's Grinnell College, has authorized Community Advisors (CAs) to go on an indefinite strike until a fair contract is reached. After seven months of failed negotiations, CAs walked off the job yesterday and are officially on strike as of today, May 11.
According to the union, the reasons for the strike are simple:
Through [the bargaining process], we have faced stalling, the College’s refusal to allow in-person observers at bargaining, regressive changes at the bargaining table, threats, and a complete refusal to engage with even the most basic subjects of negotiation.
A big point of contention and the immediate breaking point is a $13.25 per hour base wage proposal for CAs. While this sounds reasonable on paper, it's obviously tied to working hours—and Grinnell is not guaranteeing that for CAs. Currently, they receive a housing grant irrespective of hours worked, meaning that many CAs could actually see a pay cut from the change rather than a pay increase. UGSDW further notes that "[...]the College has not included bonus/experience pay, a livable hourly wage, and a contractually enforceable non-discrimination clause in their contract proposal."
It's also worth noting, however, that beyond the immediate points of dispute there have already been labor actions between UGSDW and Grinnell before today. The $13.25/hr base wage proposal is only that way because of one, actually. Earlier this year in March, a student walkout closed the campus libraries and most of the on-campus businesses in response to the idea of an $11.50/hr base wage proposal. Another proposal by Grinnell which would have excluded some student workers from just cause protections was dropped following the walkout.
As for what the strikers are demanding here, I'll let them elaborate:
Grinnell for its part has not responded well to the declaration of a strike. They believe the strike is unlawful and sent out an all-student email to that effect on Tuesday, May 9. They have also apparently ceased bargaining with UGSDW as of today, to which UGSDW has filed an unfair labor practice because it was willing to continue negotiations during the course of the strike.
Who has the upper hand here is hard to say as it's early days, but UGSDW certainly has weight to throw around on campus: about 800 students—or half the student body—is unionized with them. Grinnell, on the other side of things, has been viciously anti-union in the past. In 2018 it challenged the right of undergraduates to unionize at all, then hired Proskauer Rose to union-bust the original incarnation of UGSDW when that failed. Its Board of Trustees also once forced the university to cease unit-expanding negotiations with UGSDW. Hopefully, CAs can score a big win here against the university, but it'll certainly be tough going.