SWOC advocates union

Members of the newly-organized Student Worker Organizing Committee (SWOC) held a meeting Thursday night to gauge student feelings about unionization. The meeting, which drew about 25 students, was dominated by discussion of the benefits of unionizing some or all of the 1,800 part-time student workers on campus.

"It's a good move," Grant Grace, president of the campus United Auto Workers (UAW) local, told the group. "Be as stubborn as you have to be. Do whatever it takes to become unionized."

Grace spoke alongside representatives from the Oberlin College Office and Professional Employees (OCOPE) and the Oberlin College Security Association (OCSA), as well as several student members of SWOC.

Members of the College administration were not prepared to comment on the issue of student unionization since no details or explanation were clear before the meeting. No members of the administration came to the meeting.

Julie Weir, president of OCOPE, stressed that unions are the way to have a voice in the workplace. "There is not an avenue unless you're in a union," Weir said.

This was a theme that others reiterated. Christine Diewald, vice president of OCSA, said student workers have far fewer rights than their unionized counterparts. "Because they have a union, they have a voice. Because you don't, you don't have a voice," she said.

Grace agreed that a union would give student workers more control over their jobs. "If you don't have someone to represent you and protect your rights, they'll take advantage of you," Grace said.

The representatives from all three unions said their memberships are excited at the prospect of adding student workers.

Another theme many speakers discussed was the impact student workers have on the wages and jobs of non-student workers. Weir used the example of holidays. She said that if the College uses student workers on holidays, they avoid paying union workers higher holiday wages.

Ty Moore, a student worker at Stevenson and member of SWOC, said student workers constitute a low-wage pool of labor that undercuts the wages of full-time College employees. "Students act as 'scab' labor," Moore said.

Moore argued that since the College can use cheaper student labor it can hire fewer full-time unionized workers. He went on to say this has ripple effects throughout the entire Oberlin community.

Moore reiterated this theme several times, arguing that the College has a responsibility to provide "good, secure, living-wage union jobs." Unionization of student workers, and eventually all workers on campus, is the way to reach this goal, he said.

The speakers also discussed problems students might face in a unionization drive. Moore said one thing students he has talked to keep asking is: "Is this realistic? Can we really do this?"

Moore and the other speakers believe unionization is very realistic. They proposed a strategy of collecting signatures from students authorizing a union to represent them. Students would then ask the College to recognize the union.

This system, called voluntary recognition, is fairly rare in unionization drives. Usually the employer does not recognize the union, and a recognition vote must be taken.

Moore said he thinks students have a lot of power at Oberlin and seemed optimistic that they could use the power to pressure the College to recognize a union. "We do have a lot of power. If we get fired we could raise a lot of hell," he said.

Members of SWOC proposed several ways to push the College to recognize the union, including work stoppages, sit-ins and targeting alumni with a PR campaign.

Moore conceded that the organizing drive will be a lot of work. "It's going to take a lot of work," he said. "It'll take a core group of people to push it through."

Grant forecasted a difficult struggle to get a union of student workers at Oberlin. He said the issue of student workers was raised during UAW contract negotiations over the summer. "The answer was a resounding 'no,'" he said.

Grant said when the UAW organized on campus, the College tried to stop the drive. "When we were organizing people, the College spent a lot of time and money trying to keep us out," he said.