Last month, Boston College’s Residential Life employees launched a campaign to establish a student workers union for Residential Assistants (RAs), Graduate Student Assistants (GSAs), Graduate Resident Directors (GRDs), and summer operations staff.
“BC continues to disregard and undervalue the critical role that RAs will fill around the clock at our university — it’s time for that to change,” an Instagram post on their official account states.
The group is aiming to negotiate for equitable stipends, efficient and compensated training, a standardized and transparent job description, holiday pay, and job security, among other benefits.
The steps to form a union are seemingly simple: generate student employee support, sign union support cards, vote yes to a union, and begin to negotiate a contract with the institution.
However, in order for them to accomplish their goals, they need to garner more campus- and community-wide support, which may prove to be difficult at an institution such as Boston College.
“Unionizing is hard to begin with,” an email from the ResLife student workers to The Gavel reads. “Unionizing at a private, conservative institution where a majority of the population comes from a place of wealth and privilege is even harder.”
A 2017 study from The Upshot, a data analytical website published by The New York Times, reported that the median family income of a student from Boston College was $194,100, and 70% of the student body came from the top 20%.
Meanwhile, many of the students that apply to the RA position do so because they cannot afford to attend BC otherwise. In the same study mentioned above, only 3.1% of students are a part of the bottom 20%.
While some may argue that financial aid can cover the needs of low-income students, it is important to note that BC RAs are prohibited from holding an on- or off-campus job for more than 10 hours a week, which limits their income. With no other way to support themselves and the threat that their status as a RA could be taken away from them, they are left with very little financial security.
Not to mention, in the 2022-23 school year, the Boston College Board of Trustees voted to raise undergraduate tuition by nearly 4%, while RAs with higher financial need have reported a decrease in their need-based aid after securing the position.
The benefit of free housing is not enough to support the demands of the job, a position which has no standardized rules concerning compensation and responsibilities. Oftentimes, student workers have to facilitate events during Welcome Week or stay in the dorms over holiday breaks without any pay.
By not recognizing RAs and other residential life student workers as employees who deserve minimum wage, the university places these students at a disadvantage from similar and neighboring schools.
Most recently, the United Labor of Tufts Resident Assistants (ULTRA) ratified their first contract in agreement with Tufts University. They were able to negotiate a stipend of $1,425, 80 meal swipes a semester, and holiday pay, as well as guidelines surrounding training and the amount of students an RA would be responsible for at one time.
Student workers at other colleges in the area such as Boston University, Harvard College, and Mount Holyoke College are also pushing to unionize. While this is not a new phenomenon, colleges are beginning to see a newfound radicalization from students in their fight for equitable treatment and labor organization in the aftermath of the pandemic.
At the same time, there is one major factor that sets BC apart from other universities. While the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) permitted graduate students at private colleges to unionize in 2016, the NLRB has no jurisdiction over religious institutions, meaning that BC can choose to ignore unionization efforts on their campus.
A clear example of this involves the Boston College Graduate Employees Union. Despite winning their election in 2017, BC administration has continued to appeal to the NLRB to overturn the original case and has refused to bargain with the union. BC insists that the RAs are students, not workers, therefore it does not have to recognize their efforts.
An article from The Nation on this issue stated that, “Catholic universities are relying on a religious exemption to avoid recognizing workers’ rights—and workers are appealing to Catholic values to fight back,” which appears to be the case at BC.
According to Boston College’s website, a Jesuit education “[draws] on the heritage of St. Ignatius Loyola… [inviting] students into a conversation that asks enduring questions and promotes engagement with the complex problems in today’s world.”
Student workers’ rights is indubitably a complex problem of today’s world that the residential life workers are trying to engage in conversation with BC administration.
“Currently, the administration at Boston College is using our Jesuit affiliation as a weapon against recognizing student-workers unions,” the BC ResLife workers expressed in an email. “What our University is ignorant towards is the fact that pro-union values are synonymous with our Jesuit identity.”
BC may have a financial or religious motive for fighting unions, but it does also have a moral obligation as a Jesuit institution to uphold its own ideals of social justice and hear out its workers.
“A union will be run entirely by and for RAs,” the email reads. “Every worker deserves and should be advocating for a union… Apathy is causing many people to be hesitant to support the RA union. This apathy, however, is derived from a feeling of hopelessness after being failed by our institution time and time again. It’s time to change this.”
Aspiring haunted house owner, ex-barista, and NYT mini crossword player.
