NEWS

Student workers at Hamilton College to vote on unionization, possibly a national first

Amy Neff Roth
Observer-Dispatch
Students who work in the admissions department at Hamilton College, pictured here in an O-D file photo, will vote on whether to unionize. If the vote passes, they could be the first student admissions workers in the country to unionize.

In what could be a national first, students working in the Hamilton College admissions office are trying to unionize. 

The campus tour guides and senior admissions fellows (who interview prospective students and provide comment for their files), all undergraduates, have filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, said Eric Kopp, a member of the students’ organizing committee, a senior admissions fellow and an intern at the Central New York Labor Council. 

They’re now waiting for the board to set the date of the election. 

Research hasn’t turned up any similar unions beyond some resident advisers in Massachusetts, said Samantha DeRiso, director of political and public affairs and one of the lead organizers at Hamilton College for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, District Union Local One in Oriskany, the statewide union of about 15,000 the students hope to join.  

“This is one campaign that might go national because I don’t think anyone has ever organized tour guides,” she said.  

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The students are seeking higher wages, a uniform disciplinary process and a working environment with more respect, Kopp said.  

Minimum wage is increasing in the state and jobs in downtown Clinton pay more than the admissions jobs, but not all students have cars to drive to Clinton for work, he said. The tour guides asked for a raise over the summer, but didn’t get it and some of them, Kopp said, faced retaliation afterward.  

Many of the workers have told him that the admissions department isn’t the best working environment, Kopp said, while acknowledging that not everyone is complaining. 

“I think a lot of our students recognize that even if they haven’t had negative personal experience with the admissions office, it’s better to organize for a higher wage, for more respect in the workplace, for more advanced procedures written into contracts,” he said.  

Hamilton College acknowledged that its Dean of Admission Theresa Valdes was notified by the labor relations board last Tuesday about the students’ call for a union election.  

“The college maintains that its admission student workers are treated fairly and with respect, and will fulfill its obligations as stipulated by the NLRB,” a statement said.  

In a letter to the students who are organizing, the dean acknowledged that the news had come as a surprise to her and her colleagues, saying that her department has prided itself on its “positive working environment, maintaining open communications and hearing from students about any issues or concerns.”  

“Now I’m not saying that the school is horrible,” the union’s DeRiso stressed. “I don’t want that to be a misconception. But there’s an adjustment that needs to be made.” 

In order to approve the election, the board requires at least 30 percent of the workers’ in a proposed bargaining unit to sign and submit authorization cards, she said. At Hamilton, more than half of the 65 students in the unit signed cards and more keep coming in, she said. 

Once a date is set, students will vote in person and the results should be known later that day, DeRiso said. To form a union, one more than half of the ballots cast need to be in favor of it, she said.  

A union contract wouldn’t just protect current students for the few years they work on campus, Kopp said, but future students as well.  

The Hamilton students are hoping, he said, that their efforts will inspire students at other colleges to organize, too.  

“I’m hoping,” Kopp said, “if other people see this they’ll be like, ‘Oh, wait a second. Why shouldn’t we be doing this then?’” 

Amy Roth is the health and education reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Amy Roth at aroth@gannett.com.