BU’s On-Campus Unionization Efforts

Written by Mara Mellits | Designed by Tamar Ponte | Photographed by Darcy Gallagher

If you’ve noticed companies across America are unionizing left and right—you’re not alone.

According to Bloomberg Law, unions have won more elections this past year than they have for the past 20 years—and they’re not slowing down.

Just walking down Commonwealth Avenue, it’s easy to see why this trend hasn’t gone away.

Just in this current academic cycle there have been three on-campus unionization efforts. Two of them are connected to Boston University— the BU Children’s Center and the BU Graduate Student Union. The last one is the Starbucks on 874 Commonwealth Ave., located in the heart of BU’s West Campus, which is the only union strike as of Nov. 17 to end in a success thus far.

Besides that, there are already five established unions on campus that cover full-time staff, including police officers, security officers, service, maintenance, librarians, clerical, technical and service employees. According to BU Policies, temporary, seasonal, and student employees are not allowed to unionize.

But where did all these unions come from?

First off, labor unions are not new. According to CGS Lecturer and the History Program Coordinator for the Metropolitan College, Andrew David, manufacturing set the stage for the formation of unions.

“You see a rise in labor unions with the industrialization of the United States primarily in the North and the Midwest in the early mid-part of the 19th century,” David said.

However it wasn’t until 1869, that the first union was created: the Knights of Labor.

“Better wages, better hours, and the weekend were the kinds of things they advocated for only,” David said. “They were also remarkable because they would allow anyone in, and not just in terms of skill, in terms of racial background…but even women found a home in the Knights of Labor in a way that they wouldn’t in other unions.”

The Great Depression, WWI, the culture shift in the 1920s, all led to more American working industrial jobs and that eventually led to a push for labor unions.

“By the mid 1950s, about a third of Americans belonged to unions,” David said.

But why are they so popular now?

It has to do with the economic recession and the housing crash of the 2000s, the pandemic and a younger generation that doesn’t have the same opportunities as previous generations, according to David.

CGS Social Sciences Senior Lecturer Sam Deese added, “The concerns that people have about the cost of living, are also leading people to understand the value of the kind of protection that a union can give you in terms of negotiating better pay, better working conditions.”

LECTURER'S UNION

A union amongst BU’s lecturers has established its prominence this year, though its origins go further back.

According to Deese, more than half of the faculty who teach at BU are lecturers or graduate students, and therefore do not have tenure.

“Our department is very hierarchical in romance studies, and we’re not allowed to teach certain levels of courses even though most of us have PhDs just like the professor’s do,” said Molly Monet-Viera, a Spanish Lecturer in CAS, who has been a steward of the lecturers’ union since the union negotiated its first contract in 2017.

Deese is also a steward for the lecturers’ union since summer 2022 and helped form it.

“Being a part of forming the union and participating in negotiations for contracts has been one of the most inspiring, if not the most inspiring, political experience I’ve ever had in my life,” Deese said.

In an email obtained by The Buzz, President Brown acknowledged the promotions of tenured faculty but disregarded any lecturers.

According to Monet-Viera, the lecturers were not happy and wrote to Brown.

“It makes us feel invisible, it’s such a small thing, [he] could acknowledge our promotions as well,’” Monet-Viera said. “And he wrote back and said no.”

Instances like these cause lecturers to feel like “second class citizens,” and that ultimately hurts students.

“If the administration is doing something, to keep money for itself, that is bad for lecturers and bad for graduate students. Guess what? It’s also bad for the students,” Deese said.

Even though BU professors are paid about 25% more than professors across the country because of the high cost of living, lecturers are not paid 25% more than the average lecturer, according to Monet-Viera.

“It’s hard to live on a lecture salary in Boston,” Monet-Veira said.

BU GRADUATE STUDENT WORKERS UNION

On Sept. 12, the BUGSWU submitted their claim campaign to form a union. Backed by 3,000+ students, BUGSWU was formed to support the doctoral students on campus.

Doctoral students receive work as researchers and teacher’s assistants and don’t have to pay tuition. Students earn between $24,521 for eight academic months to $36,782 for a full year.

Despite their payment, students have cited high living costs, and many are struggling to find housing due to the number of students trying to live close to campus.

This isn’t the first time BU graduate students have tried to unionize. Before their claim was announced on Sept. 12, students were blocked by the university in 2019.

“These graduate students are increasingly aware of the fact that they need and want union representation to advance their interests,” said David Webber, a Paul M. Siskind Scholar and BU Professor of Law.

During the Trump administration, when the National Labor Relations Board was filled with his appointees, there was a stall in the number of graduate student unionization on private campuses, according to Insider Higher Ed.

On Sept. 23, Jean Morrison, University Provost, and Chief Academic Officer released a letter to the BUGSWU explaining BU’s opposition to the union.

Morrison explained that enacting a union would establish a “one size fits all” model, which isn’t fair for everyone. Despite the administration’s unwillingness to compromise, some professors all over campus still support the union.

“The education that you came to get is not possible without the effort of graduate students,” Deese said, referring to BU’s student body.

BUGSWU did not respond to interview requests.

BU CHILDREN’S CENTER

In May 2022, The BU Children’s Center unanimously decided to unionize.

The center reached out to Hersch Rothmel, a Director for External Organizing with SEIU Local 888, an organization in Massachusetts focused on unionizing educators. Rothmel describes his role as providing guidance for workers in organizing their union.

He said after the Children’s Center reached out in May, he met with the staff on June 1 and 5 and then filed for an election on June 10.

On August 8, BUCC teachers unanimously voted to unionize and to unite in SEIU Local 888. Their goal, according to their official press release, is “to address understaffing, low pay, and to achieve a voice on the job.”

And according to Rothmel, the teachers received pushback from administrators.

“They said it would be disruptive and would get in the way of direct communication that the administration has with the teachers,” Rothmel said. “It was just a few emails and the teachers were unfazed and voted unanimously for the union.”

BUCC’s negotiations with BU are ongoing. BU Human Resources and BUCC teachers did not respond to interview requests.

STARBUCKS

As of Oct. 2, over 300 Starbucks locations have had union elections and 80% have decided to unionize, according to National Public Radio.

And the Brookline Starbucks located is one of them.

Maria Isaza (COM ‘25) first started working at the Starbucks near West Campus in January 2021. But it wasn’t until May 2022 that Starbucks decided to join the Starbucks United Workers Union.

“My store joined because we had seen the movement with other stores, and it trickled down to other locations around Boston…We wanted to have a voice in our workplace conditions,” Isaza said.

After the store decided to unionize, they were given a new manager who made changes.

“She would understaff the floor and complained about having no coverage. When we asked her about scheduling, she would tell us there weren’t enough hours to go around, but then she would turn around and hire five new people,” Isaza said.

So on July 18, the store officially went on strike, according to WGBH. During the strike, the shop was closed and workers were picketing during their free time, despite the lack of pay.

Author of the book, The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor’s Last Best Weapon, David Webber thinks Starbucks “has been taking a little bit too much of a hard line” against their workers.

“A lot of customers want or have an interest, a lot of investors in Starbucks even are in favor of seeing some unionization of these workers,” Webber said. “A lot of people are acutely aware that workers today have been on the front lines, particularly during the COVID era.”

Webber believes that a lot of shareholders and investors “want to invest in or patronize stores that treat their workers well.”

“Many investors have made such commitments,” Webber said. “And if you make a commitment that you’re wanting to invest in places to treat workers well, you should follow through with it.”

On Sept. 21, the 64th day of the strike, it ended. And now the store has resources like lawyers and union representatives to watch their back.

“I feel safer in the union,” Isaza said.