CAMPUS
THE PLEA FOR PAY HT G I F S R ORKE GES W A G W N I R E N I M D FOR SUM e Litwin By Melani
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or the majority of Tufts dining workers, summer 2021 left them with no work, no unemployment benefits, and, as a result: no pay. Due to their status as “academic year employees,” the dining workers were denied unemployment by the state. This status deemed them technically employed despite a lack of summer hours available at Tufts because of COVID. Since the summer, dining workers, Tufts Labor Coalition members, and community members have been working towards acquiring this lost payment. In summer 2020, dining workers were able to collect unemployment due to a state statute that expanded unemployment eligibility because of the pandemic. As summer 2021 neared, many workers assumed the situation would be similar because the pandemic was still limiting Tufts summer work. However, of the 180 dining workers, 130 were not able to receive summer work at Tufts according to The Tufts Daily. The workers were not given much information in advance. According to Tricia O’Brien, a service attendant at Mugar Cafe, on May 12 the dining workers received a letter dated May 3, stating they had “Reasonable Assurance” of returning to their jobs in the 2021 – 2022 academic year, meaning they would not be eligible to collect unemployment from the state. This was four days before their last day of work for the semester. 12 TUFTS OBSERVER OCTOBER 11, 2021
David Boulet-Gercourt, a Tufts junior and a TLC member, spoke on Tufts’ decision to wait until the end of the semester to share this information. “There are a lot [fewer] people to mobilize around this issue. So it was strangely convenient that they waited until the last second to let them know that they’re not gonna be able to collect [unemployment],” he said. Marianne Walles, a community member who is part of local activist organization Somerville Stands Together and co-chair of the Our Revolution Somerville Payment in Lieu of Taxes working group, described Tufts’ relationship with the community: “They don’t communicate well with their community, whether it be the student community, the worker community, or the residential community. They’re just not great at communicating what’s going on.” In an email to the Tufts Observer, Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations, stated that the decision on whether academic year employees are eligible for unemployment comes down to the state, not Tufts. According to Collins, “With the exception of the summer of 2020, when the state made a one-time, temporary change in light of the pandemic, the state has never considered dining employees to be eligible for unemployment compensation when they go on leave in the summer and know that they will be coming back to work in the fall.” Pre-pandemic, the majority of dining workers were able to continue working at the university during the summer because of in-person programs and events. The
Campus Center, Central Culinary Services, Tufts Catering, Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center, Kindlevan Café, and Tower Café all previously operated in some capacity. In summer 2021, only Dewick was operational. This July, TLC hosted a rally in front of Dewick in support of the dining workers. The rally was attended by workers, students, faculty, elected officials, political candidates, and community members. Walles assisted with outreach to the surrounding community. She said, “We know the high cost of living in [these] areas and going without income, especially after the pandemic… I think for the community, it’s about Tufts being more accountable, not only to their students and their workers, but also to the community members.” Collins wrote: “The University pays its staff, including dining employees, well and equitably for the work they perform.” According to Collins, there were no widespread layoffs, salary reductions, or benefit cuts for the dining workers. The lack of summer pay has had a significant impact on the lives of dining workers. O’Brien explained that for some workers, multiple members of their family are employed by Tufts Dining and rely on Tufts for a large portion of their household income. Meanwhile, dining workers continued incurring food, rent, and childcare costs. “A lot of [dining workers] had to use all their savings. A lot of them had to use their credit cards to get by to make payments on things,” O’Brien said. “You know, thank god the children are back in school because a lot
