Join the St. Olaf Student Union of Workers!
Join the St. Olaf Student Union of Workers!
We are a collection of St Olaf student workers who have come together to advocate for our rights as laborers, students, and people. Our mission is fair wages, safe and equitable working conditions and improved ability to advocate for ourselves. We seek to address the need for better communication between workers and managers, better training processes and adequate control over our jobs. We stand to empower low income, disabled, students of color, queer, trans and international students. We stand in solidarity with the unionized cafeteria workers who support us to form our own union alongside them. Through solidarity we will continue to advocate for the needs of our community, and together we will create a better workspace for everyone.
An organization of workers formed to advocate collectively for its members' interests. These can be things like wages, benefits, and working conditions.
We want to build a legally recognized union that would function democratically and negotiate contracts with the administration.
No, for important legal reasons, we are forming a separate union for student workers. We will continue to work alongside and in solidarity with the cafeteria workers union.
We have different employers! Regular workers are employed by Bon App and students are employed by St. Olaf. The law says that these are two different groups even though they do the same work. That's why Bon App workers are asking us to form our own union.
The direct hire students working for Bon App are in the Bon App union, but most student workers by far are work award, which means that they work for St. Olaf.
First and foremost, to unite and fight for improvements to work award and student jobs in all departments, not just those in the cafeteria
A student worker union can operate in solidarity with the Bon App union. This can work in two ways:
a. There is power in numbers! If workers and student workers are united we can more easily win demands that benefit both groups by acting together
b. Because there are both regular and student workers in the cafeteria, if only the regular workers are organized or go on strike, that leaves the student workers to pick up their work which would undermine the cafeteria workers power and vice versa. We need to be able to be unified as a whole. (The company and the administration will deny this would happen but we won’t leave it to chance)
There are union dues to help build a strike and mutual aid fund but they are voluntary and on a sliding scale. You can choose to pay nothing if you can’t afford it, but they really help if you can. Sign up here!
Once we win the union, we will settle on a final dues structure, decided in a democratic process.
The simplest act of solidarity you can do is sign a union card, vote yes if there's an election, and sign petitions in support. You can also get more involved by asking your friends to sign cards if you feel comfortable. There will be tons of ways to be more involved but signing things is all you have to do to be useful right now!
There are orientation training for new members once a month! Once you've gone through that, you can join the organizing committee general meetings or weekly planning meetings.