Dartmouth student workers walking picket line on campus

HANOVER — Student workers at Dartmouth College urged their classmates to boycott campus cafes on Monday, the first day of a labor strike after the union and college were not able to come to a contract agreement.

Members of the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth, or SWCD, picketed outside of the mostly student-run Novack Café at Baker-Berry Library.

The collective represents 300 undergraduate students who work in dining services and as undergraduate advisors, or UGAs, also called resident assistants. “Many of our student workers are also lower income, and/or international and send money home,” said a Monday morning news release from the collective.

“We’re prepared to strike as long as we need to until we get a fair contract,” Klaire Theall, a UGA and union organizer said at the picket.

Among the sticking points, negotiators are asking Dartmouth to cover UGAs room and board since it’s a “mandatory component of Undergraduate Advisor’s job responsibilities to live in dormitories with their residents” as well as compensate UGAs for hours spent in training.

The students are also asking for certain protections for union members who are non-citizens, such as allocating $30,000 a year to an “International and Non-Citizen Employee Accounting and Legal Assistance Fund.”

Additionally, they’re asking to the college to agree to have representatives of the administration to meet with union organizers upon request “to discuss issues and concerns regarding the needs of international and undocumented students.”

The Valley News obtained copies of both parties’ “best and final” contract offers.

Dartmouth and union representatives have met more than 10 times since October. It would be an updated contract for student dining workers and a first contract for UGAs.

The dining workers’ previous contract expired on April 18, but they have stayed on the job while negotiations were on pause.

Union representatives have not heard from the college since it presented its final offer on April 17, Theall said.

“When it became clear that key differences remained and SWCD’s positions had largely stalled or reversed, Dartmouth issued a last, best, and final offer — reflecting meaningful improvements in student working conditions and our final position on all proposals,” stated an email from the college sent to undergraduates on Monday.

Dartmouth’s last offer includes base wage of $23 per hour for all new dining workers with a 50 cent wage increase per term.

It also raises UGA stipends 3% each year of the contract and increases their meal plan benefit.

About 90% of the union voted in favor of authorizing a strike, according to the email sent to Dartmouth’s general council office.

Although union organizers did not know exactly how many employees were on strike as of Monday, “we know dining workers aren’t showing up,” Theall said.

Early Monday morning, the college sent out a text blast notifying students that hours at Novack had been reduced.

The college’s email said “hours may be reduced in the evening and on weekends” in the other cafes as well.

To compensate for the UGAs on strike, live-in professional staff and assistant directors of residential education “will increase regular building walkthroughs” and hold office hours. “Event schedules in each residential community may be modified” the email said.

Besides a speaker blasting music and cardboard signs with slogans such as “Dartmouth Works Because We Do,” the picket on Monday morning also had a long table filled with pastries and coffee to provide to students who didn’t want to cross the picket, line but still needed breakfast.

The food was paid for with some of the $1,800 Dartmouth Student Government voted last week to allocate to a “strike cafe.”

The union has enough funds to keep the table stocked until the end of the week, Theall said.

The union also has about $35,000 in a “Hardship Fund” raised via donations from community members, according to Dartmouth senior and student union organizer Hosaena Tilahun.

Workers in need of money during the strike can fill out a form to receive payments from the fund.

This is the first time the Student Worker Collective has gone on strike.

In 2023, they threatened a labor action and the college met their demands, including raising base pay to $21 an hour and annual wage increases tied to rises in tuition.

Last year, Dartmouth graduate students were on strike for two months until agreeing to their first contract, which went into effect July 1.

“We know unions work,” Tilahun said at the picket, “When we fight and secure material benefits for student workers it increases the quality of life for everyone.”

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.