This past weekend, Georgetown’s adjunct professors voted in favor of forming a union with the local branch of Service Employees International Union, SEIU Local 500.

The election was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. 311 of the 650 eligible voting members participated in the election, and 72 percent voted in favor of forming a collective bargaining unit. Georgetown joins American University and George Washington as part of a larger SEIU initiative to unionize the part-time professors in the District.

This vote comes after an extended campaign, launched in Oct. 2012. Provost Robert Groves wrote to the faculty about the unionization process, citing the Just Employment Policy as an important aspect of Georgetown’s partnership with its workers. As per the policy, “all working members [at Georgetown] have the right to freely associate and organize, and that the University will respect the rights of employees to vote for or against union representation without intimidation, unjust pressure, undue delay or hindrance in accordance with applicable law.”

After the election, there is a seven-day period for objections to be filed, and the results cannot be certified until any objections are resolved. Once the results are certified, SEIU Local 500 will represent part-time, non-tenure line faculty on the Main Campus. Neither faculty of the the Law Center campus nor the Medical Center, which includes the NHS in this case, will take part of the union at this time.

David Rodich, Executive Director of SEIU Local 500, spoke favorably of Georgetown’s administrators. “This was a respectful process between the union and Georgetown University,” he said. “The administration made a point of putting their social teaching into practice … I hope that other institutions will look at how Georgetown put its just employment policy into practice and that they will view this as a model for how universities should handle organizing campaigns.”

The Service Employees International Union of the D.C. metro area filed for an election to the National Labor Relations Board in an ongoing effort to form a union of adjunct professors on the hilltop. This motion marks significant progress since Georgetown’s Provost Robert Groves reaffirmed the University’s endorsement of unionization rights of its employees.

Now that SEIU has officially filed for election, the National Labor Relations Board will take control of the process in conjunction with Georgetown administration and SEIU to agree on a date for an election—likely mid-April. Adjunct instructors of the University will vote on a secret ballot, and a union will form if a majority votes “yes.” According to Anne McLeer, SEIU’s Director of Research and Strategic Planning, Georgetown has pledged neutrality in upcoming process.

In an email to faculty yesterday evening, Groves encouraged all eligible professors to vote, regardless of their views on unionization. “The NLRB election process is governed by majority rule, but the election will be determined by a majority of those who actually vote,” Groves wrote (italics his). “Therefore, Georgetown encourages eligible faculty members to participate in the election, whatever their views might be.  The results of the election will affect all faculty members who are covered by the election petition, whether or not those faculty members participate in the election.

Last Thursday evening, in White Gravenor, students and part-time faculty members at Georgetown joined leading adjunct activists to share their experiences and to address their proceeding endeavors for adjunct activism.

“For adjuncts across the country, average full time equivalent salary is $21,000 per year with usually no health insurance, no benefits, no retirement plans, no access to professional development unless people happen to be in unions,” Maria Maisto, Georgetown Alum and president of the New Faculty Majority, said in her opening remarks.

Read the rest of this entry »

This semester, Service Employees International Union commenced a unionization campaign with Georgetown’s adjunct professors. Last Friday, Provost Robert Groves sent an email to faculty at Georgetown acknowledging the possibility of unionized adjunct professors and encouraging faculty to report any safety concerns to the Department of Public Safety.

“Like representatives of other outside organizations, representatives of SEIU Local 500 are allowed on our campus and in our buildings that are open to the public,” Provost Groves’s email read. “[H]owever we expect that representatives of SEIU Local 500 will respect the wishes of individual faculty members during their organizing campaign.”

Provost Groves also added that adjunct professors should be certain to research SEIU and be aware of their rights under federal labor law. He also cited the Just Employment Policy, which states that employees have the right to “freely associate and organize…which includes voting for or against union representation without intimidation, unjust pressure, undue delay or hindrance in accordance with applicable law.”

American University adjunct professors joined the SEIU Local 500 union in mid-February of this year. The issue remains divided amongst Georgetown professors at this point. Earlier this month, Senior Fellow at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute Pablo Eisenberg wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post expressing his views on unionized adjuncts. “Fortunately, adjuncts are beginning to realize that, unless they organize with the help of sympathetic faculty and administrators, labor unions and professional associations, nothing will change,” Eisenberg wrote.

Full text of the email after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

Shortly after 12:30 p.m. today, Leo’s workers, who are in the process of negotiating a union contract with Aramark, staged a demonstration on the upper floor of the dining hall. Coinciding with chicken-finger Thursdays and a day when Aramark managers are on-site, the unionizing workers demanded a fair contract from their employer. Joined by many members of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, the brief demonstration ended to applause, with chants of “We’ll be back!”

A union of Georgetown University’s Aramark workers was officially certified this week, marking the end of nearly two months of negotiations between Aramark, which operates several food service locations at Georgetown, and Unite Here, a union that represents 80,000 foodservice workers nationwide.

“The union at Georgetown for its Aramark workers at Leo’s, Starbucks,  Cosi, the Jesuit residence, and Dr. Mug has been certified,” David Schwartz (SFS ’12), a student who has been involved in the unionization efforts since last July, said.

Through their representation in Unite Here, Aramark employees who work in Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall, Wolfington Hall, the Cosi and Starbucks in the Leavey Center, and the Dr. Mug in the Preclinical Building now have the authority to negotiate with Aramark over health care options and wage increases.

Read the rest of this entry »

Aramark employees told their management on Feb. 9 that they intend to unionize as a part of Unite Here, a foodservice union. The announcement comes after more than a year of clandestine planning by Aramark workers, who were later joined by Unite Here union organizers and Georgetown students and professors.

The unionization effort by the Aramark employees—who operate Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall, Cosi, Starbucks, and other venues on campus—sparked on-going negotiations between Unite Here and Aramark.

Over at the Voice, Editor-in-Chief Molly Redden has the full story of the workers’ campaign to unionize.  According to multiple Aramark employees, the push for unionization was a direct response to disrespectful treatment from their managers, as well as poor pay and benefits.

“They made it easy for us to make this decision, the way we were getting treated,” Donté Crestwell, a 14-year Aramark employee, told the Voice. “Our pay raises are just horrible. Last time we had a raise, a lot of [employees] got 12 cents. Mine was 55 cents, and that was probably one of the highest.”

Nonetheless, Aramark has promised to comply with the University’s Just Employment Policy, which requires all vendors to respect workers’ rights, including the right to organize.

“Aramark is neither anti-union, nor pro-union,” Karen Cutler, the director of communication for Aramark, wrote in an email to the Voice. “We fully comply with the University’s Just Employment Policy process, in addition to our business conduct policy that requires equal treatment for all employees, and prohibits workplace harassment.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Last year, after protests by Solidarity over alleged violations of workers’ rights in Honduras, Georgetown joined several other universities in dropping its contract with sports gear manufacturer Russell Athletic.  It seems the collective boycott worked: Russell just announced that it will be reversing its questionable labor decisions, according to the Associated Press.

At the center of the protests was Russell’s decision to close the Jerzees de Honduras factory in Choloma, Honduras after workers there tried to unionize.  Russell insisted at the time that the closure was made for purely economic reasons, but many workers rights organizations attributed it to union busting.

Russell recently announced that it will reopen the factory and rehire 1,200 of the former workers. The company also says it will abide by collective bargaining agreements at all of its factories in Honduras.

Recent Georgetown alum and organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops Jack Mahoney (SFS ’08), told the AP, “This is huge. We’ve had a number of smaller victories, but this is the first time we know of that somebody has reversed a company’s decision.”