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By: Travis Wayne, Fiona P
MEDFORD – On October 19, Tufts library workers organized with SEIU 888 rallied to demand union recognition in their fight for a contract that affords them fair and sufficient compensation to be able to live in Medford, Somerville, or anywhere else in Greater Boston. The Tufts library workers support major research infrastructure for the university, as well as community initiatives.
Six weeks before the October 18 rally, library workers — both librarians and other library staff — organized with SEIU 888 delivered their petition for unionization to Tufts University.
Library workers were joined by the other campus unions at both the march on the university and the rally on October 19. 32BJ SEIU and SEIU 509, both representing other parts of the campus workforce, mobilized their memberships in solidarity. One worker, Elizabeth McCall, reported to Working Mass that:
This feels like coworkers together coming together for a better world, for better lives.
While peer schools embroiled in their own struggles with their workers also face unions that may show solidarity with one another, the Tufts unions have been demonstrating that connection from day one of the SEIU 888 drive — showing good signs for coming battles with the university. It’s less clear whether this is more byproduct of rank-and-file connections between union siblings of different unions or the fact that all three parts of the workforce are represented by locals affiliated with the same parent Service International Employees Union (SEIU).
Other universities facing their workers do not face one international union organized into locals. The Harvard labor landscape is notably different, for example; at Harvard, the grad workers (HGSU) on strike are joined this fall by two other unions on campus simultaneously on strike, but neither of those unions are affiliated with the same parent (UNITE HERE Local 26, representing dining hall workers at Harvard, and HAW, representing Harvard academic workers).
Struggles for Wages and Healthcare
According to librarian Elizabeth McCall, the union seeks equilibrium for all workers – both librarians and other staff.
“By voting yes, by forming our union, and eventually entering ccontract negotiations, we want to see higher pay for our work, to make sure people are not working assignments not in their job duties, and so they aren’t working twelve hour days due to workload,” she said. McCall further elaborated to Working Mass:
I have coworkers that have children, and they sometimes live in other states, or in Lowell, or further, places that get so long to get to day-to-day. Coworkers of mine want kids and families in future but they don’t know how to save money for that, because the cost of living is so high around here, everything you make is going into something already.
At Tufts, not only do library workers, including but not limited to librarians, not get paid enough; they’re also subject to few holidays and opaque processes. One library worker was hired at thousands of dollars below the posted salary range, but when she appealed to her supervisor ended up in an advisory process that is not an option nor open for all library staff, leaving the workforce open to major exploitation and gaps in pay equity.
Another library worker, Jess, also discussed how options for healthcare have been threatened by the university, which would be much more difficult when those decisions must first be negotiated with the union. In late summer, Tufts announced a healthcare change to faculty, but not to staff just as impacted by healthcare changes. Jess was seeing a new medical practitioner only to have that coverage threatened with no warning. “As library staff, we want to come together and demand more,” she said.
Jess told Working Mass:
This is so important to demand a voice to the people that make the institution run. The library workers are here for everybody, at the Tufts community and beyond, and we want to support everybody, so we love to see the support as well.… I love where I work and would love to stay here, but the way things are going, I won’t be able to — and neither will my coworkers.
Management has countered the union by arguing that archives workers, in libraries with other staff in most cases, are not workers. Tufts is disputing the status of archive workers that SEIU 888 filed to include as part of the bargaining unit, even though they experience similar training and complete similar tasks in conjunction with other coworkers in the unit.
Travis Wayne is the managing editor of Working Mass.
The post Tufts Library Workers Unionize with SEIU 888 appeared first on Working Mass.
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