Nearly 800 University of Vermont staff members are slated to vote today and tomorrow. At issue? Whether or not staff members should unionize.
Faculty, campus police, custodial and grounds staff at the university are all currently represented by unions, but, according to some staff members, that leaves other employees without the resources to negotiate working conditions, salaries and hours.
“When the university starts talking about budget problems and finances, they can balance the budget on the backs of the staff because we have no recourse whatsoever,” says Michele Patenaude, a staff member who works in the Bailey-Howe Library and a leader of the pro-union movement.
The UVM election is being administered by the Vermont Labor Relations Board; a third of the UVM staffers eligible for the union petitioned the board for the election to take place. Voting continues tomorrow, and Patenaude says they’ll know by tomorrow evening how the election shook out.
The vote considers two questions. The first asks whether eligible staffers — defined as those who qualify for overtime pay — wish to form a union. The second gives employees three choices as to which union to join: a University Staff Union affiliated with the Vermont chapter of the National Education Association (NEA); United Staff, a local and unaffiliated employee association; or neither.
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Unions are outdated and powerless.
I completely disagree.
Unions are as modern and powerful as the members make them