Student Union Now

In today’s economy, most students no longer have the freedom to be just that: students. Instead, we take on a variety of roles, including (but not limited to) workers, from on-campus jobs to ones out in the community.

Campus jobs provide a unique opportunity that community jobs do not, in that they are generally more understanding of our role as students first, and can be more willing to work with our schedules and needs, provided we don’t go over 20 hours a week of work time. The dining halls on campus state they pay between $9-$11 depending on position and department, according to the job announcement they posted for the academic year of 2018-19. Desk clerks at all the residence halls make $9 an hour.

According to MSU’s work study standards (posted here: www.montana.edu/financialaid/workstudystudents.html), students cannot make less than the Montana minimum wage of $8.50, or more than $12 an hour, but that doesn’t cover student hourly employees, who don’t have a wage requirement.

None of this is enough.

Student workers are undervalued. We’re not part of the collective bargaining unit that gives MSU staff 15-minute breaks and mandatory meal times. The mandate that says we can’t work more than 20 hours a week means students are more in danger of food insecurity and housing crises, and are forced to work in a community that may be less forgiving, less understanding of their role as students first, workers second.

Not every student has the means to make it by with the wage these reduced hours produce. At the maximum of $12 an hour, 80 hours a month, a student can only make at most $960 a month. Enough to live frugally in Bozeman, but a life constantly in danger of a sick week that could take their pay down to fractions of this already-low number. Some are fortunate to have savings, and/or parents that can support them, and don’t have to feel the terrifying stranglehold that money can have on their lives.

But not all.

We need a campus minimum wage. We need standards for what our work looks like, from breaks every four hours to meal periods for shifts longer than six hours.

We need a labor union.

Current MSU Workforce

MSU is already in possession of several unions. The graduate union protects TAs and Research Assistants from being underpaid and exploited for their time and manpower. The staff at MSU have a collective bargaining agreement (posted here: https://mus.edu/hr/cba/001_CBA.pdf) that is 52 pages long, and applies to any non-confidential, non-supervisory employee working more than 20 hours a week, including temporary and fixed-term employees.

Were we in a state with more rigorous employee laws, a union might be a less pressing issue. But Montana doesn’t have any state laws regarding employees and things like breaks. The Fair Labor Standards Act mentions the merits of giving employees breaks, but doesn’t require them. It encourages meal times, but, again, sets no formal requirement for them.

Without a collective bargaining agreement, like the one for employees at MSU, student workers aren’t technically entitled to either of those things, even for shifts that, under normal working standards, would necessitate these breaks.

An example: Desk clerks in the residence halls work a shift that spans from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. This shift, totaling at 6 hours, doesn’t include a time for a break or the 30 minute meal time that MSU is required to give its non-student employees. The argument for this might be that their work is not rigorous, and that student workers in general are given time to do homework on shift. Another might be that they pick these shifts.

Both technically true, but unfair assessments all the same. When one is required to stay in a certain place to earn money, even if they do nothing but sit and stare at a wall whilst doing it, this counts as work. Thus, this work, even if it is the most minimal, least back-breaking work that exists, should come with break times, especially if the work interferes with something as necessary as sleep, in the case of desk clerks.

Students aren’t always able to pick their shifts as they must weigh getting paid for less-than-desirable shifts against having that time for studying and other necessary functions of a student’s life, forcing them to provide times they are technically free from class and other functions, but not logistically so. Beyond this, late-night rotations on Friday and Saturday leave some out in the cold with no additional compensation for their time. A shift differential is something many night shift employees in the private sector are given that compensates lost time outside of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with extra pay, and while at one time desk clerks used to make this, they don’t any longer.

It’s not just desk clerks that work outside 8-5, but many other students employees across campus, including those in the residence dining and the multitude of retail dining locations spread across campus. Many of these places employ students past 5 p.m.

What it would take

A student labor union wouldn’t necessarily be a new or unique idea. In August 2017, Megan Brophy of Jacobin Magazine wrote on the current climate of student organization, detailing the Grinnell student labor union conflict of 2016, as well as half a dozen others. Brophy states that “Students can and should also organize on the basis of their dual position as workers. Taking on the corporatization of higher education requires building real power and collective action, and unions are a vital part of that.”

They’re vital for several reasons, but one of particular importance is wage negotiation.

According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator (posted here: http://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/30031), Gallatin County’s living wage as of 2017 is $11.86, for an individual working full-time.

Were students to make this living wage, we’d still make under $1,000 a month, but it would be more than what many students on campus currently make. Even a campus minimum wage of $9.25, $0.75 more than the state minimum wage, would help. Our wages don’t need to fuel a lavish lifestyle, but one where we can miss a shift when we need to, and not have to worry if that will mean a missed day of meals later.

It’s below $12, which still leaves many of us in this dangerous place even if we all made $9.25. Thus enters another good reason for implementing a student union: shift time increases. At 20 hours, $9.25 is still too little. But, if we were to increase hours allowed to students up to 30 a week instead, that would amount to over $1,100 a month, allowing for the sick leave and time off for studying without having to weigh the necessity of this against the need for money to feed one’s self with.

The downsides to unions are few, but worth mentioning. For one, unions require dues. However, these can be as small as ones like the Communication Workers of America Union, whose dues amount to 1.125 of an hours worth of pay, per week. However, this is based on the assumption that workers are working 40 hours a week, but because we only work 20, we could halve that, to minimize costs. Thus, if MSU were to enact a campus minimum wage of $9.25, total dues amount to about $20.80 a month for that minimum wage.

Another downside is that starting a union is often very hard. In order to do this at MSU, we’d need representatives. We’d need rules, standards and practices, and a willing student body. These are not impossible to bypass, though.

This is what I propose a MSU student labor union should argue for: A campus minimum wage of at least $9.25, more for students who have to work past the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. An increase from 20 hour to 30 hour work weeks. Mandatory, 15-minute breaks for every four hours an employee is at work, and a meal period for shifts six hours or longer.

We are in a unique time and place, one where work is more plentiful than it has been in years past, where the power exists in the hands of workers and not their employers.

MSU needs its student workers. It’s time for this to be recognized.