By ELLA SILVA and VIVIAN KOPKA
On Saturday, Sept. 6, Beloit Student Workers United (BSWU) disclosed to The Round Table that the “Agreement between Beloit College Beloit, WI and Beloit Student Workers United Beloit, WI” has been officially ratified by the union. By the time this issue of The Round Table is released, it is likely that the agreement will already be signed by BSWU and members of administration, making the two-year contract official.
The contract was officially signed by both parties as of Tuesday, September 9.
The previous week, BSWU announced that they had reached an agreement on the contract with administration, following over six months of negotiations. Members quickly moved to mobilize Beloit student workers to vote to ratify the contract in order to achieve the minimum number of votes by Friday, Sept. 5.
The deadline was established to get the contract in place as soon as possible, and so students and staff could be educated on it right away, “this contract is going to determine how student workers are going to be for the next two years, so everyone needs to be aware of it,” said Demir Kasapoglu’28, one of the organizing committee members of BSWU.
The goal was to get 175 workers to vote yes for ratification, and 200 people voted yes before the Friday deadline.
Organizing committee members of BSWU Kasapoglu and Ela Heywood’26 held a meeting on Tuesday, September 2, along with member Lily McCully’28, discussing details of the contract and the importance of voting to ratify the agreement.
In the 28-page contract, it is written that hourly wages will go up to $9.50 immediately after signing the contract. Following that base pay raise, a tier system will go into effect where there are three tiers of different pay. Depending on the job, the base pay will increase by $0.25 with each tier. Next academic year, the base pay will start at $10 with four tiers with a $0.25 increase. The ending base pay will be $10, with the highest tier at $11.50. Once the contract is signed and in effect, the base pay is not allowed to be lowered from the base pay outlined in the contract unless the school demonstrates an extreme lack of finances to cover these higher wages.
In the print version of The Round Table, the information on the tier system was not outlined clearly and had incorrect details. It has been resolved and corrected on the web edition.
Summer and holiday pay will remain $3.00 above base pay. RAs and OLs will also receive more money in their stipends. This will retroactively apply to this academic year’s OLs and RAs. For more detailed information regarding pay rate tiers, RA and OL payment details, and how all of this will evolve throughout the contract’s lifespan, we recommend you read the areas of the contract that discuss this.
With the contract comes the discontinuation of at-will workers at the school. This means that a supervisor cannot fire a student worker without just cause. There will be more outlined firing processes and grievance procedures, and if students feel that they were unjustly fired, there will also be an appeal procedure in place.
Due to the pay raise, there will be a cut in student worker hours across campus. This is a consequence of raising base pay while the pool of money that exists to pay student workers is not increasing drastically. The distribution of this pool will look a little different when the contract goes into effect. Essentially, this means that students will be working fewer hours, but making more money per hour worked. However, the goal is not to make undue and extreme cuts in hours. At the BSWU meeting, Heywood stated, “if you see a significant cut in your hours that you were not aware of, come see us.”
There are also changes to supervisor and worker training, holiday pay, paid breaks, transitional pay, and many other procedures surrounding job postings, hiring, and training. When The Round Table talked to Tim Leslie’89, one of the administrators leading the school’s side of negotiations, he urged students to read the agreement themselves. He stated, “If you really want to understand the agreement, read it.”
Leslie also commended the initiative and leadership of the group: “I also applaud the student union leaders’ efforts in negotiating the collective bargaining agreement. I thought we worked well together over the summer to reach what both sides see as a fair agreement.”
Heywood and Kasapoglu also expressed their pride in the union’s efforts, but urged the public to keep an open line of communication. “We really hope if there are any flaws, people will bring them to us,” Heywood said. She wants to make sure that the agreement reflects what “[the] majority wants their reality to be.”
Once the document is signed and goes into effect, it will be subject to change depending on state and federal law and the administration’s financial ability to implement certain procedures. “While the agreement contemplates a lot, it will need to be a living, breathing document where both sides work through changes cooperatively,” Leslie stated.
The Round Table also reached out to Jake Fein’27, one of the other union organizing committee members, for a comment regarding the agreement. Their words on the topic are: “I hope this contract win inspires, emboldens, and even challenges students, staff, faculty, really, all stakeholders in the college, to fight for what they deserve, because we are the college. If we stand together and challenge the institution(s) that has taken away our power (or never given it to us in the first place), rather than wait for them to kindly give us some, that’s when we can affect change.”
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