For more than a year, University of Vermont workers have pushed to unionize roughly 720 employees on the university’s clerical and technical staff.
It’s the third time in a decade that the same group of employees has voted on union representation. In 2012 and 2014, the efforts were unsuccessful. This time, organizers say they are more hopeful.
On April 2, an “overwhelming” majority of those workers — who include lab technicians, academic program assistants and library employees — signed authorization cards to be represented by AFT Vermont, AFT organizer Matt McGrath told VTDigger. A formal union election will be held in the coming weeks.
But now, workers say they fear the university is taking steps to undermine the budding union drive.
At a virtual “speak-out” Thursday, more than 200 people gathered to demand the university stop efforts to exclude nearly 100 of those workers from the union. UVM administration has deemed those workers “confidential employees,” ineligible for union membership.
“We will not stand by while they attempt to disenfranchise me and my colleagues,” said Alison Nihart, who works in UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, calling the situation a “perfect example of why so many of us have come together to form our union.”
Nihart is among the workers the university has classified as ineligible for union membership. By law, workers who have knowledge of employer-employee relations, such as human resources staff, cannot join unions.
But workers say the university is stretching that definition. When the same group of workers held an election in 2014, the university classified only 19 workers as ineligible — about 80 fewer.
McGrath declined to provide an exact number of workers the university wants to exclude from the bargaining unit. Documents obtained by VTDigger from the Vermont Labor Relations Board show that, after providing initial classifications to the board, the university had asked the board to exclude an additional 29 employees on April 13.
“The university anticipates that there will be objections to its exclusions,” wrote Kerin Stackpole, an attorney for the university.
In a statement provided to VTDigger after Thursday’s rally, UVM spokesperson Enrique Corredera said negotiations are continuing and the university was considering lowering the number to “fewer than two dozen” workers.
“We share a common goal to ensure that all of our colleagues are valued and supported, whether they are organized or not,” Corredera wrote.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Friday.
The large majority of the potentially excluded workers are women, union leaders said.
“It reminds me of how often labor organizing is an issue of equity,” Rep. Selene Colburn, P/D-Burlington, said Thursday. “We can and we should expect better from our public institutions.”
The unionizing effort comes as the UVM administration faces pressure from all sides after implementing curricular cuts and faculty layoffs in recent months, citing strained finances.
Faculty and students have been fighting the curricular cuts since they began last year, with thousands recently declaring “no confidence” in President Suresh Garimella’s administration.
In June, UVM announced pay cuts between 2.5% and 5% for all nonunionized staff making more than $45,000 a year, prompting an outcry. Garimella reversed those cuts in February and provided back pay for those affected.
Though the union drive began before the pandemic — and the cuts — workers said Thursday they see the union movement as part of the broader effort for change at the university.
“No longer will we let our administration make unilateral decisions about our work,” said Rachel Wallace-Brodeur, an employee at the university’s College of Medicine. “This is the power of our union.”
Clarification: The headline of this story was changed post-publication to clarify the duties of the workers seeking representation.
