Swarthmore Resident Assistants Condemn Anti-Union Management Proposals

Swarthmore RAs protest before entering bargaining in April 2024.

After nearly six months of bargaining, Swarthmore Resident Assistants (RAs) remain frustrated by what they perceive as the college’s anti-worker sentiment. The administration’s insistence on maintaining management control has led to multiple last-minute cancellations, rescheduling, and significant strategic delays in responding to the RAs’ proposals. The most recent counter-proposal, submitted by Swarthmore on May 31st, has exacerbated the RAs’ disappointment, containing clauses that refuse to recognize RAs as employees and constrict their freedom of expression.

In the proposal, the refusal to recognize RAs as employees was cloaked as “...Resident Assistants have attributes of employees, particularly with regard to economic issues such as stipends, but that Resident Assistants are first and foremost students with rights and obligations that are predominately academic.” Furthermore, the College outlined a procedure to discharge RAs in case they “engage in, call for, encourage, or condone, any strike, work stoppage, sit down, slow down, sympathy strike, withholding of services, refusal to cross picket lines, or other interference with or disruption of the College’s operations or activities.” The College also made it clear that they view any rights of RAs as workers is likely temporary, and that in “the event that the National Labor Relations Board or a federal court, or any equivalent entity should find that students serving as resident assistants do not qualify as employees under the National Labor Relations Act, this Agreement shall continue in force only until the date of its expiration, and then the College will have no further obligation to the Union.”  With a fundamental anti-worker counter proposal on hand, RAs feel that six long months of negotiations have been fruitless. 

Notably, institutions that have also joined Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153, including peer institutions such as Univeristy of Pennsylvania, Wesleyan, and Fordham, have made considerably greater strides in their bargaining processes. As of June 10th, UPenn has ratified their first official contract with OPEIU - their bargaining process beginning only one month before Swarthmore’s. As a point of reference, UPenn was able to leave their first bargaining session with tentative agreements to the first 7 proposals. Contrarily, Swarthmore is still countering many of these proposals 6 months into bargaining. While other institutions, like Wesleyan, agreed on a brief Management Rights proposal and acknowledged RAs as workers of the university, Swarthmore’s multi-paged Management Rights section(s) open up with a refusal to acknowledge RAs as employees of the college. 

“It is outrageous that Swarthmore College still hesitates to recognize RA as employees despite enormous the responsibilities we have. I am further appalled by the clauses that shackle our freedom of expression. I believe the management proposal undermines the values of equity and social responsibility that we learn at Swarthmore.” -Aashish Panta ’26, RA at Swarthmore since 2023

“It is ridiculous that Swarthmore, an institution that so heavily emphasizes their Quaker values of ‘social justice’ and ‘generous giving’, has treated this bargaining process with such disingenuity. Throughout this process, we have been working with OPEIU and their representatives, who have also represented RAs at other universities - some of which being peer institutions to Swarthmore. Even this past week, the University of Pennsylvania was able to ratify their first contract with OPEIU. It is beyond disappointing that a university regarded as having a notably less ‘liberal’ reputation than Swarthmore has been more accommodating and welcoming to the bargaining process than ours.” - Mikaela Gonzalez ‘26, RA at Swarthmore since 2023

In the current employee manual, RA responsibility is underscored as an average of 15-20 hrs of commitment per week throughout the academic year. However, during the first two weeks of training and move-in for the fall semester, RAs work over 40 hours per week. In light of these responsibilities, the federal government and other peer institutions have officially recognized RAs as employees. However, Swarthmore College is determined to undermine this recognition and restrict RAs’ ability to mobilize as workers. 

The RAs demand that Swarthmore’s administration withdraw anti-union proposals and respect RAs as workers in forthcoming negotiations. With the aim of drawing the attention of the college, the RAs have started a petition that highlights their demands. Alongside, OPEIU Local 153 is filing a charge in the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Swarthmore College in response to the anti-worker proposals. The RAs have also called for support from politicians in the Philadelphia area, professors from their college, and other stakeholders to resist Swarthmore's anti-union sentiment.

If you would like to learn more about this campaign, contact Scott Williams at swilliams@opeiu-tristate.org.