The Labor Organization of Community Coordinators began an indefinite strike Wednesday morning, spending their first day of work on the picket line instead. Meikeljohns, Bruno Leaders and a hastily raised group of “Move-In Volunteers” helped first years and their families check into their residence halls.
The strike comes after more than six months of bargaining between LOCC and the University. Union leaders say they’re striking to protest bad faith bargaining, unilateral changes to working conditions and threats of retaliation, The Herald previously reported. Brown representatives disputed those claims, and University spokesperson Brian Clark wrote that the ongoing negotiations involved “collegial and good-faith effort on both sides.” Clark also emphasized that “Brown respects the rights of its union employees to engage in labor actions.”
Throughout the morning, picketers rallied in front of Keeney Quadrangle, Brown’s main first-year residence hall. According to LOCC Organizer Daniel Newgarden ’25, the strikers refrained from “formal communication” with the new students, but still welcomed them to campus and invoked residents as a whole during speeches.
Several Meikeljohns and Bruno Leaders — other student employees who work closely with first-year students — sported stickers expressing their support for the strike. Union representatives had requested that other student employees do not work outside of their job descriptions to avoid filling in for striking students.
“If anyone were to ask us to (check them in on) StarRez portal or do keys, or anything that is CC territory, we’re not doing that,” explained Bruno Leader Camille O’Mara ’27.
Despite the shortage of CCs, Meiklejohns and Bruno Leaders reported no noticeable change to their responsibilities from previous years, and no requests from ResLife to work outside of their usual role. Instead, the check-in desks were manned by people wearing “Move-in Volunteer” shirts.
Some first years said they appreciated the demonstration, but that the strike likely exacerbated the hecticness of move-in day.
“I've heard about student activism here at Brown and it’s such a powerful thing,” Lina Canales ’28 said. “I think this is a good space for (CCs) to get their voices heard, especially on move-in day.”
Though Canales herself had moved in two weeks prior for Brown’s Bridge Scholars Program, she acknowledged that “there was a lot of chaos” and the process seemed “stressful” for those arriving Wednesday, which the strike might have “made a little worse.”
Though there were periods during which the line to check in ran down the block, Newgarden characterized these as only “slightly longer” than in years past. “As strikers, we’re walking, we’re not obstructing things,” he said. “I think things are maybe a little more hectic, but I would say, other than the noise and seeing us, it’s not that different from normal move-in.”
On Wednesday morning, LOCC shared on Instagram that Brown’s administration had distributed forms to CCs asking them to “voluntarily reaffirm (their) commitment to (their) role as a Community Coordinator at Brown University for Wednesday, August 28, 2024.”
According to Clark, the form was only “provided to CCs who expressed their intention to work as normal” as a way of “avoiding any confusion in regard to students pledging to work while instead participating in a labor action.”
“Those that were at the shifts received it, and those that were on strike didn’t,” LOCC Organizer Anna Ryu ’25 said. “The CCs who were on strike and picketing were not aware of this, and would not have been aware if we hadn’t heard from other CCs and friends.”
The forms prompted LOCC to file another unfair-labor-practices charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the University for allegedly “polling employees whether they intended to engage in protected concerted activity,” according to Michael Ziegler GS, the president of the Graduate Labor Organization. This is the second complaint LOCC has filed against the University. The first, filed on Aug. 26, claims Brown engaged in “surface bargaining,” The Herald previously reported.
The Undergraduate Council of Students released a statement of support for LOCC on Wednesday, announcing it “stands in solidarity with the first undergraduate labor union strike on Brown’s campus.”
“It is clear that they deserve fair compensation that covers their room and board,” the statement reads. “We encourage Residential Life to meet their proposal.”
The Providence City Council also released a statement of solidarity on Wednesday, which reads that CCs “deserve fair compensation, safer working conditions and dignity and respect on the job.” The statement was signed by eight out of 15 Council members, including Council President Rachel Miller and Councilors Miguel Sanchez and John Goncalves.
LOCC and the University met this morning for their first open bargaining session since the strike began. The outcome of these negotiations has not yet been released.
Katie Jain is a University News editor from New Jersey overseeing the graduate student life beat. She is a senior concentrating in International and Public Affairs and History.
