Last Friday, union representatives from Teamsters Local 251 and United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island picketed on Waterman Street in support of shuttle drivers and dining, library and facilities staff. The groups are currently under contract negotiations with private shuttle operator Transdev and the University, respectively.
The picket followed a protest organized by the Student Labor Alliance, which featured speeches from Teamsters Local 251 President Matthew Taibi, Rhode Island State Representative David Morales (D-Providence) and RI AFL-CIO President Patrick Crowley. Speakers also included representatives from the Graduate Labor Organization, the library workers’ bargaining unit and the Boston-based union UNITE HERE Local 26.
According to SLA Organizer Carlo Kim ’27, the alliance hopes to bridge the divide between those who attend the University and those who work at it.
“There’s a very intentional effort by Brown to set up a wall, segregating us and making us feel as though we’re not one Brown community,” he said. “But that’s absolutely untrue, and I think it’s really important that the student body is prepared to work with and for fellow workers.”
Shuttle drivers at Brown, the Rhode Island School of Design and Rhode Island College — who collectively unionized in November 2023 — have been negotiating their first contract with Transdev since March. Now, they are considering going on strike if an agreement is not reached by the end of their next bargaining session on Nov. 12, The Herald previously reported.
“We want to send a message to Brown University as (Transdev’s) main customer — about 90% of the runs are dedicated to Brown — that we’re here, and if things in negotiations don’t go well, then you’re going to be seeing some issues with student transportation around campus,” Taibi said at the protest. “We’re hoping that, with everyone saying it together, that workers at Transdev will get the first contract that they deserve.”
Brown’s contracts with the three USAW-RI bargaining units representing workers in facilities management, University libraries and dining services, have all expired this fall, prompting the University to begin negotiations.
USAW-RI has two other bargaining units at Brown, which represent employees of the Office of Information Technology and the Transportation and Card Office. The Transportation and Card Office unit agreed upon and signed its first contract with the University on Nov. 4.
According to USAW’s Business Agent Amy Cardone, “a tentative agreement has finally been reached” between OIT’s unit and the University. The union hopes “to have a draft to present to the members for a ratification vote within the next week.”
Ongoing negotiations
The facilities unit has “reached a tentative agreement regarding wages” but is “still working on a few language proposals.” The contracts for dining and library workers have expired without an agreed-upon extension, Cardone wrote in an email to The Herald.
Referring to dining and library workers, who are currently working without a contract, SLA President Maddock Thomas ’26 said that the alliance “will need to pull every stop out to guarantee that Brown gives them the fair deal that they deserve.”
Though both Taibi and Thomas noted that the picket’s afternoon timing made it difficult for facilities and dining workers to attend, several library employees were able to take part in the demonstrations, waving signs and distributing flyers.
According to Cardone, negotiations over the library unit’s new contract, which began in August, have stalled because University representatives haven’t offered any “legitimate” counter proposals.
The two parties agreed to extend the old contract by one month, from Sept. to Oct. 30, but now that that period has elapsed, Cardone said library workers “will refuse to sign a new extension.”
“We’ve asked for some benefits that we’ve seen in other union contracts over the years and thought would be really appropriate for us — particularly given the changing nature of our work,” said Marie Malchodi, senior library expert-preservation services conservation technician. “But so far, they haven’t really been very curious about what our proposals are.”
The administration’s counter proposals have consisted of “deleting proposals and deleting language out of the contract and just copy-pasting language from the University website … which is almost a slap in the face to that committee that worked so hard to get that language” in the previous contract, Cardone said.
“The University proposed that language for two particular clauses mirror University policy, and at the direct request of the Union, we then added that language directly to those articles, rather than including links to policies on the web,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in a statement to The Herald.
According to Cardone, they have also struggled to schedule bargaining meetings as the union believes there were no proposals from the University that needed to be discussed. “If you’re just going to delete and copy and paste language from the website, we’re not gonna entertain that,” Cardone said.
While a tentative meeting had been scheduled for this week, not all members from the University’s bargaining committee could attend, causing it to be rescheduled once again, Cardone said.
“We have been challenged finding times for negotiation in large part because the Union’s bargaining team is large, and their preference is for all members to be present,” Clark wrote. “The date proposed this week coincided with an all-day workshop for library leaders, including a key member of Brown’s two-person bargaining team.”
“At this point it feels like a matter of respect,” Malchodi said. “Respect for us, respect for collective bargaining.”
Though the unit hasn’t discussed authorizing a strike yet, Cardone did not rule out the possibility. If the union can’t “get a date scheduled soon to meet with management,” then the bargaining committee will begin deliberating an escalation, he said.
“Reaching agreement takes work and commitment from both sides, and the Union and the University continue to bargain in good faith, even on points of disagreement,” Clark wrote.
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.
