This academic year has been the busiest for labor bargaining at Brown in recent history, as the unprecedented alignment of nine contract bargaining cycles brought unions representing thousands of University employees to the negotiating table.
Of the 12 on-campus labor unions, only three — representing graduate student workers, Department of Public Safety Sergeants and campus police officers, building guards and security officers — did not begin the year in active negotiations with Brown.
Since September, the unions representing computer science teaching assistants, community coordinators and Card Office and Transportation Office employees have signed contracts with Brown, while the bargaining unit of dining workers reached a five-year agreement in late March.
Shuttle drivers, who are employed by the third-party transportation provider Transdev, reached an agreement with the transit company in February after the union warned of striking over stalled negotiations.
As the semester ends, the unions representing postdoctoral researchers and student workers at the Brown Center for Students of Color remain in negotiations with the University.
Labor Organization of Community Coordinators
LOCC ratified its first contract with the University in January following a year of negotiations and a three-day-long strike during first-year move-in. In deciding to strike, the union cited stalled progress and alleged that the University was negotiating in bad faith.
The unit initially fought for a stipend of $17,444 — totaling the cost of housing and the University’s most extensive meal plan — but ultimately agreed to a $2,000 pay increase that brought CCs’ stipend to $12,500 for the 2024-25 academic year.
The contract will be in effect until June 2026 and includes a 3% stipend increase for next year.
In recent weeks, LOCC has shown support for other labor initiatives on campus.
Library Workers
Library workers, who are represented by the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island, have been bargaining with the University since August.
In November, library workers joined other campus unions in protesting the University’s bargaining tactics, which the workers said were stalling negotiations. At the time, University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote to The Herald that “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.”
On Feb. 20, the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Brown, alleging bad faith bargaining over six months of negotiations. In an interview with The Herald at the time, Cardone said workers were frustrated with the bargaining timeline.
Clark wrote to The Herald at the time that the two parties had made progress in negotiations and were “close to tentative agreements on a significant number of articles.”
Three months later, in an April 24 message to The Herald, USAW-RI Business Agent Amy Cardone wrote that the union had reached a tentative agreement with Brown. The unit is set to vote on whether to ratify the contract later this month, she wrote.
Dining Services Workers
Brown Dining Services workers, also represented by USAW-RI, signed a finalized contract with Brown in mid-March, according to Cardone.
The signing capped a monthslong bargaining process that began after their previous contract expired.
The new contract includes two consecutive years of 3.5% raises for dining workers, followed by three years of a 4% increase. Food service workers, who are contractually classified as the lowest-level employees in Dining Services, will receive an additional 1.5% wage increase this year.
Teaching Assistant Labor Organization
TALO, which represents the University’s computer science TAs, signed its first three-year contract with the University in late October. The agreement came after the expiration of a one-year interim agreement that both organizers and University officials characterized as a trial period for a longer-term contract.
The contract outlines a 3% annual increase in the base hourly rate for all undergraduate teaching assistants in the department, and it overhauls guidelines surrounding course development based on feedback from the interim agreement. The contract also adopts new procedures for addressing allegations of discrimination and harassment.
Third World Labor Organization
After unionizing in February 2024, student workers at the Brown Center for Students of Color continue to bargain for their first contract with the University. Organizers wrote in an Instagram post just before unionizing that they wanted to protect freedom of expression, “protect the center from censorship,” “ensure Brown values the work of students of color” and “uphold the political legacy of the Third World Center,” the predecessor to the BCSC.
Now, recent federal actions have cast a shadow over the workers’ efforts to contractually guarantee student worker input in the BCSC’s programming decisions and protect workers’ speech, union members told The Herald last month. After previously indicating a willingness to negotiate, the University rejected the union’s free speech, programming and staffing contract proposals in their entirety, The Herald previously reported.
The union also rallied with Brown’s postdoctoral researchers union in March, protesting what postdoc organizers described as stalled negotiations.
Brown Postdoctoral Labor Organization
More than a year after starting negotiations, BPLO is inching closer to an agreement with Brown, postdoctoral researcher and bargaining committee member Caroline Keroack told The Herald.
The union experienced a setback in December, when the National Labor Relations Board ruled that certain postdocs were ineligible to join the union because they were not Brown employees. But Keroack said the union’s bargaining committee believes the two parties are making progress.
In an interview with The Herald, Keroack said she hoped the University and the union would reach an agreement on compensation before the expiration of an interim deal that raised the researchers’ compensation to minimums recommended by the National Institutes of Health.
Graduate Labor Organization
Since Trump took office, GLO organizers have continued to demand University protection of international graduate students, who make up roughly one-third of Brown’s graduate student body.
The union’s advocacy this year marks a departure from last year, during which GLO organizing centered largely on pro-Palestinian causes.
Their current contract, ratified in 2023, contains provisions and funds intended to protect international graduate students. Organizers told The Herald that they bargained for these provisions in anticipation of President Trump’s re-election.
In a rally held on April 3, GLO delivered a petition to Provost Francis Doyle requesting more explicit University action in response to federal actions against international students. According to Andrew Clark GS, a GLO communications team member and Ph.D. student, there were over 500 signatures at the time of the protest.
In an April 3 email to The Herald regarding the petition and rally, Clark wrote that the University has “continued to address questions and concerns from our community members related to federal government actions and Brown’s response, especially at moments when we have information and updates to share.”
Clark did not respond to an additional request for comment.
Medical residents
Nearly a thousand medical residents at hospitals affiliated with Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School announced plans to unionize in mid-November. The doctors — who work at four hospitals spanning the Brown University Health and Care New England health systems — voted in January to join unions affiliated with the Service Employees International Union’s Committee of Interns and Residents, which currently represents tens of thousands of resident physicians nationwide.
Now, the union is moving closer to starting negotiations with the hospital systems, according to Laura Schwartz, a union organizer and a fourth-year internal medicine and pediatrics resident at Rhode Island Hospital.
Ethan Schenker is a university news editor covering staff and student labor. He is from Bethesda, MD, and plans to study International and Public Affairs and Economics. In his free time, he enjoys playing piano and clicking on New York Times notifications.
Emily Feil is a senior staff writer covering staff and student labor. She is a freshman from Long Beach, NY and plans to study economics and English. In her free time, she can be found watching bad TV and reading good books.
