Roughly 150 students and faculty participated in a walkout at 11 a.m. March 28 to join a rally led by Rising Occidental Student Employees (ROSE) on the steps of the Arthur G. Coons administrative building (AGC). The rally came after a March 22 demonstration where students called on President Harry J. Elam to voluntarily recognize a union for student workers by 11 a.m. March 26, which he did not do.
In the morning of March 28 before the walkout, Elam sent an email to Occidental students regarding the unionization efforts, but did not explicitly mention ROSE.
“Occidental affirmatively supports students’ rights to decide whether they want to organize a union, consistent with the National Labor Relations Act,” Elam’s email said. “We strongly encourage all eligible students to participate in the upcoming election, and are committed to recognizing the results of an election where each eligible student can decide what is best for them and vote accordingly through a secret ballot.”
Elam’s email included a link to “Information for Student Workers” on the college’s Human Resources webpage.
“We hope that students will review all relevant information, understand unionization and how it may impact them, and fully participate in the upcoming election,” Elam said in the email.
As people congregated, ROSE members played songs such as “I Got You (I Feel Good)” by James Brown and urged students to write their reasons for wanting a union on a large banner on the ground. Representatives from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 721 collaborated with ROSE to run the event and news outlets including Telemundo/NBC4 were in attendance.
The first ROSE speaker, Nicholas Solimene (senior), announced that a supermajority of student workers have signed union authorization cards.
Following three more student speakers, Religious Studies professor Kimberly Diaz spoke as a member of the non-tenured track faculty.
“I’m very happy to announce that 50 non-tenured track instructors have signed a petition in solidarity and in recognition of ROSE,” Diaz said.
Following Diaz, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics Peter Dreier started his speech by leading the crowd in chanting, “Sí, se puede.”
“I’ve been here for 30 years. This is the most impressive organizing activism on this campus I’ve ever seen,” Dreier said. “What is really effective and what you are doing now is building an organization that will last for years and years, not only for the students who are here now, but your younger siblings, the next generation of students.”
Dreier told the crowd that lessons about activism and social justice will be learned from ROSE’s success. According to Dreier, he and Urban & Environmental Policy (UEP) professor Claire Cahen were part of a group of faculty who drafted a tenure-track faculty letter of support.
“We’ve already got 58 signatures of faculty and we expect more,” Dreier said.
Dreier also announced that California State Senator María Elena Durazo, who was Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the LA County Federation of Labor and who represents the district in which Occidental falls within, wrote a letter of support for ROSE to Elam and the college’s Board of Trustees.
In an interview with The Occidental, Dreier said that ROSE started with a core group of students who educated themselves about unions and labor laws, reaching out one-on-one with other student workers.
“What might have seemed impossible a year ago is about to happen,” Dreier said. “If you’d have asked most faculty on campus, ‘Will the students ever organize a union and get a contract?’ even a year ago, most people would have thought that just isn’t going to happen. Students graduate, they go abroad, they’ve got a lot of other diversions. But these students were brilliant in how they pursued this. It really demonstrated enormous patience and persistence.”
Dreier said that the college is not an island but rather is part of a larger upsurge of union organizing occurring across the country.
“The trustees and the key players at the college — they need to know that the world is watching Oxy. It’s not just Oxy students that are paying attention to this. People in positions of influence are watching and supporting what the students are doing,” Dreier said.
Dreier said that the key issue is not whether the college will voluntarily recognize the union but rather how they treat the election.
“What the college should do is allow the student employees to vote in the election without interfering in the election, which means not trying to persuade students to vote yes or no, not paying their lawyers to try to have the election delayed by disputing the bargaining unit, like which students are eligible to be in the union, not using any college money or staff time to interfere with the students’ rights to have an election,” Dreier said.
According to Dreier, if the college remains neutral in the election, then the students will win.
“If I were running the college, I’d say ‘Look, this is inevitable,’ Dreier said. “The vast majority of [student workers] are going to vote, and the college really can’t persuade them otherwise. They shouldn’t spend a dime trying to do that.”
Dreier said that a new contract for a union probably would not get settled until the new president comes to Occidental.
Cahen spoke next at the event and said that the faculty who have signed the letter of support respect the need for students to have a voice on the job.
“You know that systemic solutions only come about when you come together and build the political power to enact a different world,” Cahen said. “And that begins right here, so we thank you for your courage. We are excited to have you join SEIU 721 alongside the amazing NTT’s and staff. We hope that the college will agree to a fair unionization process and a great first contract that sets an example of what a college can be when it listens to its students.”
Solimene led the crowd into the AGC where over 100 sang the protest song “Solidarity Forever” before more speeches were made.
“The college wants to put this union up to an election,” Solimene said. “They could recognize our union right now if they wanted to.”
Solimene said he is not worried in the slightest about the union going to an election.
“They can try and drag this out, but at the end of this fight, they will look back having wasted time and money trying to stop the inevitable,” Solimene said.
Emma Galbraith (junior) said in their speech that community issues are workplace issues.
“Where is the mental health for student workers when our unfunded health center can’t pay counselors enough to stay?” Galbraith said. “If student workers have to pay their blood, sweat and tears to afford an education here, how does it make sense to then lower your financial aid and price you out of the community?”
Noah Weitzner (junior), a member of ROSE’s organizing committee, said in his speech that the union has a strong community of supporters outside of Occidental, including tenants rights groups, the Democratic Socialists of America and Black Lives Matter Grassroots. According to Weitzner, politicians such as Ysabel Jurado, a candidate for the LA City Council district that Occidental falls within, and Durazo have sent letters endorsing ROSE to Elam.
“Last, but certainly not least, we have a community of over 100,000 workers in Los Angeles in solidarity with us as we join the Service Employees International Union 721,” Weitzner said.
Weitzner next introduced an executive board member of SEIU 721, Jose “Joe” Martinez.
“I’m here to inform you as an executive member of SEIU […] we’re here to support you,” Martinez said. “You are the future here that’s going to be handling the rest of our communities. We need to know what you need to make this group bigger.”
Weitzner ended the speeches by leading the group in a deep breath before addressing Elam and the Board of Trustees directly.
“Will you recognize our union and choose the past of least resistance, the path of mutual respect, and the path that cultivates a community of care that you so often refer to?” Weitzner said.
Weitzner then led the group out of the AGC, chanting “When we fight, we win.”
ROSE requested a secret-ballot election to be held April 16, according to the Information for Student Workers page on the college’s website.
Contact Ava LaLonde at lalonde@oxy.edu
