How Undergraduate Workers Transformed Their Union to Fight the Neoliberal University
Student workers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have used their union to fight for decent pay, better working conditions, and substantive safety measures in response to coronavirus. Three of those workers explain how they did it.
View from a top floor of the DuBois library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Wikimedia Commons
On August 13, around 6:47 p.m., we descended on the chancellor’s lawn. We were a coalition of resident assistants and peer mentors, the unionized undergraduate Residential Life staff at UMass Amherst, along with community allies from other unions and organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The night before, a small group of six of us had attempted to set up an encampment on the chancellor’s lawn before being immediately threatened with arrest by UMass police. Now, with a group of about forty, we strode onto the chancellor’s lawn to oppose the university’s announced layoffs.
A little over a week ago, UMass Amherst abruptly reversed its dangerous reopening plan, allowing only students with in-person courses and housing needs to live on campus. This was the decision our Resident Assistant/Peer Mentor Union had been pushing for, as we noted that the original plan to bring back almost eight thousand students would have ended in a public health disaster. Our organizing prevented thousands of COVID infections and saved lives.
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