On Friday, Nov. 15, and Saturday, Nov. 16, I attended the Northeast Undergraduate Worker Convention (NEUWC), the first of its kind to be organized by and for undergraduate student workers. NEUWC was hosted at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) by their undergraduate Resident Assistant/Peer Mentor Union, which has been around since 2002. For two days, I was surrounded by students that were there for the exact same reason I was: We’re tired of being treated like our work doesn’t matter.
When we weren’t participating in trainings on how to organize an effective labor rights campaign, we were sharing stories of fights won, lost and yet to be fought. We swapped stories of campus job nightmares, offered each other strategy advice and shared anxieties about backlash from our schools. The solidarity was palpable, and by the time I settled in for the long bus ride back to New York on Sunday afternoon, I felt unstoppable.
On Wednesday, Dec. 4, I attended Hofstra’s Annual Town Hall. The energy in the room was very similar to NEUWC: Students were there with their concerns and desire to make Hofstra a better place. However, one important thing was very, very different. At NEUWC, I felt heard and understood. When I asked the administration during the Town Hall why the vast majority of student workers are paid below Nassau County’s $12 minimum wage, I was brushed off. Despite an administrator admitting that Hofstra relies on our labor to function, I was told that student workers are supposed to lean on the job and focus on studying instead of getting paid.
If I hadn’t attended NEUWC, I would have left the Town Hall feeling discouraged and shut down. My concerns over being paid less than my labor is worth and struggling to afford not only tuition but rent, food and other necessary costs of living were ignored in favor of a feel-good response about how much Hofstra likes being able to provide many jobs for students. But if there’s anything that my fellow attendees of NEUWC taught me, it’s that the power to change things doesn’t live in the hands of the administrators who care more about good PR than actually hearing student concerns.
That power lives in the hands of the workers. In 2002, UMass Amherst students fought for their right to unionize and collectively bargain with the administration and won. In 2016, Grinnell College students organized a union and won wage increases for all dining hall workers. In November, undergraduates from colleges and universities across the Northeast came together for the first time to talk about the battles they’ve won and their plans to keep fighting for student workers’ rights. On Tuesday, Dec. 3, Harvard’s graduate student union, which also includes undergraduate workers, went on strike to fight for, among other things, a better minimum wage.
The time of undergraduate student workers accepting abysmally low wages is over. Across the country, students at universities just like Hofstra are fighting for change and winning. If Hofstra really relies on our labor to function, then it’s time we get paid what we deserve – and if administration doesn’t think that it’s necessary, student workers have the power to change their minds.
Work It Out is a labor rights column written by Elliot Colloton, a sophomore sociology major. This column aims to examine the life and rights of student workers on Hofstra’s campus.
