What we're fighting for
We’re fighting for a living wage, relevant training, and safe living and working conditions.
BU works because we do. We’re the equivalent of first responders, academic resources, community builders, and student leaders all at the same time– yet half of us can barely afford to pay for groceries.
We are fighting for a contract that will meet our real needs. Our proposals were thoughtfully crafted by ResLife workers based on our experiences on the job.
Our working conditions are our residents’ living conditions. BU needs to step up to the bargaining table! By consistently delaying a new contract, BU is harming ALL of us students, workers and residents alike.
We are fighting for real wages to support ourselves in the present and future. We’re fighting for meal plans for all because a significant proportion of ResLife workers are food insecure – and nobody should go hungry.
More specifically, we are asking for a semesterly stipend, training pay, meal plans for everyone, and a housing cost difference subsidy that seeks to compensate for the disparities in housing size and quality based on our assignments!
We need active income so we can pay our tuition, prepare for emergencies, and save for our futures. We need to eat to work and to live.
We need to be healthy to do our work! When we’re healthy, we keep our residents healthy too. When we’re healthy, we can dedicate more time and attention to our residents and our work.
We’re fighting for health insurance coverage so that we can ALL get the care we need to thrive. This will lift a significant burden off international student workers as well as workers who are not on family insurance plans.
We’ve said it before: our working conditions are residents’ living conditions. Our working conditions are also workers’ living conditions.
BU is our shared landlord. So why do we have brown water and sewage coming from our taps, mold, and collapsing ceilings? When summer residents suffer heat exhaustion in our buildings because BU is unwilling to expedite the installation of cooling facilities, the burden falls on us. We are telling BU that it’s time to fix those issues, now.
We’re fighting for healthy and safe living conditions for ALL of us who live in BU housing: workers and residents alike. This includes access to clean water, climate control, and more resident buffer spaces.
We need well-rounded training so that we can be more equipped to respond in emergencies where residents’ safety is concerned. Emergencies are already a part of our job, and we are fighting for access to free CPR, First Aid, and Narcan training for ResLife workers who want such training.
Outside of ResLife, some ResLife workers have already had the opportunity to receive EMT and other training in lifesaving. We are seeking to simply make this option available for free to all ResLife workers! We want to give residents our best crisis response by preparing for the worst case scenario.
We need workload protections so that we don’t burn out. We’re told it will be “20 hours/week” when we sign our contracts.
But there’s a serious disconnect between our contracts and reality. Currently, we need permission to leave our residences for longer than 24 hours, even when we’re not on call. Many of us have between 40-90 residents. And we’re often asked to work over holidays or breaks without overtime pay.
Thus, we are fighting for a limit of 50 residents per worker, holiday pay of 1.5x the regular rate, and guaranteed time off for religious holidays, among others.
- Nondiscrimination & Harassment Protections:
- We’re fighting for protections against harassment, better response, and a formal ban on deadnaming.
- Union Rights:
- We’re fighting for the right to have a union orientation. We need to talk together to keep each other informed and keep our union strong!
- Evaluations
- We’re fighting for the right to more than one evaluation per year. Right now, we’re only evaluated once – and it’s in December. We need better support and feedback throughout the year so we can know our job expectations.
- And more!
- Check out our full platform here.