If you are a BU resident or ResLife supervisor seeking to know what a ResLife strike means for you specifically, please check out our Resident FAQ and Prostaff FAQ pages!
A strike is a coordinated stoppage of work aimed at pressuring BU to bargain with us in good faith. Our power comes from disrupting the employer’s operations: as ResLife workers, this includes not showing up for our on-call shifts, not submitting weekly reports, not attending ResLife staff meetings, and more. We will also set up picket lines on campus as physical venues for coordinating and sustaining this stoppage.
In short, because of BU’s dismissal of our demands and delaying at the bargaining table. We began bargaining with the administration in December 2023. Over and over, BU has dismissed our thoughtful proposals that would make our jobs easier and more protected, and that would improve our ability to care for residents. These include health and safety protections (such as A/C to reduce the risk of heat exhaustion in the summer), our ability to file grievances against unfair practices on our own, the option to get trained in life-saving care, and reasonable caps on our workload and number of assigned residents, among others.
On compensation, BU has only offered a minimal stipend equating to $8.06/day – nowhere near what we need to sustain ourselves in an expensive city like Boston – all the while raising our tuition to astronomical proportions. completely ignored the cross-neighborhood equity component of our proposal (see graphic below). It is becoming increasingly clear that we have to take action to put pressure on the bosses if we want to win a fair contract!
Strikes work because employers depend on the labor of their workers to operate – BU is no exception. If we withhold our labor, we will disrupt core functions of the university. ResLife workers are central to the daily operation of the university; we ensure that 12,000+ BU students have safe living conditions and can keep attending classes. We therefore have the leverage to get our demands met: if we do not work, BU needs to very quickly plug the gaps in administrative and care work that our daily labor helps to fill.
First and foremost: withholding our labor. Here are some activities that we will NOT do while on strike:
- Show up for our on-call shifts
- Submit weekly reports
- Sttend one-on-ones with supervisors
- Host mediations between residents
- Attend Wednesday night staff meetings
- Put up fliers on billboards
- Read and respond to work email
- Resolve resident issues
It’s hard to feel like you’re leaving your residents alone, but remember, our working conditions directly affect our ability to care for residents. With the subpar training that ResLife workers currently receive, and unstructured policies around how to respond to emergency situations, many of us already feel poorly equipped to care for students in distress. Many residents predictably suffer heat exhaustion during the hot summer months and there has been nothing we can do. This has been the status quo for many years, and will remain so, unless we pressure BU to make big changes.
Retaliating against union activity (such as striking and peaceful picketing) is illegal and we will fight hard against any illegal actions BU takes. Our strike is legally protected because of the outstanding Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) that we have filed against BU: We filed a ULP because BU started widely enforcing its GPA policy and firing workers only after we unionized, which is illegal retaliation!
Because our strike is legally protected, BU cannot fire workers permanently. Still, in order to break the strike, BU or individual supervisors may resort to illegal actions. They may choose to threaten workers with discipline, hint that our immigration status is at risk, or even try to dismiss workers. However, remember that is would be exceedingly difficult for BU to replace the entire ResLife staff; our strength is in our numbers. By acting now, we can make sure this is a job we want to return to next year.
BU may slap a housing charge on our student accounts. If BU does this, one of our top priorities in settling our contract will be for BU to cancel all housing charges. What is important is that all of us should collectively refuse to pay those charges. The more united our strike, the more we can force BU to cancel these charges and ensure justice.
Most importantly, while the law is a tool we can and should use to our advantage when we can, it is not a magic wand that can wave away all risk. Our biggest strengths are our capacity to withhold labor and our solidarity with each other. When any one member is threatened, tell your trusted co-workers and neighborhood reps, so we can rally behind you. When everyone participates, it becomes more difficult for the administration to target individuals for intimidation. A strong strike is how we best protect each other.
We are not revealing our “who’s striking” list to BU. But employers are legally allowed to survey workers to see if someone is planning to strike, as long as they do not retaliate for the response or for choosing not to respond at all.
If your supervisor states or suggests that you are required to respond, or that you will face discipline for not responding, please notify our union staff immediately so that we can make sure our legal rights are enforced. If you choose to answer when asked, you must answer honestly; reporting that you intend to work and then not showing up for your shift may lead to negative consequences.
Employers are legally allowed to withhold pay from striking workers. It’s up to BU to figure out who is striking and who is not.
As members of SEIU Local 509, we are eligible for strike pay through the Local’s strike fund. Strike pay is $40 per day, up to $200 per week. In order to be eligible for strike fund pay, you must be on the picket line or engaged in other approved strike support activities for at least 4 hours for that day. This means we would all technically get paid even more for participating in the picket than if we were to show up to work.
Nonetheless, we are also working to set up an independent ResLife worker support fund that striking workers can apply to if they are facing exceptional financial hardship due to their participation in the strike. Work on this fund is ongoing.
“Scabbing” or “strikebreaking” refers to activity that disrupts or weakens the power of a strike, including but not limited to: continuing to work during the strike, taking on a co-worker’s work while they are on strike, encouraging others not to strike, and communicating with management about your paid work — including telling management that a co-worker is absent from work.
Management might solicit such information from you, your colleagues, your teachers, your students, and other employees. We encourage you to make sure your residents and supervisors know why you’re striking. It’s easier for them to support us if they understand and support your actions!
International workers have the same rights as domestic workers to join a union or participate in a strike, demonstration, picket, etc. It is possible, however, that the university will falsely claim or imply that international workers jeopardize their immigration status by striking — other universities have done so in the past to undermine strikes. Your visa status is tied to your academic status, and it is illegal for BU to retaliate against your academic status based on your employment activities. Thus, it is extremely unlikely that international workers will be targeted in this way. If BU acts otherwise, it would be a very dangerous escalation on their part, and one that would be sure to face public backlash and pressure.
Click here for more international student FAQs!