The College verbally accepted an agreement to Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth’s $21 base pay proposal for student dining workers at a meeting Saturday evening, according to a statement posted on the SWCD website. The meeting was called by the College on Saturday after SWCD threatened to strike via email.
By Friday evening, 99% of SWCD had voted to authorize a strike, which would have entailed all Dartmouth Dining Services student workers striking, according to SWCD’s social media. Following the vote, SWCD gave the College until Saturday before midnight to “accept [its] demands,” according to the statement.
The tentative agreement includes a package of the increased base wage, annual wage increase based on the cost of attendance at the College and mental health and sick pay for undergraduate student dining workers. The package was first proposed to the College during a bargaining session on Jan. 24. Following this agreement, SWCD will vote internally to ratify the contract, which requires a majority to pass.
According to the statement, the proposed changes will likely be enacted by spring term.
College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote that the College is “pleased” to have reached a tentative bargaining agreement.
“Dartmouth feels that this was a fair process, and we look forward to continuing our positive relationship with the SWCD,” she wrote.
She added that the College will also be examining pay scales for other employees.
“We will also take this opportunity to review pay scales across the institution to determine if additional changes are necessary,” Lawrence wrote. “We look forward to announcing the results of that review within the coming weeks.”
