On Oct. 21, the Mighty Labor Coalition hosted its third annual Labor Town Hall to “promote worker solidarity” at the United Church of Christ, according to Reverend Gail Kinney, a co-convener of the New Hampshire Faith and Labor Alliance. The Mighty Labor Coalition is an informal coalition made up of organizations including the Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth, New Hampshire Faith and Labor Alliance and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, among others.
The event featured updates on recent unionizations at Dartmouth — including that of undergraduate student advisors in January 2024 — a panel discussion on building worker power and a performance from a capella group The Rockapellas.
SWCD chair Felipe Mendonça ’27, who emceed the town hall, said these events are hosted because the power of unions is “unmatchable.”
“We have undergraduates, staff, graduate students, all thinking about how bad conditions of work are at Dartmouth and how the administration doesn’t care about it,” he said. “The only way we found to actually make change is to unionize and bargain for our rights.”
After an opening performance by the Rockapellas and welcome speeches by UCC Reverend Mandy Lape-Freeberg and Kinney, the floor opened for members of organizations within the Mighty Labor Coalition to “shout out” recent victories and announce upcoming events, according to the event program. Service Employees International Union Local 560 member Sean Dumont gave a speech about the intersectionality of labor and Palestine, highlighting the fact that members of SWCD were among those arrested at the May 1 protest on the Green.
The panel, which was moderated by SWCD members Roan Wade ’25 and Harper Richardson ’27, included representatives from SWCD, the Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth-United Electrical Workers, SEIU Local 560, the Coalition for Immigration Reform and Equality at Dartmouth and the Dartmouth College Library Workers United. Panelists discussed contract negotiations, past efforts to raise the minimum wage at Dartmouth and how students can organize.
The alliance between Dartmouth student unions and local collectives started in 2021, after Kinney saw “worker struggle” and “poor working conditions” for students, she said.
“This event specifically was very Dartmouth-focused,” Kinney said. “That’s because this event was focused on worker solidarity at Dartmouth and emphasizing that we are all one, whether we’re a graduate teaching assistant or whether we wash dishes. We’re all in this struggle together.”
Attendee Angela Zhang ’28 said she came to the event after seeing advertisements for it in her residence hall. She said the event encouraged her to “participate in some of [the Mighty Labor Coalition’s] work in the future.”
“I think listening to the panel speak just helped me see that the people leading these are all approachable people, and I believe the work they are doing is important,” Zhang said.
The event ended with two sing-alongs of songs about worker solidarity and a short drag performance by Mendonça and Rosario Rosales ’25. Mendonça said the inclusion of drag underscores how important labor movements are to the present moment.
“It’s important that when people think about unions, they don’t think only about old movements,” he said. “… [The labor struggle] is a living thing that is making a huge change in the U.S.”
Niccolo Campolo ’25 said he attended the event as a requirement for his history class, HIST 31.02, “Migrant Nation,” but that he’s “still interested to hear about what’s going on.”
“I can tell just from being here that there’s a very vibrant community of like-minded people that flock to these kinds of events,” he said.
