Earlier today, the College presented its final contract offer to the Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth — the student worker union that has been in negotiation with the College.
This will be the second contract with student dining workers and first contract with undergraduate advisors. The current dining workers contract — which was signed in February 2023 and extended for 30 days after its initial expiration on March 18 — expires today.
The College’s proposal for the student dining workers contract includes a 3% annual increase to base hourly wages with $0.50 increases per term, a guarantee that no student dining jobs will be eliminated due to automation and a $0.25 increase from $5 and $4 per hour in meal credits for dining locations and snack bars, respectively.
Meanwhile, the College’s UGA contract offer would give UGAs a 3% increase to their stipends, the Ivy Unlimited meal plan instead of the current 80 Block Choice meal plan and a closed shop policy that requires current and future UGAs to pay dues or agency fees to the SWCD.
College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that the contract offers are “meaningful provisions that go beyond what Dartmouth is legally required to offer.”
“We believe these contracts reflect the values and priorities raised at the table, and represent a fair, responsible and respectful outcome of our shared work,” Barnello wrote.
Both contracts also include a provision that allows student dining workers and UGAs to contact a manager or professional staff member, respectively, instead of Safety and Security if they see immigration enforcement agents on campus or receive inquiries by phone.
The College and the SWCD have been negotiating a second contract for student dining workers and first contract for UGAs since last fall. During previous bargaining sessions, the union proposed raising the base wage for student dining workers from $21 per hour, stipulated by the first student dining workers contract, to $23 per hour and the $2,000 base stipend for UGAs to $4,100.
The average wage for student dining workers this term was $24.94 per hour, Barnello wrote.
“Dartmouth values the essential contributions of student dining workers and UGAs and we look forward to SWCD’s response to today’s contract offers,” Barnello wrote.
Representatives from the union declined to comment on ongoing negotiations today.
During the negotiations, the College released shift counts that indicated that the number of student shifts had not changed from winter to spring. This contradicts the idea that student workers have lost jobs, which has been a rallying point of the SWCD.
In an interview earlier this week, a union representative Nina Bouche ’27 said that the bulk of the shifts may have been lost from fall to winter, but said that they did not have these numbers.
“A lot of these more drastic changes happened from fall to winter, which the College is not talking about,” she said.
Correction appended (April 17, 6:26 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the College's contract offers increased student dining worker meal credits for dining locations and snack bars by $5 and $4, respectively. The offers increased each by $0.25 from $5 and $4. The article has been corrected.
Correction appended (April 19, 10:56 a.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the average wage of $24.94 was for last term, instead of this term.
Kelsey Wang is a reporter and editor for The Dartmouth from the greater Seattle area, majoring in history and government. Outside of The D, she likes to crochet, do jigsaw puzzles and paint.
