Student workers at Hamilton College to vote on unionization, possibly a national first

In what could be a national first, students working in the Hamilton College admissions office are trying to unionize.

The campus tour guides and senior admissions fellows (who interview prospective students and provide comment for their files), all undergraduates, have filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, said Eric Kopp, a member of the students’ organizing committee, a senior admissions fellow and an intern at the Central New York Labor Council.

They’re now waiting for the board to set the date of the election.

Research hasn’t turned up any similar unions beyond some resident advisers in Massachusetts, said Samantha DeRiso, director of political and public affairs and one of the lead organizers at Hamilton College for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, District Union Local One in Oriskany, the statewide union of about 15,000 the students hope to join.

“This is one campaign that might go national because I don’t think anyone has ever organized tour guides,” she said.

Read more: https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/2021/08/30/student-admission-workers-hamilton-college-looking-unionization/5621512001/
(Utica Observer-Dispatch)