As school year ends, unionization efforts among St. John's students remain stalled

May 15—In the grand debate over the unionization of student workers at St. John's College — a dispute raging for much of the 2023-24 school year — Mary Claire Fagan falls somewhere in the middle.

In fall 2023, Fagan, a self-described "doer on campus" who is finishing her sophomore year, signed a union card in favor of the Student Workers Coalition, a group seeking to bargain on behalf of undergraduate student workers like herself.

"I want to support my peers, and they seemed excited about something — and they still do," Fagan said.

At the same time, she said, there's a frustrating lack of clarity about the unionization process, from both the administration and the coalition itself. The whole thing, Fagan added, is "taking on the face of politics instead of taking on a more honest face."

"What I would love to see happen is that we collectively get to sit down and create something that feels like it's addressing the grievances in a very Johnnie way," she said.

So far, that hasn't happened.

As St. John's students prepare to graduate Saturday or leave campus for summer break, the issue remains unresolved — with the dispute between the college and the coalition largely in the hands of the National Labor Relations Board — and the student workers' future remains uncertain.

The coalition says it took a vote of student workers in December and the majority favored unionization. The college says that vote doesn't count, and it wants to hold a new election.

Meanwhile, more than a semester of disagreement has left students on all sides of the issue — as well as outgoing Santa Fe campus President Mark Roosevelt, who will retire in June — frustrated and disappointed.

"There is no worse way to have spent my last days at this school than fighting it and being hated by my fellow students — but I won't quit fighting for their rights," said Zane Kelly, one of the organizing members of the Student Workers Coalition and an upcoming graduate.

It's an unfortunate circumstance for a school that prides itself on freedom of thought and open dialogue.

Jack Norman, a sophomore, organized against the unionization effort because from his perspective the union didn't try to resolve its grievances internally.

The whole thing begs an important question about the future of St. John's, he said: "Who are we now?"

"Now I think it's easier for all of us to look each other in the eye — which is still a challenge some days — I think that it remains kind of a boogeyman. ... Because, before this year, something like this would be unthinkable," Norman said.

Low pay a top concern

By all accounts, the disagreement reached a boiling point in late January and early February.

A public meeting near St. John's koi pond grew heated, emotional, out of hand, coalition members and students against unionization agreed.

By that time, members of the Student Workers Coalition had been organizing for months — and they felt the college wasn't acting quickly enough in addressing their grievances. They wanted clearer job descriptions and overtime pay for students working more than the typical 10 hours per week.

The student workers' primary concern: low pay.

"To be fairly compensated for the work that you do is a sign of respect for that work," said Alex Finch, a member of the Student Workers Coalition. "And student workers do so much. I mean, it's only 10 hours a week, but without this amount of student workers, the campus wouldn't run."

Student worker pay starts at $12.50 and increases with experience, said Carol Carpenter, the college's vice president of communications and creative strategy.

While that wage meets New Mexico's minimum wage of $12 per hour, union organizers pointed out that it doesn't meet the city of Santa Fe's minimum wage of $14.60 per hour.

That's because Santa Fe's Living Wage Ordinance explicitly exempts "persons working for an accredited school, college or university while also attending that school, college or university" from the minimum wage mandate, Aaron Young, St. John's director of human resources, wrote in an email to The New Mexican.

Still, the lower wage galled student workers, who assist Johnnies as they learn Greek and French or perform science experiments, said Gabriel Slidders, a member of the coalition.

"We get paid less than the Santa Fe minimum wage, which I think is frankly just absurd, given the fact that we do highly specialized work," Slidders said.

The lower pay is particularly noticeable for international students, whose student visas won't allow them to get off-campus jobs, said Kanstantsin Tsiarokhin, an international student from Ukraine and a member of the student workers union.

About 10% of the students on St. John's campus are international students, the college's website states. Tsiarokhin said many have been hesitant to vocally support the union out of fear they might lose enrollment status — and, therefore, lose their visa.

"I can't really go home, either, because of the events in Ukraine," Tsiarokhin said. "None of us really want to be expelled from college because that would be tantamount to being expelled from the United States."

However, some students disagreed with the move to unionize undergraduate workers.

It seemed like a "heavy-handed solution," said Clara Johnson, a student worker who also is ending her sophomore year at St. John's. There were intermediate steps that could have been taken but weren't, she said.

"I'm not anti-union. I think it's a great idea. I support workplaces doing it. I think it's very important," Johnson said. "I didn't see an effort being made to think about: How can we sort of resolve this internally?"

Norman organized against the union for a similar reason. St. John's is a unique place in which lines of communication between administration and students are relatively open, he said.

"I can walk into the administrative building and just speak with the president," Norman said. "If I'd like to speak with him, I can shoot him an email and we can talk. Same thing with the deans."

The push for unionization chilled that open dialogue, he argued — and in doing so started to erode the college's distinctive community.

At an impasse

On Dec. 14 — just before winter break — the coalition presented signed union cards to the college's administration. About 65% of the student workers signed on in support of unionization, Kelly said.

"That was our vote. That's kind of all there is to it," he said.

The National Labor Relations Board's 2023 decision on Cemex Construction Materials Pacific LLC created a new framework for union recognition: When a union requests recognition, "an employer must either recognize and bargain with the union or promptly file an RM petition seeking an election," the board announced in an August 2023 news release.

Though the Cemex decision requires employers to file such a petition within 14 days of the demand to bargain, St. John's did not file one until March, according to documents from the National Labor Relations Board. The agency's regional branch denied the move.

Roosevelt said the college administration disagrees that the Dec. 14 vote counts as an official election. Moreover, he added, it would be "wildly inappropriate" to apply the Cemex decision to St. John's, given the college was informed of the coalition's action right before a monthlong break.

"There was never a vote," Roosevelt said in an interview. "We are asking for a vote."

Members of the union characterized the demand for a new election as a dishonest means of sidestepping the December decision.

"They want to ignore the first legitimate election," Kelly said. "Now that the school has essentially poisoned the well and created a hostile environment toward the union, they want to call for a new one."

That leaves everybody at an impasse — one that won't be resolved in the handful of days before graduation.

St. John's is appealing the regional labor board's decision barring an election to the national level. Roosevelt said the college is willing to continue to fight for an election in court.

"It is very likely if we're denied again, that we will pursue it in the courts," he said. "And the reason isn't that we find anything particularly wrong with Cemex as applied to Wells Fargo or Starbucks or other places, but as applied to us it's just extreme."

Meanwhile, the union leaders are waiting, too. They're waiting for National Labor Relations Board to hand down a bargaining order, which would require St. John's to bargain with the Student Workers Coalition.

"We're waiting on either the NLRB to force the school to recognize us or the school to recognize us," Slidders said. "Given the school's obstinacy, it seems unlikely that they will voluntarily recognize us, but that would be the best decision."

'Who are we now?'

Earlier this semester, tensions over whether to form — or not to form — a union ran high.

There were times, Kelly said, when he felt like a pariah on campus. "I felt unwanted and unwelcome by a lot of my peers."

The campus atmosphere has calmed since then, but it doesn't take much for fissures to reappear. Something feels different on campus, students said.

"It's when this thing gets brought up that you see the fault lines," said Will Pickering, a sophomore. "Johnnies have innately, typically, an ability to tolerate disagreement. It's just that the disagreements can be intense."

Amid the tensions over unionization this semester, Norman said he considered transferring to St. John's other campus in Annapolis, Md. The disagreement left "a deep wound," he said. "It's really changed what it's like to be a person on this campus."

That disillusionment applies to Roosevelt, too. He'll leave the college in June, handing over the reins to incoming president J. Walter Sterling, and he said he's not happy to be leaving a major issue unresolved for his successor.

"I'm totally not into rancor at this time in my life," Roosevelt said. "I'm totally into peace and harmony, and this has been an unfortunate, unharmonious part of my last months at the college. And I really regret that."

Despite feeling like a pariah, Kelly said it's been worth it. Though he'll graduate later this week, he's confident other Johnnies will continue to push for unionization.

"The fact is that we are in the right," Kelly said. "The union is just asking for recognition of our rights as workers."