RA: Reductio ad Absurdum

According to the National Labor Relations Board, an employee is defined by this tripartite formula: he must provide a service; he must receive compensation; and he must render his service under the control or direction of a supervisor. With this in mind, the Board has begun to blur the line between students and employees in academia. In 1976, medical interns and residents gained the right to unionize; in 2000, graduate teaching assistants earned the same franchise.

But last week, in an unprecedented decision, the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission (MLRC) unanimously ruled that undergraduate resident advisers at UMass-Amherst could also unionize. The Commission said that because the RAs qualify as employees, they may organize. They are preparing for a union election with the help of the local United Auto Workers (UAW) 2322, and with a majority vote, the UAW will assume collective bargaining rights for RAs.

Last spring, in preparation for the ruling, the UAW collected signatures from two-thirds of the RAs. "I'm very confident the RAs will vote in favor of the union," James Shaw, the local UAW president, told the Boston Globe.

If so, it will be a peculiar arrangement. A resident adviser's tuition will go, in part, back into his own stipend. And since it is illegal for Massachusetts public employees to strike (UMass is a public school), undergraduates could find themselves bargaining, protesting, and teaching-in against the same university they pay for an education.

And that is not the only abnormality. What makes the potential RA union so weak--aside from its inability to strike--is that RAs do not represent a critical component of the University administration. Despite the importance of the work they do, they will never threaten UMass's educational mission by withholding their services. Graduate teaching assistants collectively wield the threat of halting coursework, but RAs can only cancel programming, suspend paperwork, and stop making nightly rounds.

This limited leverage begs the question, why unionize?

"We have it pretty bad," Chris Fierro, a resident adviser and leading organizer, told me, describing the Housing division's judicial process. "If you're an RA and you're documented by a fellow RA for incorrectly filing paperwork--any number of things--you're not given due process, and not only are you out of a job, but you're out of your housing ... We drew up a grievance procedure for RAs but the administration just laughed at us."

"We haven't received any written proposals," Michael Gilbert, head of Housing Services, told me. Even if he had, a judicial procedure is hardly reason to unionize. Moreover, if UMass RAs regularly squeal to Housing Services about their peers' violations, they will have a difficult time cultivating real union solidarity.

The reasonable conclusion, of course, is that RAs just want better pay and fewer hours--they intend to advocate for improved working conditions like any union.

But the "pretty bad" conditions Fierro cited include free housing and approximately $1500 in stipend money, nearly $1000 more than RAs earn at Columbia. Nor is this an unreasonable comparison. Columbia's RAs, like those at UMass, work 15-20 hours weekly and are expected to fulfill nearly identical responsibilities. Are they mistreated?

"I think nearly all RAs are perfectly happy with their assignment, the job conditions, and the benefits we get," Furnald RA Pian Wong told me. Yael Sadan, a McBain RA said, "It's pretty cool that we get to live in the city for free Ö it's the best thing I've done since I came to Columbia."

What's more, RAs do not depend on the university for their livelihood. Other academic unions like those for medical interns and teaching assistants bargain with the university because their members depend on the university for their living and the well-being of their careers. But as even UAW President Shaw admitted, resident advisers' long-term career aspirations do not include resident advising. And while RAs can claim employment, they only work in an extracurricular capacity; their chief designation at UMass is as students, and they can still have other jobs.

"The university is disappointed with the ruling," said a UMass spokeswoman. UMass originally contested the RA union movement on the grounds that the university would have to provide personal information about students to a union, which is forbidden by the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). But the state's Labor Relations Commission ruled that because these students are also employees, some FERPA restrictions do not apply.

The thorny question remains: are RAs students or employees? The decision will be theirs, but by unionizing, they reinforce the adversarial relationship they claim to have with the university administration. Sometimes labor must pit itself against management, but UMass's RAs must ask themselves whether their concerns are worth antagonizing their employers.

There are some unsavory aspects to the job: RAs must occasionally break up fights, bust pot-smokers, counsel residents, and act as a channel for administrative information, as Columbia's RAs did so well after Sept. 11. RAs everywhere should feel welcome to lobby for better pay, a higher RA-student ratio (which would reduce work hours), and a venue in which to express grievances. But they should not act as if their charge is impossible.

If the job is as unpalatable as they say it is, UMass RAs should seek alternative employment. UMass, like Columbia, receives far more applications than there are RA positions. If the university's terms are so deplorable that applications drop substantially, UMass will know RA concerns are serious.
Adam B. Kushner is a Columbia College junior majoring in Ancient Studies.