BU ResLife Strike Information

A strike is the most powerful tool we can use to change the things about our jobs that we have little power to fix as individuals. Going on strike means we collectively do not work and use the importance of our labor as critical leverage to demand BU bargain with us in good faith.

If we go on strike, we will stop performing any and all ResLife functions. There will be lots of information circulated about which of our activities are considered work. Some activities that we will NOT do include, but are not limited to:

• show up for our on-call shifts
• submit weekly reports
• attend one-on-ones with supervisors
• host mediations between residents
• attend Wednesday night staff meetings
• put up fliers on billboards
• read and respond to work email
• resolve resident issues

Going on strike means not doing any part of your job; performing some tasks, but not others, is called a “partial strike” and isn’t legally protected. 

Striking takes a lot of effort, but together we can do it! While we withhold labor from BU, we will be meeting with each other, bargaining, and picketing.

You do! Before a strike happens we will have a strike authorization vote to make sure that ResLife workers actually are willing to strike. A majority “Yes” vote empowers your bargaining committee and our union to declare a strike at the appropriate time. Every eligible GRA, GHA, RA, and RSL will have a chance to vote before a strike can start.

A strike is strongest when the overwhelming majority of workers are on board – which means you need to be talking with your co-workers and supporting each other. Fear of retaliation is real, but the answer is solidarity!

You do! Before a strike happens we will have a strike authorization vote to make sure that ResLife workers actually are willing to strike. Under the Local 509 Bylaws, a majority “Yes” vote empowers your bargaining committee and our union to declare a strike at the appropriate time. But a strike will not be called right now unless we have at least 80% of the members in favor! Every eligible GRA, GHA, RA, and RSL will have a chance to vote.

A strike is strongest when the overwhelming majority of workers are on board – which means you need to be talking with your co-workers and supporting each other. Fear of retaliation is real, but the answer is solidarity!

• We are most powerful when we strike: we take care of 12,000+ students and BU can’t function without us.
• We are also are demanding that BU meet our demands around important issues like fair pay and safe working conditions. So far in bargaining, BU’s team has stalled and refused to meet our demands. To win better working conditions, we can’t just wait for BU to decide to do the right thing. We need to put pressure on them now if we want to see real movement.

We can predict how BU will respond to a strike by looking at its response to the grad workers’ strike. Administrators will claim they care about our needs, but also try to blame us for any hardships our residents might experience. We need to be clear–with ourselves, our residents, and our supporters–who’s really to blame. It’s not our fault BU doesn’t treat us fairly or pay us well, it’s not our fault BU won’t agree to fair terms in bargaining, and it’s not our fault that BU has built its entire residential life system by exploiting workers. We don’t need to strike if BU actually agrees to fix the problems it’s caused.

Yes! BU might try to divide us by neighborhoods by making our working conditions different and unequal, but we are actively fighting that by demanding parity (if you’re assigned to cheaper housing, you get a bigger stipend). By organizing across all neighborhoods, we can win demands that matter to each of our situations.

Yes! International student workers have all of the same labor protections as domestic student workers. Because visa status is tied to our student status and not to our employment status, as long as we remain enrolled in school our visas should not be under threat. BU may try to scare us with threats about our status, so don’t be surprised if you hear that; bad employers are bullies, but we won’t let them intimidate us.

You have a say in when to end the strike. If BU offers something worthwhile to you and your coworkers, the bargaining team can decide to end the strike. That decision won’t be made in a vacuum, which is why it’s so important for you and your co-workers to attend bargaining. When the bargaining team feels that the best possible deal is on the table, all members will vote to ratify (accept) or reject the deal. We know different neighborhoods have different needs, but we won’t let BU divide us by only helping some and not others. We have to stand as firm as possible to make sure that no worker gets left behind.

No. Your enrollment and status as a student, provided you continue fulfilling expectations of a student, would continue throughout a strike.

BU might place a charge for housing on our accounts to reflect that we are no longer being compensated with housing. This is similar to other workers whose pay stops while they are on strike. If BU does this, one of our top priorities in settling our contract will be for BU to cancel all housing charges. The more powerful our strike, the better our chance of getting justice. As with all things, our unity is our strongest protection.

While less likely, it’s also possible that BU could try to have us leave our rooms for the duration of a strike. However, displacing over 300 BU workers would be logistically challenging and embarrassing for BU.

If BU does decide to force us to relocate during a strike, we will work together to support each other. Our union siblings with BUGWU and other allies have started to put together a network that can host us. If you are interested in getting involved in housing protection plans, there is a committee forming to prepare for this issue.

BU could decide to cut off access to meal plans for the duration of the strike for workers who receive meal plans as compensation. If it does something that cruel and cowardly, it will have to answer to the press and the public for telling students to go hungry. There are no guarantees, but even BU’s administrators are smart enough to realize what a bad idea that would be. If they proceed anyway, we will have access to extensive community support as well as a strike fund to cover food costs for striking workers. Most importantly, we can always take things into our own hands: setting up open kitchens in apartment-style residences and mutual aid networks (as some of the grad workers are doing) are just a few ideas for sustaining our strike and growing cross-neighborhood relationships.

It is illegal to fire workers for lawfully striking. It is theoretically possible and legal for BU to hire others to replace us on a permanent or temporary basis. If replacement workers are hired on a temporary basis rather than a permanent basis we would get our jobs back immediately at the end of the strike. And if they were hired on a permanent basis, we would be entitled to preferential re-hiring when there are openings.

But the chances BU could replace all of us on a permanent basis are incredibly low. The more of us who strike, the harder it will be for BU to replace us or deal with our work stoppage.

We are fighting for common good issues that will not only make our work better but our residents safer in the long term. When we fight with the support of our residents, we guarantee better work and living conditions for all of us.

BU hires us to make sure our residents are safe and their needs are met – because it’s BU’s responsibility to watch out for them. BU is causing this strike, so BU is responsible for figuring out how to meet its obligations while we’re on the picket line. Striking doesn’t mean we tell our residents to fend for ourselves – it means we tell BU it has to figure something else out.

If a resident gets locked out, BU has to find some other way to open their door. If a resident has a problem, BU has to find someone to solve it. If someone has an emergency – of course we’ll call 911! But the whole point of a strike is to prove to BU it needs to treat us better because it depends so much on the things we do.

Retaliating against union activity is illegal and we will fight any illegal actions BU takes. It would also be really difficult for BU to replace the entire ResLife staff; once again, we have strength in numbers. By acting now, we can make sure this is a job we want to return to next year. 

We will continue to be students and attend classes. Being on strike will only apply to our ResLife work. 

No! That’s illegal. Even if we have to relocate from our houses (which would be a cruel and drastic step for BU to take, and one that’s less likely to happen the more of us who strike together), BU cannot seize our possessions from our rooms.