On Sept. 3, six Brandeis unions held a cross-union rally on the Great Lawn, starting at noon. The unions represented were the Brandeis Library Worker’s Union, Service Employee International Union Local 888, SEIU Local 509, SEIU 32BJ and the University’s newest union, Research and Academic Staff SEIU 888. 

At least 30 community members, including rally organizers, gathered on the lawn to support the event and its speakers. Some individuals held signs that read phrases such as “united we bargain, divided we beg,” “top ten programs deserve top ten wages” and “unions make Brandeis great again.” Many held small flyers that said “come together.”

University Budget and Operations Administrator, Tyson Bailey, said during his opening remarks, “we wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the people who make the Brandeis experience possible for all of us, and to help foster the community that we believe Brandeis is and should be.” Bailey is a part of SEIU 888’s administrative staff and bargaining team. 

“An organization shows its values by where they spend their money, as a social justice institution, Brandeis needs to take care of its faculty, librarians and facilities workers!” Prof. Sarah Lupis (PSYC) MA ’14 Ph.D. ’16 declared in her address to the rally. She added that the University’s administration has offered a 1.5% cost of living increase, to which the crowd responded with shouts of disapproval. 

“How can we live, Brandeis?” asked Prof. Lupis. “Your students and alumni are watching; they know who keeps Brandeis running, our staff, our facilities workers, our faculty and our librarians. Solidarity!” she concluded to the cheering crowd.

Additionally, University Personnel and Business Process Administrator and bargaining committee member Lena Webb MS ’10 Ph.D.’10 described how University faculty have faced intensifying workloads without compensation to reflect the additional work. She shared that she has been at Brandeis for 10 years, and that the institution has shown that it believes faculty “can be shuffled around, that [they] just absorb extra work without compensation.” 

Webb explained that this time last year, Brandeis faculty felt disrespected and uncertain due to the layoffs that took place over the summer. “... We find ourselves in a similar situation this year … where we need to be focused on doing our jobs, not wondering if we’re going to have them,” she said, to which the crowd cheered in agreement.

“But this year, we have union power!” Webb added that people can “grow” this union power by wearing a button, showing up to rallies and standing with other unions. 

Graduate student worker for the math department and union member, Sarah Dennis, affiliated with SEIU Local 509, also encouraged rally attendees to maintain this support for one another in her speech. She shared that she has been on the Brandeis campus for five years and emphasized the “vital” roles that each community member has in keeping the University functioning. 

“It’s a scary time, right, to be here? But we can’t give into nihilism,” Dennis said. “We have to organize, and mobilize, and stand together, all right? Brandeis works because we do!”

Joanna Fuchs MA ’11, University Metadata Coordinator for Arts and Humanities, also spoke of the importance of collaboration among the six unions, expanding on how the Brandeis Library Worker’s Union SEIU 888 is one of the oldest on campus, having unionized in the 1970s. “We are here to support all of you. We are one big family, we are stronger together. In these challenging times, we must lead by example,” she stated.

Another common theme the speakers elaborated on was the importance of public support for unions. For instance, Lennie Donohoe, a union steward for SEIU 32BJ and plumber of 21 years, discussed the seventh contract he was involved in during his speech. He shared that the union settled this contract the week after its rally last Labor Day, having received public support and media coverage. 

“We got our strongest contract since I’ve been here,” Donohoe recalled. “You come here, you support yourselves and your other unions — we’re happy to see the research and administration staff unionizing, getting out here and getting all the support they can, and getting their own contract.”

In an Aug. 29 interview with The Justice, University Academic Administrator and SEIU 888 bargaining committee member, Eileen Kell, explained that the next steps for the new union are to gather insight from the bargaining unit, which would entail surveying all 140 of its research and administrative staff. She said that the survey results would then inform the team of the faculty’s priorities, giving them a foundation to bargain with the University’s labor relations. Kell recalled that the union has been told that the standard time for a contract to be completed takes about a year.

Additionally, Prof. Prakash Kashwan (ENVS), representing the University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, explained that the AAUP is an organization “dedicated to advance academic freedoms and shared governance to promote economic security” of all involved in “teaching and research in higher education,” such as faculty, students and academic professionals. He said that the organization is here to fight for liberty, justice and inequality, “including protection for immigrant faculty and staff and students on campus, as well as defending from academic freedom in the broadest sense, especially in response to the ongoing attacks on higher education as we speak.”  

Bailey provided the rally’s closing remarks, thanking those who made the event possible, “I want to encourage everyone to take a look around the crowd here today and take note of the faces that you see here. We are all Brandeis — and when the change is coming this year and the challenges they pose, we will see them through with the help and support of the community.”