Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ National Labor Relations Board hearing begins for proposed Berea College labor union

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

As reported by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), "Berea College is a work college and requires all students to work on campus." Working conditions, however, are terrible. "The schedule left me struggling, sleeping through my morning classes, and failing a class that I had to drop," said one student. "If you get stuck with a certain position and have no voice on the job, there's a correlation and a causal relationship with drop-outs." After several days, the Labor Relations Board hearing has finally started. According to the Chronicle (paywalled) the College calls it an "Existential Threat." If your existence depends on exploiting student labour, then maybe it should be questioned. More: Fox56, which points out the students don't pay tuition; Lex18, which reports "Our message is it is pro-Berea to be pro-union," said Andi Mellon, a Berea student. Berea hasn't charged tuition since 1892 and has an endowment "worth around $1.2 billion, and profits from the investments cover a large portion of what it costs to educate more than 1,600 students.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Oct 15, 2024 3:52 p.m.

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